Desperation over how to deal with Selangor Menteri Besar Abdul Khalid Ibrahim could have been the cause of Anwar Ibrahim engineering the Kajang by-election, said Zaid Ibrahim.

In a blog-post, the former PKR leader said it is painful to hear Anwar being ridiculed by the BN-controlled media as being selfish and ambitious for contesting the upcoming polls.

“Anwar has to endure personal attacks and humiliation, coming even from his own supporters, all because he wishes to save the directionless and malfunctioning Pakatan Rakyat from paralysis in Selangor,” he said.

Zaid, a former minister in the Prime Minister's Department, explained that the Kajang by-election is not about Anwar or PKR deputy president Azmin Ali.

“It's about the potential failure of Pakatan as a political alliance in the state,” he said in his blog, The Zaidgeist.

He said the problem began in 2007 when Khalid agreed to join PKR and a promise was made to the highly-regarded corporate player that he would be the menteri besar if Pakatan Rakyat captured Selangor.

However, when Khalid became the menteri besar at Azmin's expense, Khalid was “uncontrollable” from a political point of view, as he did not take kindly to decisions and directives by Anwar or the party as a whole.

“One of the reasons why (former PKR secretary-general) Salehuddin Hashim left the party in a huff in 2009 was Anwar's inability to prevail over Khalid on key issues, such as how party funds should be managed and the way Selangor could help PKR politically.

“Anwar’s penchant for avoiding difficult decisions and procrastinating on important issues is the real reason for the present trouble in Selangor.

"Political parties that want to remain viable need adequate funds and the state must be able to provide that funding if democracy is to function."

'Pakatan must unite'

Zaid further said that Selangor has to find ways to channel funding to all political parties – including the BN – in proportion to the votes obtained in the general election.

He claimed that Khalid rejected Anwar's ideas, while the latter did not have the stomach to contradict Khalid.

However, bids to remove Khalid during the last general election failed, as the other Pakatan partners could not agree on Azmin (left) as menteri besar, and because the sultan could not entertain a request coming solely from PKR.

“Had Pakatan acted as a single and united political entity, then the change would have been an issue worth fighting for.

“It would have been a matter of the people’s democratic choice of representative government and the role the constitutional monarch plays in that choice. The people usually win such contests, but the opportunity was lost.

“I suggest that it’s not too late for Anwar and other Pakatan leaders to wake up from their slumber and start acting as a single, organised group. Top leaders must seek an audience with the sultan, who will certainly not refuse them on such an important matter of state."

Zaid suggested Pakatan should provide a list of prospective candidates for MB and it should not solely be made up of PKR candidates.

“There are other excellent Malay-Muslim candidates in Pakatan: Anwar and Azmin are certainly suitable, but so also are Professor Abdul Aziz Bari and Shah Alam MP Khalid Abdul Samad from PAS and DAP's Mohd Arif Sabri Abdul Aziz (better known as 'Sakmongkol'). Any of them are capable.”

Pakatan, Zaid added, must behave like an alliance in fact, not just in name, as it should speak with one voice.