Is Saifuddin Abdullah a frog?

By MT Webmaster Last updated Oct 23, 2015

Anyway, I can go on and on listing down the frogs starting from Onn Jaafar (one of the founders of Umno), Tunku Abdul Rahman (Bapa Merdeka), Hussein Onn, and so on. But we do not call all these people frogs and in fact honour them because they did not leave the opposition to join the government but it was the other way around.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In Malaysian politics, a frog is someone who changes sides. In that case Winston Churchill, one of the greatest Prime Ministers of Britain, would be called a frog because he changed sides — more than once.

In 1904 he ‘crossed the floor’ from the Tory bench to the Liberal Party bench. In 1924, Churchill contested the election as an independent candidate and stood on what he called a ‘Constitutionalist’ ticket. However, he had the backing of the Conservative Party. In 1925 he officially joined the Conservative Party and quipped, “Anyone can rat (betray: or frog in Malaysia), but it takes a certain ingenuity to re-rat.”

So there you have it. One of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers was what Malaysians would call a frog (or rat in England). But that does not stop people from calling Churchill one of Britain’s greatest Prime Ministers.

Saifuddin Abdullah just crossed over to the opposition but thus far I have not read any article or news report calling him a frog. I suppose if you cross over to the opposition you are not a frog. You are a frog only when you leave the opposition to go to the other side. This is how it works.

Malaysia’s longest serving Prime Minister (some even call him Malaysia’s greatest Prime Minister), Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, was a frog. He was thrown out of Umno in 1969 and just like Churchill he ‘flirted’ with PAS for a couple of years. He then rejoined Umno.

In 2008, Dr Mahathir resigned from Umno and during his road show all over Malaysia he told the voters that they should teach Umno a lesson by voting for the opposition. That same year the opposition won five states and 82 seats in Parliament.

Ibrahim Ali was a frog. He left Umno in 1988 to join Semangat 46 and won the 1990 election on a Semangat ticket. In 1995 and 1999 he contested the election on an Umno ticket and lost both times. In 2004 he contested the election as an independent candidate and lost for the third time. In 2008 he won on a PAS ticket and lost again in 2013 as an independent candidate.

Anwar Ibrahim is a frog. He flirted with PAS in the early days of his political career and made a name for himself on an Islamic platform. In 1982 he betrayed PAS by joining Umno. In 1998 he was kicked out of Umno and went opposition again. Meanwhile he sued Umno for what he called his unconstitutional sacking and tried to get the court to declare that he was still an Umno member.

After a long ten-year court battle he finally lost and had to accept the fact that his fate lay with the opposition and if he wanted to become the Prime Minister it can no longer be through Umno but has to be through the opposition. One wonders what would have happened had the court declared that his sacking was unconstitutional and that he was still an Umno member since 1998. Would he still be the de facto opposition Prime Minister today?

Zaid Ibrahim is a frog. He was not a frog when he joined the opposition. In fact, he was a hero. He became a frog only when he left the opposition.

Tunku Abdul Aziz Tunku Ibrahim is a frog. However, just like Zaid Ibrahim, he became a frog only when he left DAP and not when he abandoned the government to join DAP.

Lee Lam Thye left DAP in 1990 to sort of join the government — unofficially, of course. But somehow he was not called a frog like Hee Yit Foong was when she left DAP in 2009 — mainly because everyone except her got a new car and she did not get one on grounds that she is crippled and sits in a wheelchair and could not drive.

Umno’s Nasaruddin Hashim is a frog. He became a frog not when he left Umno to join PKR but when he left the opposition to rejoin Umno — mainly because Anwar had promised that he would replace Nizar Jamaluddin as the Perak Menteri Besar and when DAP and PAS did not agree Nasaruddin went back to Umno.

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK