'I was defeated by the Kajang Move' - Khalid Ibrahim

Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim admitted that the “Kajang Move” by Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) to topple him from his Selangor Menteri Besar post was indeed successful.

Not only was it a massive blow to himself and his team but the move had also shamed him after heading the nation’s richest state for six years.

“The ‘Kajang Move’ had succeeded in shaming me, leading to me losing my post. Worse, that immoral strategy had also caused the friction within Pakatan Rakyat component parties due to political rhetoric and hypocrisy,” he said in a statement Sunday.

According to him, the Kajang Move had caused a tremendous loss to Pakatan when it sidelined and subsequently broke up PAS – a partner which had worked very hard for the Oppsition in every election.

Abdul Khalid, who is also Bandar Tun Razak parliamentarian, said the move had also humiliated the leaders who were implicated.

The people of Selangor were also victimised when several key issues were neglected following the move, he said.

“The Selangor water restructuring plan is still not being carried out as how it should be, state lands have been returned to opportunistic ‘rentiers’, the state’s rubbish problem is still widespread and the direction of the state administration is still blurry,” he said.

He said, he ‘tolerated’ the apology recorded in the Shah Alam High Court because he did not want to prolong the feud with the parties who defamed him.

“To me, the statement of apology is enough to make up for my tarnished image, due to all the accusations against me,” he added.

Before this, a defamation case filed by Abdul Khalid towards PKR and its former secretary-general, Datuk Saifuddin Nasution, ended last Friday when both parties had agreed to settle amicably.

The Shah Alam High Court had recorded a consent judgment where Saifuddin, as the case’s first defendant and PKR as the second defendant, had stated their regret and apology for issuing and distributing a 91-paged libelous statement containing various accusations towards Abdul Khalid.

For Abdul Khalid, who is also Port Klang assemblyman, he deemed the apology sufficient to prove his innocence, and that the allegations against him were pure slander.