Pakatan Desperate To Rope In Ambiga

Will she, won’t she?

Speculation is rife that Bersih co-chairperson Ambiga Sreenevasan could be roped in to head Pakatan Rakyat’s proposed minority affairs bureau.

With GE 13 nearing, the nervous Opposition coalition is desperate to bring Ambiga into its fold, so it can count on her support base to attract some much-needed votes.

Ambiga has been playing hard to get, though.

Upset that her peaceful Bersih 3.0 demonstration was hijacked by PKR leaders Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali, Ambiga has so far given them the cold shoulder.

She must have felt betrayed by the Opposition hooligans, who dragged her credibility through the streets in the violence that followed.

But that hasn’t stopped Pakatan from begging her to join.

“The party leadership has identified her for the post but we are not sure if she would accept the post or perhaps even contest in the upcoming general election,” a PKR source told Free Malaysia Today.

Ambiga claims to be neutral in the upcoming electoral battle, but she has always supported Pakatan’s demands, leading critics to label her an Opposition ‘stooge’.

“She is also under a lot of pressure… if she enters politics, no doubt she would be able to win a parliament seat but she would lose her credibility,” admitted the PKR source.

“She has on numerous occasion denied that she would enter politics. She has also denied she would contest in the general election… but at the same time she is also attending functions organised by Pakatan leaders, especially Indian leaders,” the source added.

Speculation that she would head the proposed bureau has grown after Ambiga shared the stage with Indian opposition leaders at a cultural event in Klang last weekend.

A banner advertising the event even carried photos of her alongside Selangor exco member Dr Xavier Jayakumar and other Pakatan MPs and assemblymen.

Anwar has reportedly considered setting up a minority affairs bureau in PKR to bring together the party’s Indian supporters, if any.

Ambiga is an ideal choice to head it, but given her annoyance with Anwar, she is unlikely to accept.

True to form, she dismissed the current speculation.

“This is news to me. I do not have a clue about such a bureau. I truly have no knowledge about this,” she told FMT.

Anwar’s desperate gamble is also likely to run into resistance within PKR itself as another party member claimed that the proposed bureau would not be welcome among Indian Opposition leaders.

The Indian leaders were afraid that their position would be threatened if Ambiga joined them, according to this source.

“It seems like several Indian leaders are working very hard to prevent Ambiga from joining PKR,” he was quoted by FMT.

Anwar is fast running out of options.

Surrounded by squabbling Pakatan leaders, plagued by the public backlash over his role in instigating the violence at Bersih 3.0, and faced by the hard truth that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak enjoys 65 per cent support across the country, Anwar is now laying all his hopes on Ambiga.

Will she oblige?

Source: The Choice

AmbigaBersih 3.0Pakatan