Satay kangkung on the skewers?

Satay, one of the top delicacies in Malaysia, has seen its price going up over the years – from satay ayam to satay arnab per stick is costlier today compared to when Anwar Ibrahim’s Reformasi started in 1998.

And Kajang has always been on the forefront as the satay haven for food lovers though it can be safely said that the quality has been on the decline over the decades.

Having said that, out of the blue, the satay town that also houses the famous Kajang prison has suddenly sprung into the limelight, thanks to the personality called Anwar Ibrahim.

N25 – the assigned code for the Kajang state constituency will be remembered for all the wrong reasons by the voters.

The incumbent PKR state assemblyman apparently resigned for the betterment of his party in the hope that if Anwar wins the by-election, the PKR de facto leader will be able to strengthen the party from within the state assembly rather than standing on the fringes.

Nevertheless that may not be all on the canvas as painted in defense of the uncalled for move, at least from the voters’ point of view.

For starters, both Pakatan Rakyat and PKR agree that they have a founded fear of losing Selangor to BN in the next general election which is due in 2018 the latest.

The nightmare of losing Selangor as they did Kedah in the last general election will be as good as burying the entire opposition coalition and their little hope in gaining ground towards Putrajaya.

The lack of confidence is glaring in the state’s leadership which prompted PKR to force the incumbent state rep to tender in his resignation despite winning the ticket on his own merit, politically and morally.

Above that, the supposed impending revolt within Umno against Najib Tun Razak, pressuring him to step down, has definitely sent the shock waves more to Pakatan rather than BN itself.

Pakatan has this fear that if Muhyiddin Yassin takes over, the Malay and Bumi agenda championed by the extremists in Umno may eventually overwhelm the Malays supporting PKR to align themselves back to Umno.

After all, what have they to lose if the goodies come rolling back into their yards.

The new pretender

We must not forget that Muhyiddin has always been an ultra Malay for he had even reinforced that he is a Malay first, only then Malaysian.

It does not take a nuclear scientist to deduce that Muhyiddin and his camp are aligned with Dr Mahathir Mohamad from the very beginning of his political career.

With Mahathir making a predatory-like comeback to knife Najib for being a lame duck in Umno, Muhyiddin for sure will not want to miss the golden opportunity to take over the prime minister’s mantle.

To top that, Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim is perceived within PKR as a business oriented person and not an ideal Malay leader, someone who provides projects and wealth opportunities to the Chinese community in Selangor.

Thus, to neutralise Khalid’s ballooned influence in the state, PKR has to bring in an equal or superior political personality like Anwar to ensure that economic policies do favour the Malay crowd in pacifying them.

Anwar has only one way and that is to win the by-election and ensure that eventually Khalid takes a back step in making decisions that would favour Selangor Malays.

The Chinese are basically for DAP and this trend will be stronger in the next GE. All Umno needs to make sure for a victory in Selangor is to tilt a tad of a gradient of the Malay voters’ support towards BN.

And with Selangor being a Malay majority state, this is not a far-fetched possibility when Muslim and other Islamic sentiments are played to the hilt by Umno.

On the other extreme, there is always a possibility that Anwar is inching towards Umno’s camp since the appeal on the second sodomy charge is on the cards soon.

Is there a remote possibility that he has struck a deal with the power brokers in Najib’s camp to break up Pakatan from within and weaken the Selangor state government to eventually maintain Malay supremacy in the country?

After all, jumping ship to save one’s own neck from the guillotine is not an extraordinary feat for Malaysian politicians, far more if they have been the thoroughbreds under the Umno lineage.

Anwar may well be maneuvering his moves craftily to save his remaining political graph as age and health is against him.

GE14 will be his last do-or-die mission to hold any significant seat in Putrajaya. So why not under the Umno ticket again if Najib can make the allowances? After all, it was not Najib who threw behind bars during the 1998 crisis.

Endless possibilities

The PKR umbrella has long lost its sheltering capabilities and Anwar is merely holding the silhouette with a handful of his die-hard followers.

Anwar can never ever be the prime minister under the current strategy, and he very well knows it. And neither will he ever be able to lead the Chinese as they have their own family run political parties.

So why not backpedal to moderate Malay-Muslim centric ideology. Above that Najib too needs to strengthen his support to quell the rebel camp of the 3Ms i.e. Mahathir-Muhyiddin-Mukhriz.

Is satay kangkung Kajang on the skewers for the Malaysian platter? Anything is feasible and do-able, especially in Malaysian politics as we are a nation with endless possibilities.