APRIL 6 — They did not blink. As soon as Mahathir Mohamad resigned as prime minister on February 24, 2020, PKR’s rebel contingent officially bolted. Malaysia’s political maelstrom of epic proportion was cemented when those 11 MPs turned on their own boss, Anwar Ibrahim.
The Sheraton Move.
Three governments have since materialised. Most significant to the 11, the present one does not include them.
How things would be different if GE15 went in their favour but in politics the uncharted is only academic, good for research books. If only wishes were horses.
How’s life for them three years down the road, have they prospered?
1. Azmin Ali — Made his own bed, just never checked who else was in it
He’s Danny in this local production of Ocean’s 11.
Associated with Anwar for almost 40 years by the time he departed. As special officer through Anwar’s rise, trusted lieutenant when his leader languished in prison and founding member of Keadilan in 1999.
Menteri besar, party deputy president and then economy minister to Mahathir Mohamad in 2018.
Powerful in PKR’s base Selangor, omnipresent in the party and long ties with Mahathir, he was heir apparent to both Mahathir and Anwar until Sheraton.
For Azmin, sabotage from within allegedly by Anwar’s people and long-standing spat with the family and recent battles with maverick Rafizi Ramli, pushed him over. He took 10 with him and ended Anwar’s chances to replace Mahathir in 2020.
Without a party but with allies in both prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin and Umno blue blood Hishammuddin Hussein, Azmin was elevated into a hitherto unknown position, Cabinet senior minister.
That there were four other senior ministers diluted this new distinction. However, Azmin was assured his position was “most senior of the senior ministers”, whatever that meant.
He carried on his “most senior” status into the Ismail Sabri administration in 2021, was appointed Bersatu’s information chief position and eventually lost his Gombak seat after 14 years to his own protégé, Selangor Menteri Besar Amiruddin Shari.
Azmin forgot that out of PKR, he was only a man who managed a WhatsApp group of 11 MPs. There were no ready party positions for him since Bersatu was filled with former Umno cadres of different generations.
Without a parliamentary seat or substantial party position, Azmin declared his temporary withdrawal from politics less than two months ago. All that wind punched right out of him post-PKR.
2. Zuraida Kamaruddin — Read my sign, I am relevant, I think
One half of the duo — together with Azmin — ostensibly set out to undo Anwar and family’s stranglehold of PKR.
Emboldened by her grip on Wanita PKR — squashed her own deputy Rodziah Ismail and Anwar’s preferred pick in the 2014 party race — she went on to win the open vice president race, just behind Nurul Izzah Anwar in the vote count. Both are women but only one of them was self-made.
Local government minister under Mahathir, it seemed if Azmin went on to lead the party she might have a genuine chance to be his number two. Fierce always, no one wanted to upset Zuraida inside PKR or in Cabinet.
Sheraton in hindsight would be the regret of her life.
She stays in her portfolio under Muhyiddin but she begins to stumble in the early days of Covid-19. Her relationship with Azmin deteriorated and her future in Bersatu was always up in the air.
She carries on as minister in the Ismail Sabri Cabinet and starts to send feelers out for a new movement to supersede Bersatu. Zuraida warms up to Larry Sng and his Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) vehicle despite still being inside Bersatu.
Eventually she quits to head PBM only to be opposed by Sng. The acrimony only weakens the party’s appeal, already seen as the reject’s reject party.
She contests the Ampang parliamentary for the fourth time in 2022. Victorious previously under PKR, in her new avatar she is demolished.
Collects less than four per cent of the votes, in humiliation she forfeits her deposit. Soon after the election, she is sacked from PBM by Sng.
When it rains, it pours.
Currently, Zuraida is one of the many deputy presidents of Muafakat Nasional, the Umno reject Annuar Musa vehicle.
Zuraida floats haplessly, as she is without a parliamentary seat or relevant party position. Worse, she’s lost friends.
3. Saifuddin Abdullah — Moderate to a fault
In 2008, as the new Temerloh MP and deputy higher education minister, he was the voice of moderation. Quite the Twitter following.
Targetted by PAS for his liberal softness, he was unseated at GE13. Exited Umno to relaunch with PKR, and in 2018 won a seat and became Mahathir’s foreign minister.
As a Malay College graduate it was unthinkable that he’d abandon Anwar, but he did in 2020.
