The Mahathir-Azmin conspiracy (Part 2 of 3)

The Third Force

The years 2012 and 2013 were so full of conspiracies that it didn’t matter to our politicians anymore if their ingenuity was open to public view. And no, I’m not referring to Barisan Nasional (BN) politicians.

Take Lim Kit Siang for example. Late in 2012 he came up with the idea of sabotaging Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s electoral campaign in Port Kelang. The senior Lim argued that no amount of spanners thrown into the Ijok works would deny Khalid a chance at re-election, and that it would be better for PKR and DAP to sabotage the former MB’s campaign in Port Kelang instead.

Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim agreed with the idea and both he and Kit Siang conspired to tone down the campaign activity to a bare minimum in Port Kelang. Convinced that the plan would work, the duo began working out a scheme to topple the federal government by undemocratic means. Their plan was to stir a people’s uprising against Najib’s administration but only after the general election had been concluded. However, there were two important details Anwar kept concealed from the senior Lim.

First, was the fact that he intended to discuss with Dato’ Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi a unity formula that did not have DAP in the equation. This was something Anwar is said to have kept concealed from his own wife and those who were seen closely aligned to him.

The other was this – Anwar never believed that Pakatan Rakyat would be able to oust the federal government. He knew that without the help of influential UMNO insiders, attempts to dislodge BN from power would prove to be futile.

The first nine months after the 13th general election

The 13th general election came and went with a lot more intrigue and politics than usual. But the biggest spoiler – and this was specific to Anwar and Kit Siang – was that Khalid had managed to win the Port Kelang seat.

A dumbfounded Anwar quickly agreed to Khalid’s re-appointment as Selangor MB. Actually he hadn’t much of a choice because for weeks before the polls PKR and the likes of Tony Pua had placed Khalid so high on a pedestal that it was impossible to deny him the post.

Now, the entire 2012 plot against Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak’s administration hinged on the idea that Khalid would lose in Port Kelang and not be eligible for the MB position. But there he was, garbed in ceremonious regalia as the Palace swore him in as MB right after the polls. And that made Azmin Ali a very angry man – so angry was he that he began to pressure Anwar by demanding that that the latter retract his decision to back Khalid for the post.

And what did Anwar do? Well, he pulled Azmin to the side and did what he does best – make new promises. As it goes, Anwar told Azmin that the priority was to first put a unity proposal before the Prime Minister (PM). Once accomplished, he promised Azmin that plans to topple Khalid would take centre stage. The PKR de facto chief had anticipated a backlash from Khalid’s camp over the unity prospectus, and apparently, that was to be a good thing – Anwar would then argue that Khalid was against solidarity and was unfit to be Selangor MB.

At any rate, that is how the Selangor Unity Prospectus (SUP) came into being – Anwar conferred with Rafizi Ramli and Saifuddin Nasution and tasked them with working out the details to a proposed unity government in Selangor. On the sidelines, they were to compile a ‘black book on Khalid’ that would sully the former MB’s name both within the party and in public spheres.

The ‘black book’ was a little project that later came to be known as ‘the seven day dossier’ – it was alleged that team Saifuddin had somehow put together pieces of paper that contained wild, circumstantial evidence that were highly conjectural and without basis, all in a week. Speculation was rife that a lawyer by the name of Tommy Thomas played a hidden but pivotal role in framing the legal contexts within which the dossier was assembled.

On to the SUP, nothing that Anwar ever does is without a hidden agenda – sources in the know claim that the planned unity negotiations were to serve as an excuse to convince Najib that a second-DPM post was necessary to ensure the success of ‘reconciliation efforts’. Anwar made it clear that the SUP approach was to be diplomatic and restricted to collaboration between UMNO, PKR and PAS. By deductive reasoning, it immediately becomes clear that DAP was never meant to be a part of the proposed unity government in Selangor.

Then, some time in the month of December in 2013, Saifuddin was tasked by Anwar to deliberate terms of the SUP at a roundtable in London, which was attended also by Zahid and Dr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi of PAS.

It is said that Anwar had tasked PAS president Tuan Guru Dato’ Seri Haji Abdul Hadi Awang to meet Zahid at the Landmark London Hotel without being given a clue what to expect. As the story goes, Hadi gave the meeting a miss and sent Mustafa Ali and Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar to represent him instead. I was told that discussions collapsed as a result, and that was more or less the last I heard of the SUP.

The month of December was teeming with controversy. Around then, Khalid received a surprise call from former Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, who told him that special branch forces in Thailand had reason to believe that Anwar was in liaison with a Thai based pressure group – the People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) – on means of organising a coup against the Malaysian government.

As a point of interest, PDRC had once architected a revolt in Thailand, which led to the ouster of one-time Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra. Abhisit cautioned Khalid against participating in the attempted coup, citing the detriment such an insurgency would have on the long-term economic and political health of Selangor and Malaysia.

Abhisit’s timely advice may have gone a long way in preventing a state of Anarchy in Selangor – it was later revealed that Saifuddin had attended a meeting with representatives from PDRC while he was in London to discuss the SUP. The meeting resolved that a hundred million ringgit was needed to topple Najib and the Malaysian government.

When Anwar learnt of the figure, he approached Khalid and began laying the coup plot out on the table. It seems that the ex-MB told Anwar to fly kites and stopped short only of tying Anwar to a kite and flying it out his office window himself –he refused to be pressured into Anwar’s devious schemes. As a matter of fact, Khalid had undertaken to hamper any attempt at plunging Selangor into a state of Anarchy.

Infuriated, Anwar approached Rafizi and tasked the then strategic director to plan Khalid’s ouster, and that too, on the fast track. Anwar went on to tell Azmin that priorities had changed yet again and that Khalid’s ouster now took precedence over the coup plot against the federal government, and that once Khalid was ousted, he would turn Azmin into the fifteenth Selangor MB. But little did Anwar realize that both Azmin and Mahathir had already begun to discuss plans of their own.

Interesting, isn’t it? But they call me a conspiracy theorist. So you decide – is all of this the truth or is it a figment of my wild imagination? Will Anwar, Kit Siang and Azmin challenge me to prove a point? Will we end up in a media bloodbath, where I open up cans and cans of worms both Kit Siang and Anwar would prefer the public never to know?

To be continued…

The Mahathir-Azmin conspiracy (Part 1 of 3)