Dial ‘D’ for Dissolve
In short, money talks, bullshit walks. And without money you can forget about dissolving Parliament to call for fresh federal elections. The anti-Najib forces can then proceed with the planned vote of no confidence while Najib cannot launch his pre-emptive strike or counter-strike of dissolving Parliament. That is why Najib cannot be allowed to get his hands on any money. And that is why they are trying to freeze all those bank accounts.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Two of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s operatives, Khairuddin Abu Hassan and Matthias Chang, are travelling to various countries to try to get certain bank accounts in those countries frozen. What is their purpose? Is it to ‘save’ the money that allegedly belongs to the country? Not really! It is to block any and all sources of finances so that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak will run short of political funds.
We have seen how the anti-Najib forces have tried since July to bring down the Prime Minister through various means. They launched Plan A and when that failed they tried Plans B and C, which also failed. They never expected Najib to counter all their moves and thwart their plans. So now they are pushing for what may be the final plan (and if this also does not work they may have to admit defeat), which we can call Plan D.
Plan D, which Dr Mahathir is relentlessly pushing for, is to call for a vote of no confidence against the Prime Minister in Parliament. They will need at least 112 MPs to support this vote; 120 would be better to give them a safer margin. And this means it can only happen if they can get MPs from both sides of the political divide, maybe 80 from the opposition and 35-40 from the government.
And herein lies the problem.
Dr Mahathir wants Najib ousted so that, according to him, Umno can be saved. If Najib remains the Prime Minister then Umno faces the danger of losing the next general election, argues Dr Mahathir. The opposition, however, sees no advantage in ousting Najib if it is merely to save Umno. Why should the opposition help save Umno? If it is true that Umno is going to get kicked out if Najib remains the Prime Minister then better for the opposition that he remains the Prime Minister.
So the initial battle-cry to oust Najib to save Umno has been watered down somewhat. That can only work if it is targeted at the 35-40 Umno MPs. But why would the opposition want Najib out just to save Umno? So it is now no longer about trying to save Umno. It has now been changed to 1MDB, the RM2.6 billion, and so on.
But Plan D has its risks. While Plan D for the anti-Najib forces is to pass a vote of no confidence in Parliament, Najib has his own version of Plan D to counter his opponents’ Plan D. And Najib’s Plan D is to dissolve Parliament — Dial ‘D’ for Dissolve.
In fact, Najib does not even need to wait for the vote of no confidence to be passed in Parliament if he wants to make a pre-emptive strike. He can pull the rug from under their feet and dissolve Parliament ahead of the planned vote of no confidence. Then he can use the general election to do some spring cleaning and purge the party and the government of those opposed to him, like what he did recently in late July and early August.
However, to hold a general election, whether ahead or after the vote of no confidence, Najib will need money. And, understandably, Dr Mahathir is not going to give Najib the money. So, just like back in 2013, Najib would have to arrange his own financing, which will come to at least RM1.5 billion, plus-minus a billion (but more plus than minus).
In 2013, when Dr Mahathir refused to give Najib the money he needed (unless he first agrees to the terms and conditions), Najib managed to arrange his own financing. Dr Mahathir now has to block all that money and make sure that Najib can no longer get his hands on any financing. And that is why Dr Mahathir’s people are traveling the world to try to freeze all the bank accounts.
In short, money talks, bullshit walks. And without money you can forget about dissolving Parliament to call for fresh federal elections. The anti-Najib forces can then proceed with the planned vote of no confidence while Najib cannot launch his pre-emptive strike or counter-strike of dissolving Parliament. That is why Najib cannot be allowed to get his hands on any money. And that is why they are trying to freeze all those bank accounts.