Both Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri kept him in Cabinet but by the passing month it was less principles and more power driving on the former school debater.
It was bittersweet, more to the bitter, as he retained Indera Mahkota with PAS’ support as a Bersatu candidate but his party and coalition lost federal power.
Stuck in the east coast with no base and reliant on PAS to be relevant.
The only Semenanjung rebel to still sit in Dewan Rakyat he probably looks over to the government bench with a touch of envy and a heavy dollop of regret.
4. Kamarudin Jaffar — A painful case
The second Malay College man in the list but more importantly Anwar’s immediate junior.
He followed him into the Islamic youth movement ABIM and then Umno. He was arrested when Anwar was sacked by Mahathir in 1998. Theirs was a relationship shaped by years and pain. It was expected to last.
Kamaruddin continues his politics in PAS Kelantan, fortuitous since from a prior defeat as Umno candidate, he wins four on a trot as a PAS man. Fleeting though the loyalty as he leaves PAS in 2015 to join PKR, as the two parties’ relationship fractures. Kamaruddin chose Anwar over PAS.
Wins KL’s Bandar Tun Razak to be appointed as deputy transport minister in the Mahathir Cabinet.
Through thick and thin with Anwar, but inconceivably leaves him in 2020.
His status as deputy minister is retained by Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri, however it comes to a grinding halt when Anwar’s wife Wan Azizah Wan Ismail arrives from Pandan to defeat him. Since then, he has been barely a footnote in Malaysian politics.
5. Mansor Othman — From Penang with love
They all seem like Groundhog Day.
The academic turned Anwar’s political secretary was well on his way as Penang’s deputy chief minister in 2008. Ten years later, Nibong Tebal MP.
He may have felt aggrieved to be left out by Mahathir for a Cabinet post. No matter as after defecting, both Muhyiddin and Ismail Sabri rewarded him with deputy minister posts.
On cue, he loses his parliamentary seat to PKR’s first-time candidate Fadhlina Sidek.
The most likeliest of the 11 to write about the how and why of their exit. He has the time now.
6. Rashid Hasnon — first to be forgotten
The other ex-Penang deputy chief minister closely linked to Anwar, who then betrays him.
One-time assemblyman, one-time MP and one-time deputy speaker of the Dewan Rakyat sums up Rashid Hasnon.
After his defeat last November, presently he holds none of the three positions listed above.
7. Santhara Kumar — Look, it’s like a business decision
Former CEO and failed election candidate — he collected 999 votes at Hulu Selangor in 2013 — literally appeared from nowhere to become PKR’s deputy treasurer.
Of the 11, the Segamat MP was the most unsurprising turncoat.
Deputy minister for two years is a massive bonus for the UKM graduate even if it came at the expense of a whole coalition government.
During the Covid-19 lockdown, he found his way to New Zealand to be with his family. Cleverly chose to opt out of GE15. Was named this year as a deputy president of Muafakat Nasional and probably keeps in touch via the Internet from his Kiwi home. Just in case... in Malaysia one never knows.
8, 9, 10 & 11. Baru Bian, Ali Biju, Willie Mongin and Jonathan Yasin — the air is different in Borneo, you see
The quartet would say it is par for the course in the east to go with whatever and change your mind next Tuesday.
The only curious one is Baru. He backed Muhyiddin but ended up not being a minister. Baru lost the general election but remains in the Sarawak assembly as Parti Sarawak Bersatu member for Ba’kelalan.
The other three were made deputy ministers and without missing a beat won their parliamentary races in Saratok, Puncak Borneo and Ranau. Which party they still represent by 2027 is a question mark. If Martians arrive before that, they could represent them.
Borneo is always a Dickens’ contradiction: It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.
How great a caper?
Reading the departure threads, Prime Minister Anwar is forewarned. If so many then left him, just as easily others can leave him today. Presumably he’s better equipped today.
Azmin and gang changed the Malaysian political landscape irrevocably.
Santhara and the four Borneo lads operate in a different time zone — in Santhara’s case almost literally.
The other six stayed in power another two years and now sit unsure of their political futures, if they have one. Along the way they also lost each other and many others who were significant in their personal and political lives.
Was it worth it?
In the very short-term it was. Now, not so much.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
