The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 11)

By MT Webmaster Last updated Apr 22, 2015

There was no turning back now. Pak Lah was now in a corner so he had no choice but to announce that Najib was his number two. And Pak Lah’s announcement came 24 hours later — 24 hours after Dr Mahathir had thanked the Prime Minister for agreeing to appoint Najib as his number two.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi a.k.a. Pak Lah was already into his second month as Malaysia’s fifth Prime Minister and still he had not yet appointed his deputy. No doubt, according to the Federal Constitution, he does not need to appoint one — he only needs to appoint his Cabinet — but it has been the tradition since Merdeka that a Prime Minister appoints a deputy.

In fact, Malaysia’s first Prime Minister and the Father of Independence (Bapak Merdeka), Tunku Abdul Rahman, not only appointed a deputy, Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, he even made his deputy the Acting Prime Minister when the former took six months no-pay leave to campaign in the general election.

Yes, that’s right, in spite of all the criticism thrown at the Tunku, he was very concerned about doing the right thing. Since he was campaigning for the general election as an Umno President and not as the Prime Minister, he felt he should take no-pay leave and not use government time and money to do what had nothing to do with the government but was a party thing.

This is reminiscent of the late Tok Guru Nik Aziz Nik Mat who would switch off the lights when he prayed at his office because praying had nothing to do with his job as Menteri Besar. So he felt it was wrong to make the government pay for the electricity when he was doing something that had nothing to do with the government, such as praying.

Gone are those days, of course. Today, leaders use taxpayers’ money as if it was their father’s money, as Malaysians would say. In fact, even sending your children to school in your official car driven by a driver whose salary is paid by the government can be considered morally wrong, and in some countries illegal as well.

Remember when the Commercial Crime Department Director was arrested and charged for flying in a police plane to do official business and then he took a slight detour to look at some land that had nothing to do with his police business? So, yes, we do have such laws although no one really bothers about them unless you want to get rid of a certain Commercial Crime Department Director for personal reasons, such as he exposed the MAS scandal and those behind the shenanigans.

Anyway, I am digressing as usual so let me come back to my story. As agreed between him and Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Pak Lah was supposed to appoint Najib Tun Razak as his deputy. However, Pak Lah did not want Najib. He wanted Muhyiddin Yassin. But he did not dare defy Dr Mahathir. So he dragged his feet and did nothing.

Pak Lah was in a dilemma. And normally when Pak Lah is in a dilemma he would just KIV the matter.

There was one story where one of his cronies approached him to lobby for a certain project. Pak Lah approved the project without remembering that he had already approved the project for two other cronies. So now three cronies had been given the same project.

A very senior civil servant then approached Pak Lah to ask him which of the three people does he really want to award the project to. Pak Lah was stumped. He did not realise he had approved the same project to three different cronies. Not being able to decide which of the three he should favour, he told the civil servant to just KIV the whole thing and do not give it to anyone. So the project had to be put on hold.

So that was Pak Lah for you. When faced with a difficult choice, do nothing. And the same applied to whom he should appoint as his deputy, Najib or Muhyiddin. So he went into his second month as Prime Minister by not appointing either.

And this posed a serious dilemma for the Umno sycophants. If they do not know who Pak Lah’s choice for deputy is then who do they bodek? If they bodek Najib and then Muhyiddin becomes the deputy then they would be in deep shit. But if they go running to Muhyddin’s house and Najib becomes the deputy instead they would also be in deep shit. The Umno sycophants only want to support the winner, they want nothing to do with the loser.

In the meantime, the senior civil servants approached Dr Mahathir to invite him as a guest of honour for his farewell dinner. Dr Mahathir had resigned as Prime Minister in June 2002 and only in January of 2004 they throw him a farewell dinner? That is like 18 months too late.

Dr Mahathir said he had already left so why the need for a farewell dinner? You give someone a farewell dinner before he or she leaves, not after they have already left. This would not be a farewell dinner. It would be an already gone dinner.

The senior civil servants pleaded with Dr Mahathir and he finally relented. Dr Mahathir said he would agree to the farewell dinner on condition that Pak Lah also attends. So the senior civil servants then ran to Pak Lah to try to persuade him to agree to coming to the dinner.

Pak Lah would have liked to avoid meeting Dr Mahathir if he could because of the issue of his deputy. But if he did not say yes then Dr Mahathir would not agree to the dinner. So Pak Lah had to reluctantly agree or else the dinner would be off.

On the night of the dinner the press were allowed into the holding room to meet the Prime Minister and his predecessor. And the press just love to ask Dr Mahathir questions because he can be very cheeky.

When asked now that he has retired will he be spending his time playing golf, Dr Mahathir replied why would you want to be so stupid as to chase after a small ball that was with you in the first place? When asked which is his favourite football team, he replied he does not watch football. Why do 22 people chase after one ball, quipped Dr Mahathir, just buy them one ball each.

So that is Dr Mahathir for you. And when the press asked him what he would like to say, Dr Mahathir said he would like to thank Pak Lah for agreeing to appoint Najib as his deputy.

Pak Lah was rudely awoken from his half-slumber. He got up and whispered to his boys to inform the press that that statement of Dr Mahathir is to be blacked out. They are not to carry that news.

Unfortunate for Pak Lah, though, one opposition newspaper was also present so the next morning they carried this statement of Dr Mahathir. The news soon spread like wildfire and the Umno sycophants all ran to Najib’s house to congratulate him. It was like a pesta with every man and his dog wanting to be the first to shake Najib’s hand.

Only Dr Mahathir could pull off something like this. In Thailand, Indonesia or the Philippines they need the army to pull off a coup. Dr Mahathir did it just over dinner with a thank you to the Prime Minister.

Now do you understand why even people like Lee Kuan Yew have tremendous respect for Dr Mahathir while at the same time hating the man’s guts?

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 10)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 9)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 8)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 7)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 6)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 5)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 4)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 3)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 2)

The Umno, PKR and PAS internal strife (part 1)