Mahathir fears an Umno-PAS alliance

Mahathir has accepted the reality that Najib can no longer be ousted. In fact, Najib is stronger now than he was one year ago in June 2015. Mahathir’s only hope is to take over PKR with Azmin as its new President and use this party to oust Umno. But then they must first win the two by-elections in two weeks time to prove that Mahathir still has it. Or else Mahathir might as well call it a day and wait for death to come claim him.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the new de facto Opposition Leader for Pakatan Harapan and the leader of the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign), is worried that Umno and PAS may be working together. That is why Kadir Jasin, Mahathir’s official spokesman, came out with a statement today asking the voters to reject both Umno and PAS in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar and vote for Amanah instead (READ HERE).

Parti Amanah’s de facto leader, Lim Kit Siang, suspects that the recent RUU355 Syariah Amendment Private Member’s Bill that PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang tabled may be just a wayang being played by Umno and PAS — as Kit Siang said, to give Umno, and maybe even PAS as well, an advantage in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections (READ HERE).

Pakatan Harapan regards Umno as its enemy that should be destroyed at all costs. Pakatan Harapan also regards PAS as its enemy that should be destroyed at all costs. In short, both Umno and PAS is the enemy and both must be destroyed at all costs. But if Umno and PAS even give a hint that they may be cooperating or working together Pakatan Harapan gets very upset.

It is actually strange that Pakatan Harapan declares Umno and PAS as the enemy but if Umno and PAS become friends Pakatan Harapan gets very upset. I mean it is like in the 1950s when America regarded both Russia and China as enemies but when Russia and China cooperated did America jump up and down like a cat on a hot tin roof (like what the Pakatuns are doing)?

When they start talking about DAP, MCA, Gerakan, etc., cooperating to oppose Islam or Islamic laws no one starts foaming at the mouth and bark like mad dogs. If the Non-Malays and/or the non-Muslims from both sides of the political divide want to unite or cooperate to oppose Islam or Islamic laws no one will get upset. But if Malays or Muslims from both sides of the political divide unite or cooperate (even if not to defend Islam or Islamic laws) they go berserk.

There seems to be something wrong here when non-Malays can unite or cooperate across the political divide but when Malays do the same thing the non-Malays get very upset. Chinese from both sides of the political divide have united and cooperated regarding Chinese schools and Chinese education since the 1980s and the non-Chinese have never turned this into an issue.

Kit Siang is trying to pin the blame of the RUU355 Syariah Amendment Private Member’s Bill (which DAP is pulling a fast one on Malaysians by calling it a ‘Hudud Bill’) on MCA. Actually it was DAP’s fault but Kit Siang does not want to admit it and is trying to shift the blame to MCA.

I remember when DAP explained in 1999 that it has to work with PAS and form a coalition with PAS to stop PAS from pushing its Hudud agenda. If DAP and PAS belong to the same coalition then PAS would respect the wishes of the coalition and will do things only on consensus and would not push the Hudud agenda. In other words, what DAP was telling its members is they must keep their friends close and their enemies even closer.

In short, do not regard PAS as a friend. Regard PAS as a party that needs to be controlled. And if PAS is part of the opposition coalition then it can be controlled. Outside the coalition, however, there is a danger that PAS might one day cooperate or work with Umno and that is more dangerous.

So, while DAP may not agree with Hudud and even though PAS will never drop its Hudud agenda, it is safer that they bring PAS into a coalition where it can be controlled and the Hudud agenda can be kept on a backburner. An ‘independent’ PAS is risky because then DAP would not be able to tell PAS what to do or what not to do (such as in the Hudud issue).

But then Kit Siang and DAP made the great mistake of sacking PAS from Pakatan Rakyat. And the reason they did that was because they wanted to replace Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim with Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail but PAS would not agree to it. And the reason PAS did not agree to it is because HRH the Sultan of Selangor did not want Wan Azizah.

DAP, however, wanted PAS and Hadi to defy the Sultan. But then while Kit Siang and DAP have no problems with telling the Sultan to screw himself or to go to hell, Hadi and PAS had to be more respectful and not be as kurang ajar as DAP. So while Hadi and PAS still proposed Wan Azizah, they also proposed Azmin Ali as the alternative to Wan Azizah and the Sultan chose Azmin.

