Dr Mahathir’s last hurrah and Najib’s masterstroke

In fact, Najib not only dares silence those who plot and conspire against him. He even dares to not sack them like how Dr Mahathir would have done. And he invites them to the Umno general assembly and places them on stage or in the VVIP seats and shuts their mouths and won’t allow them to speak while they stew on a slow fire before being sent home into the political wilderness and the political blackhole.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

It is now confirmed. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his wife, Tun Dr Siti Hasmah Mohamad Ali, will be attending the Umno general assembly next week. This was according to Umno’s secretary-general, Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor.

The Internet is abuzz with this latest turn of events. Some are seeing it as a victory for Dr Mahathir. Some even see it as a very bold move by the old man who has the guts to venture into the lion’s den, something that others made of sterner stuff would never dare do.

There are those who expect Dr Mahathir to hold court outside the hall, as he usually does. They anticipate that he will call for a press conference and give Umno and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak his two cents worth.

And all this some see as a great victory for Dr Mahathir and an in-your-face for Najib. But then this is how Malaysians normally think. They think in the box, not outside the box. They see what they want to see. They analyse things based on wishful thinking.

And this is why Dr Mahathir said that Malaysians are like cattle who have a herd mentality. It was Dr Mahathir who said that, not me. And this herd mentality is being proven, yet again, in the issue of Dr Mahathir attending the Umno general assembly next week. The herd is following the cow herder and has no mind of its own.

Actually, it is the other way around. It is not a great victory for Dr Mahathir and an in-your-face for Najib. The victory is Najib’s, not Dr Mahathir’s. It is going to be Dr Mahathir’s last hurrah. And the cattle being herded is Dr Mahathir, being herded straight into the slaughterhouse without being aware of it. And let me tell you why I say that.

Najib could have sacked Muhyiddin Yassin and Shafie Apdal. But he did not because if he had then these two hirelings of Dr Mahathir would not be able to attend the Umno general assembly next week. And Najib wants them to attend the Umno general assembly and not miss the momentous and most epic closing of the year.

And Najib also wants Dr Mahathir to attend the assembly. And the reason Najib wants the old man to attend the assembly is so that he can witness his two underlings, the Umno Deputy President and Vice President, sitting on stage just like, as Muhyiddin said, two tunggul kayu. And these two tunggul kayu would be forced to just sit there with their mouths closed and without being allowed to utter a squeak.

In July this year, Najib put these two underlings of Dr Mahathir in their coffins. But instead of nailing those coffins shut Najib left them open so that they could rot for a few months before he was finished with them. And next week, in front of their master, Dr Mahathir, Najib is going to nail those coffins shut and send Muhyiddin and Shafie into political oblivion and in the same stroke send Dr Mahathir into a political blackhole.

So, no, next week it is not going to be Dr Mahathir’s victory. It is going to be Najib’s victory. And Najib is going to torture Dr Mahathir by making him sit through the assembly and witness his two boys muzzled and tamed with their tails between their legs. This is what is known as poetic justice.

And Dr Mahathir will walk outside the hall and talk to the press about his grievances and unhappiness. And that is the only platform Najib is going to allow Dr Mahathir — holding court outside the hall to complain, grumble, moan, groan and bitch about this, that and the other, a repetition of what he has said so many times and keeps saying again and again like a broken record.

This is a masterstroke which most Malaysians do not see yet but which they will only see after the event is over. And that is why Raja Petra Kamarudin is above all other Bloggers. Other Bloggers can only see it after it happens. Raja Petra Kamarudin sees it before it happens. So eat your heart out mateys. You still have a long way to go to become politically savvy.

“History has shown that the sons of Johor would never back down in defending the sovereignty of their motherland,” said Muhyiddin. Hello, Muhyiddin! What do you mean sons of Johor would never back down? Don’t you get it? You have lost! The fight is over. So what no backing down are you talking about? Backing down from defeat? Defeat means game over. And game over means you are finished. You just get buried and forgotten.

Tun Musa Hitam said something very interesting. He said that Najib is a bigger dictator than Dr Mahathir. Even Dr Mahathir did not stop him from talking while Najib silences his adversaries.

Maybe Musa meant this as an insult. But I see it as a compliment. Only a year ago they made fun of Najib and laughed at him and called him a coward and so on. They said that Najib does not have guts (although they used stronger words than ‘guts’). And now, one year later, they are saying the opposite.

It takes guts to be a dictator. And if Najib is a bigger dictator than Dr Mahathir that would mean he has more guts than the old man. In fact, Najib has demonstrated more guts, which many somehow have not noticed.

They complain that Najib ignores their questions. They say that Najib refuses to reply in Parliament about 1MDB and the RM2.6 billion. And this takes guts. Weak-hearted people would not dare ignore their critics. They would scramble helter-skelter to pacify their critics and not be seen as shirking. Najib, however, gives them an in-your-face just like what Shahrir Samad did to Ambiga Sreenevasan.

So, is Najib gutless or is he a bigger dictator than Dr Mahathir? You cannot be both. You need to be one or the other, either gutless or a dictator. And if Najib is a bigger dictator than Dr Mahathir then he has more guts than the old man because, as Musa said, Dr Mahathir did not dare silence him while Najib dares silence his critics.

In fact, Najib not only dares silence those who plot and conspire against him. He even dares to not sack them like how Dr Mahathir would have done. And he invites them to the Umno general assembly and places them on stage or in the VVIP seats and shuts their mouths and won’t allow them to speak while they stew on a slow fire before being sent home into the political wilderness and the political blackhole.

In time, PhD students of political philosophy are going to do their thesis on what happened in Malaysia in 2015 and how Najib lined up his adversaries like ducks in a shooting range to be slaughtered one by one with what can be said to be a deafening silence — that is silence from Dr Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Shafie.