PKR-DAP spat a bait to put BN on fire

ARCHIVES 2009

By admin-s On Apr 21, 2009

By Abdel Jabber

With Tun Mahathir declaring an official war against Anwar Ibrahim, once his protege and today enemy number one, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) is putting up a wider net to capture the waves and find more loopholes in the Barisan National (BN) structure, said an analyst.

"The local newspapers were fed a supposed spat between Anwar Ibrahim the opposition leader and the Chief Minister of Penang Lim Guan Eng over the resignation of the Penanti Assemblyman and former Deputy Chief Minister Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin. The Star and the NST as well as some Malay based but pro-BN newspapers were riding high over the supposed division between Anwar and Lim over the issue," he said

"The plan for the PR is to drag Tun Mahathir back into the election folds and this time to get the public to damage the former Prime Minister's image by voting against his choice of candidate and against his 'racially' based campaigns," said the analyst.

"It will be Anwar Ibrahim's ultimate moment of revenge against the old man. Anwar has always indicated that he is willing to accept even a mild apology from Tun Mahathir for what the latter did to him but with Tun Mahathir playing the wild cards (last wild cards) of the Umno, Anwar now has the chance to crucify the old fox," he added.

Today, Malaysia Insider is pushing the game further with statements from Party Keadilaan Rakyat (PKR) vice-President Azmin Ali. The latter said he has 'tried' to sooth 'frayed nerves', saying that the Pakatan parties need to work closer together and have more meetings at the state and national level to discuss issues.

Malaysian Insider recapped that the 'row' surfaced when Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng made known his displeasure to the media at not being informed about former Penang Deputy Chief Minister 1 (DCM1) Mohammad Fairus Khairuddin’s resignation from his Penanti state seat last Thursday until after the news had broken.

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and many BN component parties made it clear they do not want to contest the Penanti elections. Tun Mahathir and his wing within the United Malays National Organization (Umno) and the BN are pressing the hands of Najib Tun Razak on the issue. Tun M is desperate to the point that he is now willing to replace the PM in the campaign and to lead the BN against Anwar Ibrahim and the PR.

Anwar Ibrahim too set the bait high when he said it was good for no contest since his party was then to win a seat for free. However, deep down under Anwar Ibrahim is taunting Tun M to prove that the latter is the Prime Minister behind the scene and this will undermine Najib Razak's role in the Cabinet and in the shaky ruling coalition, said the analyst.