Two almost certainly contrasting receptions for former allies who recently turned adversaries at Penang’s Bayan Lepas airport tomorrow would trace the gulf if any in the state PKR, now rallying to batten down the hatches after defections from its stable of MPs.

NONE One reception will be for Zahrain Mohd Hashim ( right ), the MP for Bayan Baru and former PKR state chief, who returns home to Gelugor after sojourning in Washington and London following his departure from the party a month ago, to become what he himself has described as a “non-BN friendly independent”.

The other reception is for PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim, who normally is motored into Penang rather than borne by air. The welcome he usually receives is heralded by an emcee whose cue is met with applause from an assembled crowd eager to hear what their leader says.

But tomorrow’s receptions are being pulled out of their ordinary milieu by dint of politics and invested with a symbolism whose success or failure is supposed to tell a lot about the state of the party in Penang following Zahrain’s departure, swiftly accompanied as it was by the exit of Nibong Tebal MP Tan Tee Beng.  

Perkasa plans ‘welcome home’

State PKR officials were guarded all this week about the size and tenor - expected to be hostile - of the reception they would give Zahrain, especially after word began circulating that Perkasa, the conglomerate banding together NGOs fighting for Malay rights, planned to give Zahrain a grand ‘welcome home’ reception.

These days it appears Umno farms out to Perkasa tasks that are, in this case at least, politically incorrect for them to do because Zahrain had stated upon leaving PKR that he would be a “non-BN friendly independent.”

To sustain that claim, it cannot be unimportant that no identifiably Umno personnel be seen welcoming him. The Perkasa cohort should do nicely as substitute.

Zahrain ought not to be surprised if the PKR delegation at the airport comprises members from his former division of Bayan Baru, particularly individuals belonging to 13 families who used to stay in 10 houses in the Kampong Sungai Nibong area, which burned down early last week.  

Fifty people were left homeless by the blaze. The only elected representative to visit them to provide sympathy and material support was Sim Tze Tzim, the PKR state assemblyperson for Pantai Jerejak, which is in the Bayan Baru parliamentary constituency.

Sim, together with colleagues V Raveendran, the representative for Batu Uban, and Abdul Malik Kassim, the rep for Batu Maung and a state executive councillor, have been tasked by PKR to tend to the needs of constituents in Bayan Baru. Batu Uban and Batu Maung are state wards within Bayan Baru.

Friendship going back three decades

T pkr cny open house 270210 anwar he reception for Anwar Ibrahim, whose friendship with Zahrain goes back three decades at least, is set for sharp contrast to that being planned by PKR for Zahrain.

Since he left PKR, Zahrain has been derided at PKR and Pakatan Rakyat gatherings in the state, some of the strongest condemnations coming from Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, the PAS MP for Parit Buntar (in Perak) and the party’s division chief for Bayan Baru.

Mujahid, who grew up in Gelugor on the island, was a neighbour of Zahrain’s. His castigation of Zahrain is particularly telling given the ties between their families going back several decades.

“I still regard him as my friend and will talk to him, but what he has done by leaving PKR and not resigning his seat is contemptible,” said Mujahid.        

Anwar is likely to treat the reception he receives tomorrow as a minor contrivance on the way to what would be the more crucial gauge of the efficacy of PKR’s presence in the DAP-led state government.

Opening of science lab

This is the opening of a RM300,000 pure science laboratory in a sekolah agama rakyat (private religious school) in his constituency in Permatang Pauh.  

The lab is the first of its kind built in such a school in the state - some say, perhaps in the country - with the funding coming from state government which last year made an allocation of RM400,000 for this purpose. The extra RM100,000 went towards construction of a conference room and library facilities.

The occasion would be telling reproof of the criticism that Malay/Muslim concerns are being sidelined by Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng.

After the opening, Anwar would proceed to chair a meeting of the PKR divisional committees for Bayan Baru and Nibong Tebal to chart strategy on how to retain the seats for the party now that their elected parliamentarians have repudiated the platforms on which they had stood.

The application of this strategy and voters’ opinion of it would be the ultimate arbiter of the future fate of PKR in the two wards.