COMMENT For the first time since the formation of Parti Keadilan Rakyat 15 years and a month ago, its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim is under attack from within his own party which was spawned by his travails. 

This has never happened before, but it is happening now - on, you may have guessed, social media of course, and all because of a bad error of judgement by the man himself.

Two days ago there was a meeting in Anwar's house in Bukit Segambut.

Its aim was to head off the victory that's looming for incumbent Azmin Ali in the contest for the deputy president's post in the ongoing PKR polls.  

Azmin is leading in the tally of votes thus far and appears on course for victory.

The other contestants in the divisive race for the deputy presidency are Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and incumbent party secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution.

Both appear headed for defeat by Azmin in this critical fight for the party No 2 position unless, of course, one withdraws in favour of the other.

Anwar has remained neutral in this contest, ostensibly.

But it is neutrality much like the United States' in the initial years of the Second World War before the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour: you know where its sympathies lay even as it adhered to a noncommittal stance.

However, Anwar's facile façade of neutrality broke when news and the purpose of the meeting leaked out.          

The hosts of the meeting were Anwar and PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Other attendees were Khalid and his staunch ally Elizabeth Wong, incumbent vice-president Tian Chua, Subang MP R Sivarasa, Saifuddin, and party elder statesman, Senator Dr Syed Husin Ali.

It is not certain who mooted the idea of the meeting but sources say it seemed the handiwork of Tian Chua, a chameleon in the deputy presidential race: when he campaigns in front of party members whom he feels are for Azmin, he'll affect to be in favour of the man; when in front of camps that seem to support Khalid, he leans towards the Selangor MB.

Everyone in the top hierarchy of the party can see through Tian Chua's charade but are unperturbed by it because the man is regarded as chief broker of the Chinese vote.

All three contestants in the vital race for deputy president think it essential that they have him on their side, and that has made it easy for him to gull all three factions simultaneously.

Perverse twist

But whereas Tian Chua’s confidence in his trickster’s schemes is seen as a minor distraction in the larger scheme of things within PKR, Anwar’s ability to pull off the already spurious façade of his neutrality in the contest for the deputy presidency was gravely undermined by the aim of the hush-hush meeting at his house which has gotten out on to the party grapevine.

It was to persuade Khalid to pull out of the race in favour of Saifuddin so that votes going to the former in the final two weekends of the balloting could be diverted to the latter to forestall a looming Azmin victory.

The quid pro quo for a Khalid withdrawal, discussed at the meeting, was the continuation of his tenancy as MB of Selangor, a tenure that has been under threat from, first, a mutinous Azmin and then, later, from Anwar himself, who was shaping to stand in the PKR-enforced Kajang by-election until the Court of Appeal interjected to render moot not only Anwar's candidature but projected appointment as Selangor MB.

A convoluted scenario, no doubt, but Anwar has now given the head twirling nature of his politicking a perverse twist by hosting the meeting to discuss Khalid's withdrawal.

Unfortunately for him and the rest of the attendees, Khalid was not amenable to the proposition and left the meeting in a huff.

Later, Syed Husin met up with Saifuddin to persuade him to withdraw in favour of Khalid - so serious had become what is being billed as ‘Operation Head-off Azmin’.

But Syed has denied on Twitter that his purpose was to persuade Saifuddin to withdraw though he has not denied meeting up with the man.  

Syed had been at loggerheads with the ambitious Azmin from earlier turf battles in the fledgling party.

All these goings-on are expected to redound to Azmin’s advantage as PKR leaders and supporters use social media networks to do what they have thus far refrained from – attacking their supremo for allowing his façade of neutrality to slip badly.

Correction: Terence Netto apologises for misreporting that Saifuddin Nasution attended the meeting at Anwar’s house. He wasn’t there. Elizabeth Wong has also denied that she was at the meeting.

TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades now. He likes the profession because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.