Najib or Muhyiddin? There cannot be two tigers on the same mountain

By MT Webmaster Last updated Sep 11, 2015

As the Chinese say, there can never be two tigers on the same mountain. So they must decide which tiger is going to stay on the mountain and which tiger needs to be thrown off the mountain. And if Najib want to remain king of the mountain then he has no choice but to kick Muhyiddin off the mountain. Simple!

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

There is a lot of talk over the last week regarding whether ex-Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is going to be sacked from the party. Some say he will and some say he will not. Actually, after going 90% of the way, Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak would be silly to not take that last step and make it 100%.

When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad made up his mind to sack Anwar Ibrahim from his post of Deputy Prime Minister, the following day Dr Mahathir brought Anwar’s case to Umno’s supreme council and got him sacked from the party as well.

The point is Anwar was the Deputy President of Umno and since this post was an elected post, elected by the members during the party elections, Dr Mahathir could not sack Anwar as the Deputy President. So he had to sack Anwar from the party, which is within the powers of the supreme council, and with that Anwar was automatically no longer the party’s Deputy President (since he was no longer an Umno member).

Dr Mahathir could not afford to sack Anwar as the Deputy Prime Minister and allow him to remain Umno’s Deputy President. That would have been a serious headache for Dr Mahathir and he would be spending all his time looking at what Anwar was up to instead of focusing on running the country. And the country at that time was facing a serious financial crisis that needed the Prime Minister’s attention full time.

So, after sacking Anwar from the government, Dr Mahathir also removed him for the party. And with that Anwar could do very little damage inside the party although he could always form a new party or join one of the opposition parties to continue his fight.

Outside the party Anwar was not as serious a problem compared to if he were still inside the party plotting and scheming Dr Mahathir’s downfall. And this is the same with Muhyiddin Yassin. Muhyiddin is not going to allow Najib to get away with sacking him. Payback day is going to come and the anti-Najib faction has promised that that day is around the corner.

For Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, with Muhyiddin still in the party (and as the Deputy President) that poses a risk for him as well. If anything were to happen to Najib, it may not be him who takes over as Prime Minister. No doubt Zahid is the Deputy Prime Minister but he is not yet the Deputy President. So, in the event the post of Prime Minister is vacant for any reason, then Muhyiddin will walk in as Prime Minister and not Zahid. And once Muhyiddin takes over as Prime Minister he can sack Zahid and replace him with someone else.

So it is in the interest of both Najib and Zahid that Muhyiddin is sacked from the party. Dr Mahathir knew this and that was why he sacked Anwar from the party after removing him as the Deputy Prime Minister. The only way to remove the threat that Anwar posed was to finish him off totally, not just part of the way.

It is also in the interest of Umno that Muhyiddin is neutralised and is no longer a threat to Najib. Umno needs to consolidate and close ranks. With two factions in Umno — the Muhyiddin faction versus the Najib faction — Umno will become weaker and will eventually break into two like what happened in 1987. With two factions fighting for power, what Dr Mahathir said will come true after all — that Umno is going to lose the next general election.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK