DAP and the west coast plan, part 3
Raggie Jessy
Days before the 13th general elections, foreign intelligence in consort with Anwar got wind of a returning Barisan Nasional government through persons said to be affiliated with UMNO’s thinktank. It is not clear at this point if the affiliation was immediate or by proxy. Notwithstanding, they were told that Barisan Nasional would retain its foothold in the legislature by a simple majority.
Now, it isn’t unusual for political parties to anticipate shifts in tides for or against their favour just before the polls. As a matter of fact, UMNO got a line on the bashing it was about to receive days before the general elections. The year was 2008, and I was in the Seri Delima constituency rendering assistance to Dato’ Koay Kar Huah in his bid to deny Karpal Singh (DAP) the Bukit Gelugor parliamentary seat.
A day before the polls, I received a text message from sources that bespoke a tsunami and the loss of four states to the opposition alliance. It appeared that Kar Huah had already been informed of the debacle by the time I approached him, though we never did deliberate on the matter in depth.
Suffice to say, UMNO possesses a database, structured on intelligence assessments, that appears to anticipate innate tendencies among voters at the polling booth. By far, the database is the most elaborate among coalition partners and is used by them to mobilise their machinery towards ‘grey’ electoral zones.
As polling day approaches, the election machinery would have gathered an enormous wealth of information which is used to anticipate the tally on votes. Forecasts on parliamentary seats are usually off only by a 2-3% margin in either direction. Days before polls in 2013, information from UMNO’s thinktank afforded a passage through the party’s bulwark and into the hands of Anwar’s confederates. I was told that the anticipated tally of parliamentary seats was 136 in favour of the ruling coalition.
Anwar came to know of the forecast around the time intelligence sources from abroad did, and began to draw up rope to hang the ruling coalition in the court of public opinion. He knew that UMNO was always right with its forecasts, and that Pakatan Rakyat hadn’t a cat in hells chance of becoming the Federal government. Thence the theatrics we were treated with, which included the impetuous haste with which he pronounced victory for Pakatan Rakyat.
The theatrics were precursors to the Blackout 505 rallies, which Anwar orchestrated right after the general elections had concluded. Being from UMNO, Anwar was well aware of the warmth in relations the ruling coalition enjoyed with neighbouring Thai and Indonesian intelligence. As a matter of fact, a tactical offensive was on the cards should the rallies have catapulted the nation towards a state of Anarchy. Anwar was well aware of this, and knew that the rallies wouldn’t get him anywhere near Najib’s fish, forget Putrajaya.
So Blackout 505 was merely Anwar’s way of impressing upon his ‘confederate friends’ his capacity to amass crowds of hecklers who were ever willing to bludgeon through the pillars of democracy simply because ‘he told them to do so’. It had nothing to do with toppling the Federal government, which is why, any one of you reading this article should quickly stick a label that reads ‘asshole’ on your forehead. This is assuming, of course, that you were among those who attended the 505 rallies.
And that brings us to the question; why was it necessary for Anwar to impress his allies from abroad? Weren’t they already in favour of him being the next Prime Minister of Malaysia?
Apparently, they weren’t. They began to hold Anwar responsible for his failure to dislodge the Federal government from power and communicated their disappointment to him on more than one occasion. Following the 13th general elections, it became apparent to the Americans that the Chinese had anted up and delivered DAP a thumping victory. They began to anticipate the political might with which DAP may dictate terms to both the opposition and ruling coalition, and more or less decided that Anwar wasn’t their guy.
CIA and currency speculators began to loosen their grip on Anwar and were prepared to drop him like one would a hot potato. Washington was redrawing regional ‘battlelines’ to accommodate new alliances in the wake of a ‘Malaysian Chinese revolution’, and progressed to ‘enhance bilateral commitments’ with Najib’s regime through President Barack Obama’s patronage. This is precisely why Obama had refused an audience to Anwar from the minute he touched down on our shores in April 2014.
So perhaps now you can better appreciate the sense of urgency with which Anwar launched the Blackout 505 rallies.
Anwar was virtually on pins and needles over Pakatan Rakyat’s failure to usurp power from the ruling regime. More than that, he was infuriated when DAP rang the bell with a 74.5% strike on seats contested (38 seats garnered out of 51 contested), a stark contrast to PKR’s 30.3% hit (30 out of 99).
It appeared that a west coast plan was at play; Kit Siang had marched into Gelang Patah in Johor and made significant inroads into traditional MCA and UMNO bases that were once considered the ruling coalition’s fixed deposit. In a manner of speaking, Kit Siang had cashed in on the Malay fixed deposit, which appeared to vex both Anwar and UMNO.
With the swing in Chinese votes projected at 90% nationwide, it dawned upon Kit Siang that the journey towards a DAP led dominion needn’t be in chorus with PKR or PAS. He drove the message home by retaining a conspicuous absence during most of Anwar’s 505 and GST rallies. Nevertheless, he was on the same page with Anwar when it came to retiring Khalid Ibrahim.
However, his reasons for wanting to decimate Khalid’s days as Menteri Besar were no longer those of Anwar’s. For Kit Siang, it was all about the domination of the west coast and a DAP led infiltration into the Malay fixed deposit in Selangor. As it is, several quarters from DAP have pledged to snitch Malay votes from UMNO and PAS come the 14th general elections. But I’ll come to that when I come to that.
By this time, Anwar had been stealthily moving around Selangor and establishing confederacies with various persons, groups, NGO’s and politicians. Anwar began to consort with several village elders and undertook in covenants, the express nature of which I am as yet uncertain. However, it is believed that Anwar had been gauging his support base in the event that he or his wife became Menteri Besar and launched an all out offensive against Putrajaya from Shah Alam.
Then, in December 2013, Khalid received a call from former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. According to Abhisit, special branch forces in Thailand had reason to believe that Anwar was in consultation with the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), a Thai based pressure group, on the means of organising a coup against the Malaysian government.
Saifuddin Nasution, the one-time Secretary-General of PKR, represented Anwar in that London meeting with PDRC and a figure of RM100 million was put as the price to topple the Malaysian government.
As a point of interest, PDRC had architected a revolt that led to the ouster of then Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Abhisit cautioned Khalid against participating in the attempted coup, citing the detriment such an insurgency would have on the long-term economic and political health of Selangor and Malaysia.
It was around then that Anwar approached Khalid for the RM100 million to finance a revolt against the Federal government. Khalid shut Selangor’s financial vaults on Anwar and refused to be coerced into the latter’s grand scheme. As a matter of fact, Khalid had undertaken to hamper any attempt at dragging Selangor into a state of Anarchy.
This infuriated Anwar, who began to fast track a plan that may well have been in the works since 2012. One thing led to another and before long, we had langkah kajang, a long range manoeuvre to supplant Khalid with Anwar or his wife for the post of Menteri Besar.
To be continued…
