Mahathir: all warfare is based on deception

By MT Webmaster Last updated May 21, 2016

As Mahathir is so fond of saying to Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak: an allegation has been made so you must now show proof that the allegation is not true. Well, an allegation has been made that there are no 1.25 million signatures and that all these so-called signatories to that ‘Save Malaysia’ petition are fakes and that Mahathir is lying to us.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

No, actually it was not Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad who said that. The person who originally said ‘all warfare is based on deception’ was Sun Tzu. Mahathir is just doing what Sun Tzu said one must do in war: deceive your opponent.

And that is what Mahathir is trying to do: to deceive us into believing that he has obtained more than 1.25 million signatures for his ‘Save Malaysia’ petition and that these 1.25 million signatures are going to be sent to His Majesty the Agong. So how do we respond to that? I suppose ‘liar, liar’ would be one way.

Actually, Mahathir said they had obtained 1.5 million signatures but had to reject about 250,000 because the signatories’ ICs could not be verified. This would mean they were able to verify the ICs of 1.25 million of the signatories.

Now this is very interesting. So this means Mahathir has copies of the ICs of about 1.25 million Malaysians who signed the ‘Save Malaysia’ petition. And this would also mean that if the authorities needed to audit those 1.25 million signatures then Mahathir would be able to produce 1.25 million copies of ICs.

This is very important because there are allegations by certain ‘insiders’ that the 1.25 million signatures are fakes and that Mahathir is lying to us. The ‘insiders’ say that they picked up these one million or so names from SPR’s electoral roll, which you can buy.

So we need to see those 1.25 million ICs that Mahathir said have already been verified from the original 1.5 million signatures that they received.

Another very important point is there are 30 million Malaysians and around 15 million or more registered voters. But roughly only one million Malaysians have signed this ‘Save Malaysia’ petition (assuming those signatures are not fakes).

Does this mean 29 million Malaysians or more than 14 million registered voters do not support the ‘Save Malaysia’ petition? I mean they talk about the so-called one million who signed that petition and scream that this is proof that all Malaysians support them.

One million Malaysians do not represent all Malaysians even if they can produce one million ICs as proof. What about the 29 million other Malaysians or 14 million registered voters who did not sign? Does this not make them the majority since 29 million or 14 million is a far greater number than just one million?

I mean it is like saying that PAS managed to obtain one million signatures of Malaysians who support Hudud and an Islamic State. And since one million Malaysians have signed a petition supporting Hudud and an Islamic State then it is the duty of the Agong to order Parliament to amend the Federal Constitution of Malaysia and to implement Hudud as the new criminal code for Malaysia.

You may say that this is not legal since only one million Malaysians signed that Hudud-Islamic State petition and 29 million more did not sign. Well, the 29 million who did not sign do not matter. What matters is the one million who did sign. And PAS has one million copies of ICs to prove that one million did sign and that the one million signatures are not fakes.

Anyway, Mahathir has officially announced his leadership of the opposition by asking Malaysians to not vote for Barisan Nasional and instead to vote for the opposition in the two by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar.

This is good because thus far Mahathir’s leadership of the opposition has been very hazy. Now Mahathir has openly asked the voters to defeat Barisan Nasional and to give their votes to the opposition. At least this makes it clear that the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) is a member of Pakatan Harapan just like PKR, DAP, Amanah, Bersih, Suaram, Hakam, Malaysiakini, Sarawak Report, Malaysia Chronicle, and so on.

Whether Barisan Nasional wins or loses the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections no longer matters. If Barisan Nasional wins then that will prove Mahathir is no longer relevant and people do not listen to what he says. If Barisan Nasional loses then it will prove Mahathir is a traitor to Umno.

Maybe it is good that Barisan Nasional loses the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections. And when I say ‘Barisan Nasional’ I, of course, mean ‘Umno’. If Barisan Nasional loses Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar (seats which Umno already hold) this will frighten Umno. Umno will then realise if they do not unite and strengthen their ranks then the Chinese-led Pakatan Harapan is going to take over the federal government in the next general election.

Some fear that Barisan Nasional’s recent landslide win in Sarawak may make them complacent and overconfident. They feel that a good wakeup call would be for Barisan Nasional to lose the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections. This will make the Malays realise that they face the danger of losing the country to a DAP-led or Chinese-led opposition.

Race and religion have always been two factors that unite the Malays. Even Mahathir in his many talks all over Malaysia has admitted that the Malays united in 1946 and Umno was formed because of the perceived threat the Malays faced to their race and religion — in the form of undermining the monarchy through the Malayan Union, of course.

There would be no Umno today if not for the fact that 70 years ago in May 1946 the Malays felt that their race and religion were under threat. If the Malays, again, start feeling that their race and religion are under threat by losing the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections (because Mahathir has asked the voters to defeat Barisan Nasional) this will work in Umno’s favour.

Sometimes you need to lose some battles to win the war. So maybe Barisan Nasional should lose the battles in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar so that it can win the war of the next general election in 2018. This would be one way to win the hearts and minds of the Malays: put them under siege. And I am sure Sun Tzu would agree with me wholeheartedly.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wjg3Ua3WMmU

Raja Petra Kamarudin RPK