Before the 13th general election, PKR candidates had to sign a bond stating that they have to compensate the party RM5 million should they quit their seats for any reason.
Now that Kajang representative Lee Chin Cheh, better known as CC Lee, resigned from his seat before the end of his term, does he need to pay?
Queried on the matter by theantdaily, Lee laughingly dismissed it as a non-issue.
"Yes, there was a bond but it was one that was based on consensus and agreed to by all in the party. This situation is the same as how the situation was going into the bond; it was based on consensus so there is no issue," he said.
However, Lee said that he was willing to pay the money if that was the will of the party.
"If the party wants me to pay, I will pay. There is no issue. We are party men and we love the party so I will pay if the party wants me to," he said.
Lee secured 19,571 votes in the last May's election, winning the seat with a 6,824-vote majority in a six-cornered fight against candidates from the Barisan Nasional, Berjasa and three Independents.
The RM5 million bond was brought up by several people, including blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin and Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who has declared that he would contest the Kajang by-election as an independent candidate.
In his blog, Zaid wrote: "It doesn't matter to Anwar what CC Lee and his PKR supporters feel about being forced to resign. It doesn't matter to Anwar that CC Lee signed a bond before the last general election pledging that he would pay PKR RM5 million if he resigned the Kajang seat.
"Who paid the penalty for CC Lee? Or was the penalty waived? Was CC Lee also "compensated" for vacating his seat? Anwar of course will say nothing of this. He does not account for his actions. He asks only that others be accountable."
Zaid also wrote that it didn't matter to Anwar that the people of Kajang might have voted for Pakatan Rakyat-PKR at the last election because Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim was the menteri besar of Selangor.
"To Anwar, the people of Malaysia voted for Pakatan Rakyat because of him, and for no other reason. Anwar imagines himself to be a leader with absolute power and members of his party must obey him without question," Zaid wrote.
Anwar was reported to have said that his entry into Selangor, the country's richest state, will boost the opposition's chances to take federal power in the next general election and that the state is "under siege by the ruling BN coalition and must be defended at all costs."
"It is our plan to use Selangor as an economic gateway to reach Putrajaya. We cannot underestimate (the government's) resolve to prevent this from happening," he was quoted as saying.
Although Anwar appears to be a shoo-in for the Kajang seat, the post of menteri besar (something which Anwar has been alluding to but not confirming) is not something for him to take that easily.
He must firstly secure the support of the other parties in Pakatan Rakyat, namely DAP and PAS. Then, the question of royal consent also comes into play.
As Zaid put it: "To the DAP, Anwar can do no wrong because there aren't many Malay leaders who fit into DAP's plans as cosily as Anwar. I just hope that PAS will not be as gullible and will not agree blindly to any plan to remove Khalid."
PAS, it seems, has somewhat gelled into Zaid's thought as Selangor PAS last month reportedly said that state party commissioner Iskandar Abdul Samad would be nominated for the Selangor MB's post if it is vacated, since the Islamist party holds more seats in the state assembly than PKR.
But DAP and PKR together would have more seats than PAS on its own, so Anwar needs to only bank on support from DAP to clinch the MB's post, provided he wins the by-election.
In the last general election, Pakatan won 44 state seats in Selangor, with PKR having 14 seats, while DAP and PAS hold 15 seats each, in the 56-seat Selangor state assembly.
Anwar has said that the route to Putrajaya is through Kajang but Zaid asks this: "But if Putrajaya is the destination, why this detour to Kajang?
Whatever Zaid's misgivings about Anwar, it is of little concern to discerning Malaysians who are more worried, and upset even, about politicians who make rules, only to break them when it suits their agenda.
In the Kajang case, RM5 million conveniently disappeared into thin air. And no one has to answer for it. What a game politics is!
Written by Sonia Ramachandran of The Ant Daily
*Thumbs Up Sonia!
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