Hadi and PAS, being Malay-Muslim, knew that you do not tell the Sultan to screw himself or to go to hell. And this was what I advised Ronnie Liu of DAP back in 2008. You need to ‘navigate’ your way round the palace and sometimes instead of triggering a stalemate you offer solutions in the way of alternatives and leave the final choice to the Sultan.

But then DAP started screaming about the Constitution and about how the Rulers have no powers to decide and that the party in power decides and the Rulers have to just follow and so on. Of course, this upset the Sultan even more, so come hell or high water he would not accept DAP’s choice of Menteri Besar.

And then when the Sultan refused to appoint DAP’s choice of Menteri Besar and instead appointed Azmin, Kit Siang and DAP blamed Hadi and PAS for it. First they tried to oust Hadi in the PAS general assembly. When that failed the DAP-faithful PAS members and leaders left the party to start a new DAP-friendly Islamic party, Parti Amanah Negara, which opposes Islamic laws.

And that was Kit Siang’s and DAP’s biggest blunder in its entire history. PAS did not leave Pakatan Rakyat. PAS got kicked out. So now PAS is free to do what it wants because it no longer has to worry about what its other partners think. In fact, PAS has no partners. It is a lone wolf. And it can even decide whom it wants to cooperate or work with and whether it wants to push its Hudud agenda.

Kit Siang and DAP have to accept that whatever is happening now is their own doing and the product of their own creation. If they had not sacked PAS just because PAS refused to tell the Sultan of Selangor to screw himself or to go to hell then all this would not have happened. There would be no Hudud issue and the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections would have seen straight fights and not three-corner fights of PAS-Amanah versus Umno.

Mahathir wants the Rulers to oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. But then when it comes to Selangor (and Perak in 2009) they say that the Rulers have no such powers and that the Rulers must listen to the party in power. If the party in power is Barisan Nasional and if Barisan Nasional wants Najib as Prime Minister how can the Rulers listen to Mahathir and replace the Prime Minister with Mahathir’s proxy?

So Mahathir now says it is not he who wants Najib ousted (like what he originally said in the beginning). Mahathir says it is the people who want Najib ousted and he ‘proved’ this by showing us the Citizens’ Declaration with 1.2 million signatures. But now it has been revealed that those so-called 1.2 million signatures are fakes and the person who sold Mahathir those signatures has testified so.

His Majesty the Agong knows that he cannot sack Najib. The Constitution does not allow that. His Majesty the Agong also knows that the so-called 1.2 million signatures on that so-called Citizens’ Declaration are fraudulent. So Mahathir is not able to have an audience with the Agong.

And this has made Mahathir mad as hell. So he alleged that the Agong is under house arrest and that is why he is not able to meet His Majesty (how else can Mahathir explain why he cannot get an audience with the Agong?). And now Mahathir is under investigation for criminal defamation. In fact, they can even investigate Mahathir for criminal defamation on the allegation that Najib stole RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money and that RM2.6 billion of this was transferred into his personal bank account.

Mahathir’s only hope is for Umno to lose the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections. If that happens will that result in Najib getting ousted? Mahathir knows that he can no longer hope to oust Najib. That should have been done last year and if by now Najib cannot be ousted than he will never be ousted. Mahathir just wants Umno to lose in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar so that he can save face. Then he can tell everyone, “What did I tell you? Najib no longer has support and that is why Umno lost in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar.”

And that is all Mahathir can do: try to save whatever little face he has left before he goes to his grave. And to achieve that he is willing to do whatever it takes: even becoming a tool of DAP. But Mahathir feels he still has one card left. And that one card is to try to take over PKR, with Azmin as its new President, and use PKR to oust Umno.

However, Anwar Ibrahim found out about this and about how Azmin is collaborating with Mahathir to take over PKR. And hence that letter from prison. Azmin wanted PKR and not Amanah to contest Sungai Besar. To punish Azmin, Anwar disagreed. So Azmin retaliated by withdrawing financial support for the Sungai Besar by-election.

Tony Pua of DAP has welcomed this move and has praised Azmin for not using the state’s money to finance the by-election (READ HERE). But then was this not one of the issues they raised against Khalid Ibrahim to justify why he needed to be sacked (that Khalid refused to give PKR candidates money to contest the May 2013 general election)?

Politicians must really remember what they say. And this is the same Tony Pua who declared that Khalid is the best, most hardworking and most honest Menteri Besar in Selangor history just a few months before he said Khalid has to be ousted because he is a crook. And then Saifuddin Nasution apologises and withdraws that allegation because the allegation was a lie after all.