25 September 2005
What next for Rafidah?
The political situation for Datuk Seri Rafidah Aziz grew from bad toworse this week when MPs, including those from the governmentbackbench, turned on her, writes JOCELINE TAN.
DATUK Seri Rafidah Aziz flew home from the United States amid greyskies and a steady drizzle. The cooling rains of the past few days marked the end of a rather hotand hazy spell of weather in the Klang Valley. But the political temperature looks far from subsiding for Rafidah. In fact, it went up a few notches this week.
Parliament convened on Monday and, as expected, the Approved Permit(AP) issue and the absent Rafidah dominated the debate. “I wouldn't want to be in her shoes. It was nightmarish,” said one MP. The International Trade and Industry Minister has been away for thelast 10 days on an investment mission that had involved a hectic string of pit stops in Seattle and the US west coast.
To be fair to her, the trip had been arranged some six months ago, sothe question of whether or not she was trying to avoid Parliament is debatable. Unfortunately, the MPs were not in a mellow mood and most of them were simply not ready to accept excuses for her non-appearance. “She doesn't care about Parliament. She can’t be bothered and that’snot right,” said Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz, Minister in the PrimeMinister’s Department.
The AP issue is indeed turning out to be a bottomless pit of troubles for the International Trade and Industry Minister. As some of her supporters had feared, Rafidah came under fierce attack from both opposition MPs as well as her own backbenchers.
Being criticised by the opposition is one thing, but to be censured by your own kind is something else. Nazri, known for his without-fear-or-favour political style, has beenat the forefront of the government backbenchers’ position on Rafidah's handling of the AP issue. “You tell me,” he said, when asked whether what had happened amounted to a breaking of ranks between the government backbenchers and theonce invincible woman minister.
And if that was not enough, Nazri and several other MPs brought their grouses to Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak when he turned up in Parliament on Thursday. Incidentally, Najib’s appearance in Parliament did not go unnoticed among the MPs. If the Deputy Prime Minister can come to Parliament, why can’t the MITI Minister?
“I hope Datuk Seri Najib will convey our feelings to the PrimeMinister,” said Ketereh MP Alwi Che Ahmad. Does this latest episode spell the end of the road for Rafidah?
Her supporters beg to defer.
“She has told us not to worry, that everything will be okay for her,”said one of her Wanita Umno loyalists. Whatever her standing among the men in Umno, the Wanita Umno leaderstill enjoys support in her wing. Her AP woes, the women insisted, are to do with the ministry whereas they have no serious complaints with her role in the wing.
Rafidah may snap at her Cabinet colleagues and spurn her fellow legislators but she is quite capable of turning on the charm when she goes on the ground. She connects with the women as a wife, mother and grandmother. She switches on her mega-watt smile and hugs, air-kisses and chitchats like she is one of them. For instance, when she visited Kedah for several Wanita Umno programmes organised by Kedah Wanita chief Datuk Rosnah Majid, she bowled over the ladies with her charm and homely style.
In Malacca last week, she went on stage to dance the joget with her Wanita ladies. And in Johor Baru a fortnight ago, she told her ladies she still enjoys the Prime Minister’s confidence. She told them: “What people want to say, let them say. I cannot be bothered.”
She said she had nothing to worry about because she had done nothing wrong. And that is the official line her supporters have been dishing out. But that does not mean they have not been as perplexed as anyone else by Rafidah’s at times irrational actions over the past months. The hugging incident involving Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad on Merdeka Day is one such episode.
Her Wanita inner circle was ecstatic, thinking that Rafidah had apologised to the former Premier. Rafidah was scheduled to officiate at their newly renovated office atthe PWTC the day after the hug and they decided to make the occasion a sort of thanksgiving kenduri. However, the kenduri plan was quickly aborted and their sense of relief quashed when Rafidah declared that there had been no apology.
But what has been most glaring is the fact that they have not come outto defend her against attacks, including the latest flare-up inParliament. The release of the list of MPs who used their AP allocation has been likened to the hug-that-was-not-an-apology, namely that both incidents have backfired on her.
The list reflected poor judgement and left MPs with a bad taste in the mouth. She knew the MPs were rearing to quiz her and put her on the grill. Instead of placating them, she chose to further provoke them by releasing the list. “I don’t understand what she's trying to do. We ask her about the AP policy and we get the list of MPs who got APs,” said Ketereh MP AlwiChe Ahmad.
The list irked both sides of the bench in a strangely unifying way. Thus, when Opposition Leader Lim Kit Siang said in his trademark rhetorical style that Rafidah was “on the run from the Press, on the run from the Cabinet, on the run from Parliament,” some Umno politicians were so amused they privately referred to her as “The Fugitive”.
Many think the veteran minister has grown detached from public opinion and that she is on a path of self-destruction. “It’s unfortunate because she has done a lot of good things for the government. She is like an aeroplane which had a good take-off and a great flight but where is the smooth landing? I think her plane is plunging,” said Alwi.
Almost everything she has done, from her disastrous outing at the Umno general assembly to the Merdeka Day hug, seems to have gone badly for her. “She’s being defiant but I think she underestimated the mood on the ground,” said one Umno official. It is also possible she is merely doing things in the way that she is familiar with or what some termed the “old modus operandi,” that is, as long as the Prime Minister is behind her, she will be okay.
That she will survive as long as she is capable and good at her job. If that is so, she may have misread Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. The fact that the Prime Minister ordered the release of the list of AP-holders shortly after the issue erupted and even the open discussion in Parliament this week are all signs that times have changed.
The issue started off with APs but now Rafidah herself has become an issue. She is, without doubt, a top brain in the government and it is hard to visualise anyone who can take her place as MITI Minister. But how effective can one be if one does not have the cooperation of Cabinet colleagues?
Being competent does not always add up to being effective. Can she still be effective when even her own government backbenchers have turned on her?
No comments:
Post a Comment