Criticisms leveled at PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim that he was seeking to become prime minister through the ‘back door’ have drawn a sharp respond from party secretary-general Salehuddin Hashim.

“I don’t think I’m splitting hairs when I say that to accuse Anwar of trying to form the government through the back door is unfair,” said Salehuddin in comments made to Malaysiakini .

salehuddin hashim interview 110408 thinking “He has not dangled any inducements to any legislator to join our coalition,” claimed Salehuddin in response to criticisms hurled at the PKR supremo by former PKR deputy president Dr Chandra Muzaffar who denounced attempts to instigate BN representatives to defect to the opposition as unethical and undemocratic.

“If elected legislators join Pakatan Rakyat, they do so of their own volition, and from promptings that have more to do with their perception of who can deliver a better deal to the constituencies they represent than from considerations of personal advancement,” argued Salehuddin.

“Which comes first: the development needs of their constituencies neglected over 45 years or their sense of fealty to the party that fielded them as candidates?” said Salehuddin.

Salehuddin said given the present political morass in the country, drawing fine moral distinctions was “the privilege of observers, not of agents of action.”

“Action is what is needed to save the nation dangling on a precipice beyond which lies moral squalor in practically every aspect of governance,” said the PKR administrator.

“The government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is patently unable to retrieve itself from this squalor. I don’t have to trot out the farcical sodomy charge against Anwar to substantiate this point.

anwar abdullah najib crash movie style poster 180708 “Just look at the accusations leveled against the No I and No 2 in the country on a host of issues, ranging from the Mongolian woman’s murder to the misuse of government machinery and funds for party purposes,” charged Salehuddin.

“Before you are done with that, there are the doubts about the top cop and the top prosecutor in the land to deal with. It’s a Pandora’s box of horrors!”

Chandra’s ‘morally deafening silence’

Salehuddin drew attention to Chandra’s pre-general election excoriation of Anwar as an unmitigated disaster should the latter become prime minister of Malaysia.

“A detractor who would go to indiscriminate lengths to lampoon the calibre of Anwar would now conceivably be petrified by the looming prospect of his premiership,” he mused.

lebanon forum 050906 chandra muzaffar “He’s got to draw his chestnuts out of the fire,” offered Salehuddin about Chandra’s ( right ) criticisms.

“Doing so on moral grounds are but a fig leaf to cover his morally deafening silence on the vast immorality of the Abdullah administration.

“If he were not silent, then I’d concede that Chandra’s strictures on the morality of defections would be hard to ignore.”

Salehuddin, nevertheless, acknowledged it would be foolhardy of PKR to denigrate the concept of honor in politics and its implications in respect of defections across party lines.

“But when you are dealing with a situation of pervasive moral squalor such as that in the country, the notion that you must abide by Marquee of Queensbury rules is a recipe for paralysis,” he claimed.

“Anwar is for proceeding, even from tangled circumstance and morally ambiguous grounds,” he asserted.