Malaysia in transition
Thu, April 17 2008
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PM Abdullah Badawi |
The former deputy prime minister, widely held to be eyeing the prime ministership, will instead focus on strengthening the opposition alliance, which made big gains in last month’s general election.
“We’ve got time on our side. It has always been Parti Keadilan Rakyat’s (PKR) stance that Anwar will not rush into standing in a by-election,” PKR vice-president Sivarasah Rasiah told the Straits Times.
There has been widespread speculation that one of PKR’s 31 MPs will step down to allow Datuk Seri Anwar to contest a by-election when the ban preventing him from standing for election expires.
He was legally barred from running for public office during the last five years due to a conviction for corruption.
“Building up an effective and credible Pakatan Rakyat is far more important for now,” Anwar was reported as saying by the Star newspaper yesterday.
Pakatan Rakyat, or People’s Alliance, consists of PKR, the Democratic Action Party and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS).
The speculation over the opposition leader’s entry into Parliament comes amid claims by PKR that some 30 MPs from the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition are ready to join the alliance.
Pakatan won 82 out of 222 Parliament seats in the poll. If 30 MPs from BN crossed over, Pakatan would have one seat more than BN in Parliament.
This would set the stage for the federal government to change hands to Pakatan — unless BN calls a fresh general election.
But Anwar cannot become the prime minister even if the BN government falls to Pakatan, unless he wins a seat in Parliament first.
Speculation is rife that Anwar will contest in Bandar Tun Razak, a constituency in KL currently held by Khalid Ibrahim, who is also Selangor Menteri Besar.
Should Anwar win, the Parliament will for the first time feature a father-mother-daughter team, as his wife and daughter are also MPs.
Meanwhile, Prime MInister Badawi has conceded that his leadership was among the factors that had caused unprecedented losses for the ruling coalition in last month’s polls.
But even though he said that he would discuss the “transition of power” to his deputy, Najib Tun Razak, D Abdullah insisted he wanted to stay on in office to repair the damage to Umno and Barisan Nasional.
The crisis of confidence in the leadership is a general feeling on the ground, especially in the northern states which fell to the opposition.
The grassroots leaders refused to take the blame, and blamed instead the top party leadership for placing unpopular electoral candidates.
— IANS
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