The PKR Elections are Not Over Yet(2)

Let’s come back to Khalid Ibrahim.

I was not expecting my meeting with Tan Sri Khalid being structured like a CNN-like interview.  Khalid Ibrahim was seated in a 3-seater and I, on a single-seater settee. But that’s ok; I can ask questions from the hip without prepared notes.

I went back to the question of his questionable political acumen.

Tan Sri- people acknowledge you as a sound corporate manager. One of the greatest achievements is to increase cash reserves for the state. I read its RM3 billion now. That’s great- it shows financial savvy and prudence.

Khalid Ibrahim seems to be a man less or even a man disinterested in the assessment of others. All he wanted out of this so called interview is just to narrate his achievements, his vision and his corporate - if I may use the term- corporate triumphalism. Khalid Ibrahim thinks and believes indeed stay awake and sleeps with the idea, that a state must have a top notch businessman to lead it. For Selangor , its Khalid Ibrahim.

You see, I came into this job with some considerable corporate experience. I worked with Tun Ismail Ali for some 18 years at PNB. Tun Ismail wasn’t an easy man to work with. But I gained a lot of experience. Then I went on to become head of Guthrie. I am pleased, when I left; the people at Guthrie held me in high esteem. That was because, I have acted as CEO with the discipline and values demanded of a CEO.

I brought the same values into the job of MB. My objective is how to make Selangor into an economic powerhouse.

 I was in Japan recently. The Japanese do business seriously. They were big investors in China. But with competition from Chinese manufacturers and industrialists plus the ever simmering ill feelings towards the Japanese, the Japanese business communities are not keen to invest in China further. Accordingly they are looking elsewhere.

One of the places they consider, is here.

By here, do you mean Selangor I asked?

Indeed yes- in fact I am considering or we are looking into the formation of a Selangor-Japan business council or something. Its function is to serve as liaison body to facilitate Japanese businesses in Selangor.

You see, we must maximise returns for Selangor in order that we can share more with the people. Our focus should be on the people, not the representatives serving the people.

As to your question as to whether I am giving sufficient resources to our elected reps- allow me to reveal to you that our elected reps get RM600,000 a year allocation. So they spend this amount on their respective constituencies.

On top of that, the MB’s office and the state government have their own programs supplanting the budget given to elected reps.

I don’t want a policy like something that was done during the old regime to rear its ugly head in Selangor. Last time, said Khalid, if one constituency was given a specific allocation of RM5 million, only 2-3 million actually went to the people. A portion of the allocation is pocketed by the BN warlord. So imagine, if there a few 5-million works approved and given to that particular constituency, the same warlord enriches himself.

Now, I don’t want PKR elected reps to have the same mentality. I don’t want them to think, they can profit personally from projects given to their areas. If they do, then we will re-create the same political-business regime similar to what the BN is doing.

I bring the same business ethics into Selangor politics.

If I may interject Tan Sri, perhaps you have misjudged the requirements and expectations demanded of a business manager and a political leader. The political leader must be a person of financial substance. Right or wrong, the people see the political leader as a person who dispenses charity. In order to do so, they must be people of sufficient means to be able to do that. That is required in order to keep political power. The objective of politics is to capture and acquire power over the state and the country.

Like you Tan Sri- you may have all the economic and corporate vision. That is derived from your corporate and business experience. But in order to implement that vision, you need power to apply in the first place. Without the post of MB- you cannot apply your business values to make your vision come alive. You need to ensure political power by PR is retained. In order to do that, you have to arm your foot soldiers. You haven’t done this. What you have accumulated thus far can easily disappear within a few days if BN recaptures the state.

Corporate values are perhaps not universally applicable to politics. Politics have its own dynamics very dissimilar to the ones understood and operated by business managers. And within the world of business managers, the incidences of questionable personal enrichment are extensive too.

You see, said Khalid Ibrahim- to be financially secure and independent is relative. In order to be super-rich, you need to a have a certain level of personal greed.

Tan Sri- I like the way you describe it- this is the first time I hear somebody speaks of personal wealth in those terms- that in order to be super-rich you need to have a certain level of personal greed. All the tycoons in Malaysia have a higher level of personal greed then. Greedy bastards I thought.

What I am trying to do, is to contain a level of personal greed suitable for politicians. But if PR reps think, they are in positions and having positions they think they can exercise unfettered personal greed, they are in the wrong place.

I am not concern, with what happens after I am gone. At the moment I am interested in maximising returns for Selangor and leaving a legacy of values for our politicians. What happens to the reserves that we have accumulated, after I am gone from this seat, is not my concern. That is for others, the people who succeed me to handle.

But whatever it is, you need the position of MB. In the context of PKR elections, you need to win the deputy post in order to continue as MB.

Don’t you think, right from the beginning, blockades are set up to make you lose? This whole business of putting up Saifuduin- isn’t this a strategy to draw away support from you? If there were a one-to-one contest between you and Azmin, Azmin would surely lose. And because of the prospects, some people in PKR are setting up blockades for you? Saifudin to me is just a red-herring.

How are the people in Segambut Palace treating you? What’s this I hear of you leaving in a huff after a meeting with the power couple in Segambut?

Hmm- I was there indeed discussing with the power couple. They wanted to sell me this idea that I can remain as MB but to please allow the contest to be a one-to one between Saifudin and Azmin.

I did not agree with their idea- if it’s a one-to-one fight they want, then it should be between me and Azmin. They wanted to sell the same idea to Saifudin, apparently Saifudin did not see it that way too.

Since I did not agree to the idea and they accepted my explanation and stand and having no more business to discuss, I left the place.

So we have a 3 –cornered fight la.

Since Selangor holds the trump-card, and the cabangs here have the most members, I am confident I can win this post.

Let me offer my reading about these contests in PKR Tan Sri. My own thinking is PKR is in this mess, because Anwar hasn’t showed his firm stewardship. He allows all these political horse-trading to take place and then pretends he is above it all.

Now, I may be wrong. But I think right from the beginning, he isn’t supportive of you at all. Look at this thing now- he is in London. Coincidently Azmin is in London. And I don’t buy Anwar’s making a show of his misgivings about Azmin knowing that I will be London, is already there ahead of me.  Apa la dia.

That’s too much coincidence Tan Sri- I think Anwar may have planned all these. He has always supported Azmin right from the beginning and wants Azmin to win.  You are screwed I said.

Well, I have to live with that la. If I win, I will adjust my life around that awareness that Anwar is always playing politics. Perhaps he has to do that. To me, Anwar is the salesman- I am the- he was struggling to find a description, finally the term -a mechanic or technician making sure the machinery is in order came out.

I have left out some description that I made of Anwar to which Khalid Ibrahim came out with the above response.

Next : Khalid’s personal foibles, Kidex, Water Issue, personal loan.