The most potent mixture for political upheaval is a power rivalry fed on a personality conflict.

Witness the latest twist in the long-running feud between Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim and former PKR secretary-general Salehuddin Hashim.

Their mutual distaste began some three decades ago when they worked in government-initiated agencies inaugurated by the New Economic Policy.

It was sparked by dislike for the other’s conduct in matters essentially inconsequential but cumulatively reflective of character, but by now the core of it is probably encrusted with several small indignities and protective recriminations that it has taken on a life of its own.

salehuddin hashim interview 110408 thinking Consider the statement put out by Khalid’s office yesterday which asserted that Salehuddin had applied for the job of CEO of Kumpulan Perangsang Selangor Berhad (KPS), the state government-linked company (GLC) that controls RM5 billion of assets.

The truth of the matter is that PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim wanted Salehuddin ( right ), who has a reputation as a management turnaround expert, to be placed in the CEO’s role.

Anwar’s behest was communicated to Khalid ( below ), with PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali also in the know. In fact, the PKR political bureau thought well of the move and endorsed it when it came up at its weekly sessions.

But perish the thought that Khalid was going to be easy meat to an old foe like Salehuddin.

NONE Salehuddin went to a meeting with the board of KPS which he had been led to expect would just rubber stamp the decision of the PKR supremo that he be placed at the head of the GLC, at a salary of RM1 a month, which was the figure Salehuddin insisted on to stump criticism that he wanted the job for pecuniary benefit.  

The board members had other ideas, or they were directed to have them.  

They treated Salehuddin as if he were a supplicant, making him sit at the end of a long table and asking him derisively towards the end why an old man like him - Saleh was 57 then - wanted the job.

The proud Salehuddin could barely believe his interlocutors’ gall and haughty indifference to the fact that it was Anwar who had sent him for the job.

From that point, and exacerbated by Salehuddin’s claims that the Selangor state government’s rescue of Talam Corporation could not withstand scrutiny, PKR’s equivalent of the war of the roses (a long-running conflict for dynastic succession in 15th century England) began.

Launch own website

These days, after quitting his PKR secretary-general’s post, Salehuddin sits at press conferences called by departing PKR MPs like the ghost of Banquo at Macbeth’s banquets, an aggrieved presence, provocative to party faithful and painful to its legions of supporters, both categories having little or no knowledge of the backdrop.            

Salehuddin is not going to go easy into the ungentle night. He believes that not only is he the wronged party but also that the reformasi movement is being bamboozled.  

He’s soon to come out with his own website where he will post material that he says would corroborate his version of history.         

Nobody with long-enough experience of the nature of the internecine conflicts such as that between Khalid and Salehuddin would be surprised at its intensity, neither of the tendency of power in a political party to centre on individuals who do not necessarily sit in the central seats.

With internecine conflicts such as these, you need German iron chancellor Bismarck’s skill at restraining contending forces by manipulating their antagonism before moving decisively to carry out policy decisions.

Alas, PKR has no Bismarck.