Mahathir wants general election held in March 2017
The Third Force
Last Thursday, Tun Dr. Mahathir came out to tell a press conference what had previously only been hinted by one of his henchmen. The fractured ex-premier revealed that he would help found a new party which would take its place in a multifaceted alliance of sorts.
According to him, the new bloc would band together Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) and existing leaders of the Pakatan Harapan coalition who were committed to driving the ruling coalition out of power during the next general election. While it is unclear if existing members of Pakatan Harapan are open to the idea of regrouping, Mahathir implied that his yet-to-be-named party would spearhead the setting up of a bloc many are already referring to as The Third Force.
Now, before we go any further, there is something very interesting that I think you ought to know. Let me begin by saying that the first article I ever wrote as The Third Force was published in Malaysia Today on the 14th of August in 2015.
Prior to that, I used to sign-off all my articles as Raggie Jessy. The transition from Raggie Jessy to The Third Force happened almost overnight for reasons which I do not wish to go into. However, what I do want to make public today, for the first time, is the reason – one of the many – why I had chosen The third Force as my pseudonym.
Sometime early in August last year, I was confronted with an issue that forced me to consider some options, among them being the use of a pseudonym. As luck had it, I had also gotten word that Mahathir had himself discussed the setting up of a Third Force with some of his aides, particularly with the current Selangor Menteri Besar, Azmin Ali.
I’ll run that by you again. Early in August 2015, Mahathir had already decided that both he and Azmin needed to establish a Third Force with the express purpose of destroying Barisan Nasional come the 14th general election. It seems that every other manoeuvre that was contrived by Mahathir since September last year was nothing but theatrics to convince voters that he had done everything to save Malaysia, but failed.
The mission had all along been to set up a new party by September this year as ‘a last resort’, the pretext being that Mahathir was left with no option. Thus, the whole point of the year-long campaign against Najib since September of last year was to bug the eyes of Malaysians that the Prime Minister was on a witch hunt to silence all of his critics, including Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and Dato’ Seri Mukhriz Mahathir.
Then, in December of 2015, Mahathir chaired a secret meeting that pledged RM3 billion to the cause of setting up a new political outfit by September this year. During the meeting, Mahathir disclosed plans for the launching of a Third Force with the sole purpose of destroying Barisan Nasional during the 14th general election.
Anyway, when I got to know about the plan early last August, I got pissed, since I had always thought of myself as The Third Force, or at the very least, had always wanted to become The Third Force. Right about then also, I was at a crossroad and needed to consider using a pseudonym instead of my own name. So it was then that I decided once and for all that I wanted to be known as The Third Force.
Two days after having made that decision, on the 12th of August, I called up Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) in the wee hours of the morning and related something very confidential to him. Right then and there, I put it to him that I wanted to be known as The Third Force. RPK’s reply to me went along these lines – “What is more important is that I know who you are. That is all that matters.”
The rest, as they say, is history.
Now, do you know why this story is pertinent to the goings-on in and around Mahathir’s innermost circles? Well, the first thing you have to understand is that there is no way in hell or high heaven that Mahathir will ever be able to refer to himself or his new team as The Third Force. And the reason is obvious – I AM THE THIRD FORCE.
I mean, picture this – The Third Force (assuming Mahathir calls his team that) comes out to say, “Najib is sending the country to the dogs,” following which I, also being The Third Force, respond by saying, “Mahathir is going to send the country to the dogs.” Now wouldn’t that be a comedy circus?
The point being, I have virtually driven a spoke in Mahathir’s wheel and a third finger up his arse. Never underestimate me Mahathir. The game has only begun. It takes a thief to catch a thief, a genius to outwit a genius. But it most certainly takes The Third Force and a certain man known to many as RPK to outmanoeuvre a Machiavelli. By the time the 14th general election draws near, you will know the second reason why I chose to become The Third Force.
Having said that, there is something else I think many of you ought to know.
Sources reveal that Mahathir had triggered the panic alarm earlier this week after warning several opposition leaders – now his bedfellows – how important it was for the general election to be held in March next year. Perhaps that may be one of the many reasons why Tun Dr. Siti Hasmah had arranged a family getaway in Phuket apart from the other reasons that RPK had recently made public (refer http://www.malaysia-today.net/mahathir-a-deflated-ball-trying-to-save-his-tun-ship/).
Sources also reveal that the whole Thursday presser by Mahathir was a charade to pressure Prime Minister Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Razak into calling for snap polls. And in case you haven’t already figured out why, let me run by you a couple of things that will help you understand why Mahathir and his group of desperados find it absolutely necessary that the general election be held next March.
First up – Lim Kit Siang desperately needs his son to be freed from the charges of graft that he is faced with over the bungalow-for-land scam controversy, now swirling around him and his associate, Phang Li Khoon. The charges bear not only on his son’s credibility as the state’s Chief Minister, they bear on his and his son’s position in the DAP.
That may be one reason why the senior Lim seems eager to sing Mahathir’s praises these days. Assuming that a regime change is somehow effected by Mahathir’s new party, there are those who believe that the former premier would be able to run rings around the judiciary to save Lim Guan Eng from the brunt of the law in the same manner that he got UMNO deregistered in 1988.
As a point of interest, Mahathir himself desperately needs Kit Siang by his side. He knows that if Guan Eng were to be found guilty of graft, it would spell the death knell to his alliance with DAP, as the new leadership being whispered to take over the party in the event Guan Eng is jailed seems dead against working with Mahathir.
The second reason an early election is being sought by Mahathir has to do with a series of articles that RPK had written not too long ago. The said articles made public some unsavoury details pertaining to a sex scandal, now in litigation, between sacked deputy premier Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin and the Chinese wife of a famous lawyer.
Mahathir kept the scandal under the wraps for a very long time and for very specific reasons. Among them, the former premier needed Muhyiddin to supplant Najib as Prime Minister in the event that Barisan Nasional is defeated during the next general election. The plan was for Muhyiddin to appoint Mukhriz as his deputy and later make way for Mukhriz to become Prime Minister.
Assuming that the general election is held in 2018, Mahathir’s worry is that a looming court battle would blow the scandal through the roof and all over Muhyiddin’s lipstick stained ego, to a point that voters would never accept the latter as Prime Minister.
Finally, Mahathir is extremely worried that the ongoing police investigations against him may lead to criminal charges, or that some other charges may soon surface against him. He has a lot to fear, since much of what he’s been spewing against Najib and government is nothing but a pack of lies. And that is another reason why he so desperately needs the election to be held in March next year.
Now, let us assume that Najib does hold the general election early in March. That would leave Mahathir about five months to wage an all-out war against the government, given that the former premier is likely to launch his new party by September this year. With a mere five months to pivot a mudslinging campaign, Mahathir knows that it would need to be a campaign of a mammoth proportion, one never before heard in the history of Malaysian politics.
Perhaps that explains why Mahathir has now credited to his cause an additional two billion ringgit from the three that had been pledged to him last December (refer http://www.malaysia-today.net/the-rm-5-billion-pledge-to-destroy-barisan-nasiaonal/). Imagine the kind of campaign one could wage with that kind of money in just five months – it is likely to be ‘bloody’ and ferocious.
Mahathir is extremely confident that the plan will work. He is aware that the opposition coalition is now in tatters, and that Najib would not hesitate to seize the opportunity in calling for a snap election.
The only thing that could possibly foil Mahathir’s plan is if Najib were to call for elections this November. And that’s exactly what I am suggesting – that Najib calls for snap elections by November or December this year in order to bury the Anti Najib Campaign (ANC) once and for all.
