Drawing parallels between Najib and Pak Lah

By MT Webmaster Last updated Mar 8, 2015

And did Dr Mahathir not warn Najib a few days ago to beware of the Ides of March? What is Dr Mahathir trying to say? Well, those who have read Shakespeare will know that the Ides of March is about your very close friends turning on you and stabbing you in the back.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

One of the Umno Bloggers wrote in his Blog that in 2006 when the pro-government Bloggers united with the pro-opposition Bloggers to bring down Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, a.k.a. Pak Lah, I was very much part of that group.

In fact, Raja Petra was one of the key players, said this Umno Blogger, but now he is not with us in the effort to bring Najib (Tun Razak) down.

Well, we need to see what happened in 2004 and what happened last year in 2014.

In 2004, I started Malaysia Today specifically because of the March election disaster that same year: disaster for the opposition, that is.

When BBC called me from London on 2nd September 2004 to ask me what I was going to do now that Anwar Ibrahim had been released from jail, I replied that I was going to focus on Malaysia Today and no longer on the Free Anwar Campaign (which had become redundant since Anwar was no longer in jail).

When I was asked what my objective was, I told BBC that it took us six years to free Anwar. That job is done. Now we need to free Malaysia. And that may take longer than six years, maybe even 60 years.

I did not realise then that it would take us only four years to free Malaysia: meaning give Barisan Nasional a whacking in the 2008 general election.

I joined the ‘Bloggers Union’ in 2006, a ‘joint venture’ between the pro-government and pro-opposition Bloggers, with one objective in mind: to bring down the Prime Minister. And it took three years for that to happen.

The higher-ups in Umno told us that the opposition would not be able to bring down Pak Lah from the outside. It needs to happen from the inside. Hence Umno needs to turn on its President cum Prime Minister. And for that to happen Barisan Nasional must do badly in the next general election expected around 2008-2009.

The most important state for Umno is Penang, which is Pak Lah’s home state. If Umno loses Penang then it would be impossible for Pak Lah to stay on. He would have to resign.

So we worked with the Umno chaps to make sure that Barisan Nasional does badly in the general election plus it loses Penang. And for Barisan Nasional to lose Penang the Malays must vote opposition as well. It is not enough that only the non-Malays do so.

And that was why I agreed to work with the Umno Bloggers. It was because THEY wanted Pak Lah out and the way they were going to do it was to make sure that Barisan Nasional does badly in the general election. And that was what I liked about the plan.

Now these same Umno Bloggers want Najib out and they are sore that I am not working with them to try to achieve this. But that is precisely the problem. They want Najib out because, according to them, that is the only way to save Umno. And if they cannot save Umno then Barisan Nasional is going to get a whacking in the next general election.

So can you now see the difference? In 2006 there was a reason why they wanted the Prime Minister out but now it is for an entirely different reason.

Okay, so in 2006 they wanted Pak Lah out and they were prepared to sabotage the general election just to see Pak Lah ousted. Now they want Najib out so that they can stay in power and not lose the next election.

In that case, would it not be better that I fight to keep Najib in power if, according to these Umno chaps, this is going to hurt Umno and Barisan Nasional in the coming general election?

Hey, this is what they say. This is not what I say. Hence based on what they say I should be pro-Najib and make sure he stays in power since, according to these Umno people, this is going to help Pakatan Rakyat.

So why are the pro-Umno Bloggers grumbling that I refuse to join their anti-Najib alliance?

Anyway, whatever the case may be, there were a few issues that we used to bring down Pak Lah: the oil-for-food issue, the ‘fourth floor’ issue, the ‘kerajaan 4K’ issue, the PM’s private jet issue, the Terengganu Wang Ehsan issue, the Patrick Lim a.k.a. Patrick Badawi issue, and the PM’s lavish home in Perth, Australia, issue.

Those were the seven main issues although there were others such as the PM always falling asleep during meetings, dinner functions, and so on.

You should know about the oil-for-food issue: a United Nations report mentioning Pak Lah’s name in the Iraqi oil scam.

The ‘fourth floor’ issue involved his team of advisers who lived on the fourth floor of the Prime Minister’s office and practically ran the country while Pak Lah literally and figure-of-speech slept.

The ‘kerajaan 4K’ or ‘4K government’ was Kak Endon (Pak Lah’s wife), Kamal (Pak Lah’s son), Khairy (Pak Lah’s son-in-law) and Kalimullah (Pak Lah’s spin doctor). These four people, the four Ks, were the de facto Prime Minister.

I need not talk about the other four matters as I am sure most of you know what they are since I wrote extensively about them back in 2006-2007, including about the Terengganu Monsoon Cup, etc.

Now, Najib is being subjected to precisely the same strategy that was used against Pak Lah. The only thing is the issues may be different: 1MDB, Altantuya’s murder, Rosmah’s lavish spending, etc. But it is basically all the same shit, only a different smell.

Okay, in the case of Pak Lah, as long as it is the opposition that is whacking him, Pak Lah will not fall. He will only fall when Umno turns against him, including Umno veterans such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

In that same spirit, Najib will not fall if it is just the opposition that is whacking him. He will only fall when Umno turns against him, including Umno veterans such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Pak Lah fell because he was not able to respond to all those allegations against him. Hence he did not rebut or explain anything. He just accused the opposition of spreading lies. And Pak Lah was surrounded by a bunch of idiots who did not know what to do and whatever they did try to do just made matters worse.

And this is the same in the case of Najib. He is not able to respond to all those allegations against him. Hence he is not rebutting or explaining anything. He is just accusing the opposition of spreading lies. And Najib is surrounded by a bunch of idiots who do not know what to do and whatever they try to do just makes matters worse.

Pak Lah fell because he listened to the idiots around him plus he did not control them. Najib will suffer the same fate if he continues to listen to the idiots around him plus he does not control them.

Let me repeat that. Pak Lah fell not because of the opposition but because his own party turned on him. Najib will also fall not because of the opposition but because his own party turns on him.

And that is how Najib will fall if he does fall. He will not fall because Anwar Ibrahim wants him to fall. He will fall because his own people kill him off. And if Umno wants to kill off Najib to save Umno then I would rather Najib stays. But for Najib to be able to stay he needs to get rid of all those idiots and start employing people with more brains: for example people like me.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK