Now Do You Understand Why Daim Said It’s Foolish For Anwar To Be Made PM Immediately?
Mahathir’s popularity has hit the roof, and Anwar isn’t impressed. He is trying everything to stay relevant, and get noticed.
Finance Twitter
On May 15, just five days after the inauguration of Mahathir Mohamad as the world’s oldest prime minister, Daim Zainuddin fired a warning shot. He said it would be foolish for Anwar Ibrahim to be made prime minister immediately upon returning to parliament. The warning shot was aimed at Anwar, and not his boys, as Daim would like the public to believe.
Coming from the head of Mahathir’s influential “Council of Elders”, such statement was actually very disturbing. It simply means Anwar was absolutely impatient to be crowned as the next prime minister, so much so that he was prepared to break the agreement among the four component parties making up the Pakatan Harapan coalition.
Interestingly, Anwar revealed how the ousted former premier Najib Razak was “totally shattered” the night he lost the general election and called his jailed rival – Anwar Ibrahim – twice for advice on what he should do. Anwar claimed – “When he called on the night of the election, I advised him as a friend to concede and move on.”
Was Anwar the secret lover of Najib? Was Anwar the long lost biological brother of Najib? If not, does it make any sense that of all the people in the world, ex-PM Najib had chosen to call his enemy seeking advice or looking for a shoulder to cry on? You don’t need a rocket scientist to tell that Mr. Najib had called Mr. Anwar and offered him a deal to jump ship.
Mr. Anwar actually didn’t have to divulge the secret calls he received from the despicable Najib Razak. Nobody would know about the calls anyway. Since the revelation, Najib had neither acknowledged nor denied making such calls. So, those calls on May 9th must be genuine. But why did Anwar reveal the calls? Was he trying to brag about it?
There are two possibilities. First, PM-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim wanted to send a message to Mahathir Mohamad that his PKR (People’s Justice Party) could jump ship and form the federal government with Najib’s Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition. Second, Anwar was worried that the secret calls could eventually leak hence it would be smarter to disclose it beforehand.
So, why didn’t BN (then 79 seats) and PKR (49 seats) joined forces on the night of May 9? Together, they have 128 parliamentary seats, more than enough to form the federal government. The problem was Najib could not allow Anwar to become the 7th prime minister for obvious reason. But if Anwar cannot be crowned, why should he join BN to begin with?
Clearly, Mahathir and Daim knew about the possibility that Anwar Ibrahim may throw tantrum if his desire to become prime minister soonest possible wasn’t entertained. That was why Mr. Daim warned that it would be foolish for Anwar Ibrahim to be made prime minister immediately. He told Mr. Anwar not to break the promise about the mid-term transition.
Daim also reportedly lectured Anwar – “You all tried how many elections and failed. Whether you like it or not, Mahathir succeeded.” However, armed with 49 parliamentary seats, Anwar has become arrogant and couldn’t accept that PM Mahathir, despite his party winning only 13 seats, continues to call the shot. Anwar told his boys to make “noises” about PKR being the biggest winner.
When PKR was at its weakest point, they cried, whined and bitched about equal partnership. So, they were given the Selangor state. Now that they have won the most number of seats, they demanded to be given the most ministries. Having ruled the country for 22 years, Mahathir, however, has decisively made the bold decision to reward all the 3 component parties with important ministries – except PKR.
Perhaps the 93-year-old prime minister could smell a rebellion and UMNO DNA in Anwar’s party miles away. He rewarded Mat Sabu of Amanah with Defence Minister. He appointed Muhyiddin of PPBM as Minister of Home Affairs. And he strategically pampered Lim Guan Eng of DAP with the Finance Ministry portfolio. That made Anwar Ibrahim fantastically furious.
