(September 29): To get an idea of how popular and refreshing Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim’s initial administration was, all you had to do was go to the countless ceremonies everywhere in Selangor where residents got land titles and lease renewals for only RM1,000.

The programme was how Selangor residents, particularly in rural areas, got to witness the kind of leadership and governance that Pakatan Rakyat (PR) wants to offer this country, and how better it was compared to Barisan Nasional (BN).

It is initiative like this, which Khalid started, that are being slowly forgotten as his successor and one-time nemesis, Azmin Ali, works overtime to heal the wounds that Khalid’s shock expulsion has created.

As Azmin strives to convince Selangor that the crisis was justified, it would be a good time to examine what went right in Khalid’s administration and how it went wrong.

For what cannot be denied is that Khalid’s policies helped PR win an overwhelming 44 out 56 assembly seats in Selangor. BN, which had ruled Selangor until 2008, has been reduced to a one-party coalition that gets support from the fringes.

And as Khalid exits the stage, there hangs a big question as to whether Azmin can bring a style of governance that will be better for Selangor.

What went right

Fouziah Ismail was one of thousands who would unreservedly state that her family’s future was more secure under PR than the 40 years they lived under the BN.

The 47-year-old was one of scores of families from Kampung Bukit Cherakah in Shah Alam who received land titles to their houses for RM1,000.

As reported in the Selangor government website www.selangorku.com, her family and others from the same village had for years tried unsuccessfully to get one from the previous BN administration.

Without a title, the house where her parents lived, and she now occupies, could just be taken away.

Under a property-ownership scheme, she and others throughout Selangor got land titles or had their leases renewed for a flat rate of RM1,000.

Fouziah represents the many Malay working class voters who benefited directly from the policies of Khalid’s first term. They then returned Selangor PR to the government with an even bigger mandate in 2013.

It was all part of a package of policies centred around the philosophy "hasil negeri untuk rakyat” (the state’s revenue channelled back to the people).

They ranged from broad-based subsidy schemes, such as free 20 cubic metres of water per household, to targeted handouts such as shopping vouchers for seniors and single mothers.

“These policies benefited people directly and they in turn benefited PR at the polls,” said Kampung Tunku assemblyman Lau Weng San.

Khalid’s vast experience in the corporate sector helped cut down on wastage and increased revenue to pay for these programmes.

For instance, he used savings from a new garbage collection contract scheme to give 25% discount on assessment rates for low-cost flats.

This business savvy also led to the ballooning of the state’s reserves, from RM400 million when he took over in 2008 to RM3.3 billion as of October 23, 2013.

How it went wrong

But even in his first term, said another PR lawmaker, there were already signs of trouble between Khalid and the coalition’s 34 state assembly representatives at the time.

Shah Alam MP Khalid Samad said it started some time in the third year of Khalid’s fist term. This was when the menteri besar began another critical policy of his administration – the empowerment of state civil servants.

The aim was to convince bureaucrats that they were no longer servants of political masters and to mould them into independent-minded professionals working for the public.

“He basically told them, you perform, you will get rewarded, no matter whether you are a BN, PR, or no party person,” said Arfa’eza A. Aziz, Khalid’s former press secretary.

The philosophy, she said, saw high performing, non-partisan second-line officers being promoted to top posts based on merit. This drove up morale among a fraternity that had been humiliated under the previous BN administration.

Khalid constantly sought feedback from them instead of acting authoritarian and this nurtured a culture of critical thinking and sense of personal duty.

“He never sidelined them from decision-making and he never mixed politics with administration,” said Arfa’eza, adding that civil servants who tried to do so were censured.

Their efficiency has been recognised in the Auditor-General’s reports of the past few years, where many of the Selangor’s departments and local authorities get the highest honours.

But this did not mean that Khalid pandered to them, said Arfa’eza. On the contrary, he was stern and cynical to those who were sloppy and inefficient.

Yet this pivot from working together with Selangor PR to only working with civil servants, did not go down well with the coalition’s leadership and its wakil rakyat.

From wrong to worse

The problem was this, said Khalid Samad: Residents generally go to the politically appointed local councillor or the elected representative with problems, such as clogged drains, uncollected garbage and pot holes.

The elected representative would then bring the matter up to the local council head such as the mayor or chairman of the municipal council, a civil servant.

But after the menteri besar started leaning more and more to the civil servants, he started telling the politicians to leave governance to the bureaucracy.

This resulted in civil servants turning a deaf ear to elected representatives who brought up complaints or who wanted to give feedback, said Khalid Samad.

When Khalid was given another mandate after May 2013, PR parties made him promise that he would set up a steering committee made up of him and Selangor lawmakers to iron out problems and share feedback on policy.

Khalid Samad claimed this promise never materialised.

Not long after, the menteri besar almost completely stopped listening to the elected representatives and issues such as the Tropicana land sale, the contentious water restructuring agreement and the controversial Kidex project came up.

“That was when I stopped supporting him,” said Khalid Samad, who had been one of the menteri besar’s staunchest allies.

For Khalid Samad, the move to empower civil servants had disempowered politicians and elected representatives.

Legacy or liability?

In retrospect, said the PR leaders interviewed, some of the other policies that Menteri Besar Khalid was proud of could have turned into liabilities.

The fixation on increasing the reserves has also been criticised, especially in Khalid Ibrahim’s second term.

“There’s no point in keeping huge reserves when things are not done,” said the DAP’s Lau.

Khalid may have ushered in a new way of governance, where prudent spending matched with sense of duty and professionalism ensured that the revenues from the country’s richest state flows back to the people.

But the business skills and a shrewd eye for squeezing value from every sen only went so far.

Selangor PR leaders are hoping that Azmin Ali will build on Khalid’s successes but return to the era of inclusiveness and collective decision-making that was part and parcel of the administration’s early years.

Azmin, it is hoped, should not inherit Khalid’s obsession with raising the state’s reserves to the point of miserliness.

For instance, Khalid’s goal of wanting to save as much money from garbage collection services has led to only the cheapest contractors being hired.

But because these contractors have to operate below cost, said Khalid Samad, their service is haphazard and unreliable.

“I get reports every week of garbage not being collected. When we tell the mayor that we have to relook at the policy of just going for the cheapest guys, he responded by saying this was the MB’s instructions.”

The aim of a good government is not to save lots of money, argued Khalid Samad.

“It’s to provide quality service. We should have enough reserves to ride out a recession but we should spend the rest on good waste disposal, road maintenance and public transport. That is good government."