But in that, he was proven so wrong during the period leading to and immediately after the nomination of a menteri besar (MB) for the state of Selangor following the completion of the May 2013 state elections. 

If we examine the construct of Pakatan in Selangor, with its victorious election outcome, we have Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) holding 15 state seats, the Democratic Action Party (DAP) another 15 seats, and PKR only 14 seats. 

Yet prior to any consultation with PAS and DAP, the 'only link' was seen squabbling disgracefully among themselves over which PKR assemblyperson should fill the position of the MB, as if PKR had been the political party which won the Selangor state elections by itself. 

Perhaps it saw itself as what its ardent supporters have been incorrectly accusing the Barisan Nasional (BN) of, a 'minority government'. Well, it certainly was behaving like one. 

Regarding the PKR intra-party squabbling, one of its factions had even disparaged its own member, Abdul Khalid Ibrahim, the MB of the previous state assembly session, for poor performance, describing him as a lame duck, without even understanding what the term means. 

According to Wikipedia, a political lame duck is an elected official who is approaching the end of his or her tenure, especially one whose successor has already been elected. The status can be due to: 
  • Having lost a re-election bid
  • Choosing not to seek another term at the expiration of the current term
  • A term limit which keeps the official from running for that particular office again, and
  • The abolishment of the office, which must nonetheless be served out until the end of the official's term
Khalid Ibrahim, as the recently elected state assemblyperson for Port Klang for the new state assembly session, hardly fits into any of the above descriptions. It could even be argued he had led Pakatan to the coalition's recent greater victory in Selangor. 

Then as if the publicly aired disparagement by PKR against Khalid Ibrahim, its best performing politician, was not bad enough, the Selangor PKR secretary wrote a lamentable letter about him to the Selangor sultan. Terence Netto in hisMalaysiakini article 'Selangor exco saga - a tale with several twists' revealed to us what transpired: 

Thus Pakatan MB-designate Khalid Ibrahim, days before he took the oath of office as MB on May 14, was subjected to the embarrassment of having a letter read out in his presence that was written by the Selangor PKR secretary to the sultan which not-so-subtly undermined Khalid's claims to a second term of office. 

Senior state civil servants, known to be proxies of Umno, were present while the letter was read out at a royal audience, causing Khalid no small chagrin. 

The criticisms or condemnations against Khalid Ibrahim were nothing more than a tragic intra-party attempt by that faction to prevent him from taking up the MB appointment for another term and to seize same for its most favoured son. 

On the other hand if those Pakatan detractors of Khalid Ibrahim fear he may turn out to be a puppet of specifically DAP, then we will shortly see that fear to be unfounded. 

Face-saving way out

While Nathaniel Tan's 'only link' twisted itself into an unhappy, avaricious and treacherous knot of Gordian proportion, PAS and DAP with a combined 30 assemblypersons nominated Khalid Ibrahim as their preferred candidate for the MB position. Their preference was further endorsed by Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, the party president of PKR, a fortuitous endorsement for some in PKR because it eventually and unwittingly provided a face-saving way out for those against Khalid Ibrahim becoming MB. 

But what occurred next ripped the breath of many away as PKR Wanita chief, Zuraida Kamaruddin, unbelievably told DAP and PAS pointedly to stay out on the Selangor MB appointment because, now get this, the post belonged to PKR and it was for the party alone to decide which of its assemblypersons should be MB. It that was not of ketuanan magnitude, I don't know what would then be.