How much is Azmin paying to buy off PAS?

Mahathir cannot do it alone with just his new party, which is even yet to be formed. He needs to control PKR as well. That means Wan Azizah needs to be ousted as the PKR President and replaced with Azmin. PAS also needs to be neutralised and turned into an obedient dog. And all it needs is Daim’s money.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

In the earlier article, ‘While Mahathir moves his right hand his left hand is more dangerous’, we talked about how Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad wants to take control of PKR while at the same time register and organise his new party.

Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali will be Mahathir’s proxy as the new PKR President while Muhyiddin Yassin will be the proxy as the President for the new party to be formed. Mahathir knows that without PKR his new party will be no better than the PAS breakaway party, PAN, which is neither here nor there.

Tun Daim Zainuddin is having regular meetings with Azmin to plan how to oust Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail so that PKR can come under their control. And a budget of RM250 million has been set aside to achieve this. However, RM1-3 million is too small an amount to buy over an entire division. So unless the stingy Daim is prepared to up it to RM10 million per division then Azmin may not succeed in buying over at least 120 PKR divisions.

After all, this was what it cost Anwar 23 years ago back in 1993 when he ousted Tun Ghafar Baba and took over as the new and seventh Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. So a budget of at least RM1.2 billion would be more realistic instead of a mere RM250 million.

Further to that, there are still the PAS Members of Parliament and State Assemblymen to take care of. It is no secret that Azmin is the Selangor Menteri Besar because of the support of PAS Selangor. DAP is not really with him while PKR is split into two between the Azmin camp and the Wan Azizah camp. So PAS Selangor is Azmin’s meal ticket.

If Azmin loses the support of PAS Selangor his position would be extremely precarious and this will jeopardise Mahathir’s entire plan. So Mahathir has to make sure that Azmin’s position as the Selangor Menteri Besar is protected to ensure that he will be in a position to oust Wan Azizah and take over the party.

The PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang wants to wait and see first before committing whether his party should cooperate with Mahathir’s new party and the new opposition coalition that is going to be formed. Wan Azizah also said the same thing. In fact, DAP hinted that they would most likely wait and see as well.

So PAS, PKR and DAP have all said they are not prepared to commit until they are sure where this is all going and where Mahathir intends to take them. If it is merely about making Mukhriz the Prime Minister then Mahathir can do this alone because they have other ideas about who should become Prime Minister.

Things are not working out the way Mahathir had hoped for. He was thinking that everyone would jump up and down in ecstasy once he announces his new party. He never expected everyone, except PAN, would be ‘cool’ and say they would wait and see first. And PAN cannot really be said to be a main player in this whole thing but merely a kadam, meaning bag carrier in Arabic.

All this must be completed within the next two months or so. But two months will only be possible if everyone is on the same page. And now it looks like no one is on the same page with Mahathir at the moment.

And that means Mahathir would have to resort to what he is so fond of accusing Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak of: which is to use money to stay in power.

Now it looks like Mahathir himself needs to use money to get into power. He has to buy off at least 120 PKR divisions and he needs to buy off the PAS Selangor Wakil Rakyat as well. While we know that the PKR buy off budget is a measly RM250 million, which is only 20% of what it should be, we are yet to learn what the budget to buy off the PAS Selangor Wakil Rakyat is.

But then this does not only involve buying off the PAS Selangor Wakil Rakyat. They also need to buy off a number of PAS federal leaders as well. And this is why top leaders such as Deputy President Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man and a few others are contradicting Hadi every time he makes a statement.

It sort of makes you wonder why every time Hadi says something Tuan Ibrahim and a few others say the opposite the very same day. You would expect that people from an Islamic party such as PAS would be above bribery and corruption. Well, if you think that then you are more stupid than you look.

Do you know how much hanky-panky has been going on in Kelantan the last 26 years since 1990? It is just like in DAP-run Penang. If there is money to be made rest assured the Pakatan people can put aside principles for a quick buck.

And if Daim can stop being stingy and is pepared to increase his silly RM250 million budget to RM1 billion for PKR and RM500 million for PAS, then Najib may face a tough year ahead of him.