Khalid Ibrahim: A Technocratic Hedgehog not a Political Fox

July 17, 2012

by Terence Netto@http://www.malaysiakini.com

COMMENT: The resignation of PKR central leadership council member Latheefa Koya from the Petaling Jaya Municipal Council calls attention at an inopportune moment to Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim’s attitude towards internal dissent, which could charitably be described as maladroit.

Latheefa, a lawyer with a long track record of human rights advocacy – initially with Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM) and, latterly, with Parti Keadilan Malaysia, the entity PRM merged with in 2002 – was appointed a councillor in 2008 when Pakatan Rakyat took over Selangor following its victory in the general election that year.

Latheefa had sent an email to Khalid sharply criticising the way a demonstration by a band of urban pioneers (peneroka bandar) at the Selangor State Secretariat (SUK) office in Shah Alam on June 20 was handled.

‘Peneroka bandar‘ is a legally recognised concept that makes it incumbent of property developers not to treat as squatters families long domiciled on land the latter do not own but to which they have rendered value through a combination of residence, small-scale agriculture, animal husbandry, or other economic activity.

The designation ‘peneroka bandar’ was a hard won legal coinage gained in the mid-1980s through the advocacy of Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) and its predecessor, Parti Sosialis Rakyat Malaysia (PSRM).

It was a triumph of no small import and a signal piece of evidence that the patient and dedicated espousal of causes by opposition parties, however minuscule, can redound to the betterment of the hoi polloi.

Protesters made to endure blazing heat

The people – who had demonstrated on June 20 were from 46 families from a urban pioneering colony in Sungai Buloh that was uprooted to make way for development – had been trying in vain to engage with MB Khalid for a year.

The gates of the SUK complex were closed to prevent the demonstrators from coming into the building proper, thus forcing them to endure the blazing heat for some hours before they dispersed.

It certainly wasn’t the way for a Pakatan government to treat people that they should engage with even if disinclined to acquiesce to their demands.

Engagement is a core plank of the Pakatan manifesto of national salvation for a country steadily succumbing to the plutocracy that UMNO-BN has devolved into over the past half century.

On those grounds, Latheefa was right to criticise Khalid and to give wider effect to her strictures by circulating the email to senior leaders of PKR.

Khalid took umbrage. He tabled a motion at a meeting of the Majlis Tindakan Economy Selangor (Selangor Economic Action Council) or MTES, which is composed of state executive councilors, to have Latheeya sacked.

The motion, seconded by Dr Xavier Jeyakumar, was passed with two demurrals – Elizabeth Wong’s (PKR) and (it was bruited about) Ronnie Liu’s (DAP).

Latheefa heard about the decision. To pre-empt matters she decided to quit before the decision to sack her as MBPJ councillor could be executed. Thus a matter that could have been eased by engagement has eventuated in the resignation of a party activist from a position in which it has not been suggested she is unsuited on account of criticising conduct considered unbecoming of a Pakatan government.

Good in some areas, bad in others

Convoluted? Yes, but a look at the source of the controversy should indicate how simply the whole matter could have been avoided.

When asked at a political bureau meeting why the gates were closed leaving the demonstrators to the mercy of the withering heat, Khalid replied that it was done for “security” reasons.

If Khalid had stayed true to the Pakatan ideological core of engagement, the contretemps leading to Latheefa’s resignation could plausibly have been avoided. This caper is unfortunate because the merits of his administration are all too plain to see.

As outlined at a Selangor State Assembly session recently, the state’s cash reserves stood at RM918 million at the end of 2010, and RM1,100 million at June 30, 2011.

“In six months, the state government has managed to increase the state revenue by RM200 million and this is the best financial record over the past 28 years,” trumpeted Khalid to the assembly.

When the record of financial administration is so good; when it is contrasted to the profligacy, corruption and waste of the UMNO-BN years in charge of the country’s most prolific state; when the marked improvement in most measures of governance is grounds for optimism that Pakatan would retain at the polls the state that UMNO-BN so badly wants back, it would seem churlish to criticise an administration for peccadilloes such a lack of solicitude for the grouses of a batch of urban pioneers and consequent high-handedness in dealing with a critic of that lack.

But that’s what it is. Khalid is good at excelling at several of the things that are important for the longevity of Pakatan rule while fouling up some of the things that cumulatively would undermine the coalition’s hold in the future.

This is called excelling at pomp and fouling up circumstance, incidentally an UMNO-BN speciality.