Luke Rintod of FMT
KOTA KINABALU: If the gasp of surprise is any indication, newly-appointed Sabah PKR top man Pajudin Nordin has jumped into a hot seat and bets are on as to whether he will last long in the post.
The stakes are high and the expectations even higher given that even PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim didn’t last more than a few months as Sabah state chief before he relinquished it to Azmin Ali, who in turn lasted for only a few weeks before handing the reins to Ahmad Thamrin Jaini.
Thamrin was heavily criticised for “non-performance” or failing to come up to the expectations of his peers, a charge that he disagrees with.
“Qualified” people, such as former PKR vice-president Jeffrey Kitingan, a Harvard scholar, were sidelined as they were believed to be not good enough to head PKR in the second-biggest state in Malaysia.
Now Pajudin, 42, not even a divisional head, has been entrusted with the task of leading the state by party president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
Perhaps, a more pertinent question is whether Pajudin will be able to perform better than all his predecessors, including recent leaders like Thamrin and Ansari Abdullah.