Najib and Mahathir fight to the death
Muhyiddin now realises he made a mistake in supporting Mahathir but it is too late to reverse that. Muhyiddin has made his bed and now has to lie in it. But it is not quite a bed of roses he thought it would be, especially the fact that roses have thorns. And Mahathir’s fight with Najib is a fight to the death, which means Muhyiddin, too, has to die. If only one can turn back the clock, Muhyiddin would have played it very differently.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
In case you have not noticed, from what de facto Opposition Leader Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak have been saying over the last couple of months (today included), there is going to be no quarters asked and none given by both sides. In short, this is another way of saying they will take no prisoners, which means this is a fight to the death, which only one person is going to walk away from.
Najib realises that this is what it has boiled down to and there is no other way or no two ways about it. Considering Mahathir’s age and the fact he does not have the luxury of time, like Najib does, the old man has to go for broke. It is all or nothing and if Mahathir does not go for a kamikaze exercise then it will most certainly be nothing.
In fact, from where Muhyiddin Yassin sits, it veers more towards nothing than all. And the fact that in this contest there is only first prize and no silver or bronze to win, if you do not win first prize then it is game over for Mahathir, Muhyiddin and Mukhriz.
Muhyiddin is feeling some regret for starting something that he now knows he cannot win after all. However, at that time, back in mid-2014, it looked like it was going to succeed and Najib was going to be history at the very latest by July 2015. More importantly, he thought that Najib’s loss was going to be his gain; that he would be taking over as Prime Minister when Najib falls.
But now Muhyiddin knows he was just being used as a steppingstone and that the real objective was to make Mukhriz the Prime Minister. Even if Muhyiddin does become the Prime Minister it would just be a temporary Prime Minister for half a term after which Mukhriz would take over. That reality has just begun to enter Muhyiddin’s head, which proves he must have a very thick head if he has just come to realise this when most of us knew all along.
An even bigger regret for Muhyiddin is the fact that he agreed to follow a leader who was past his 90th birthday and really does not have that long to go. When you tie yourself to someone, you tie yourself to the future. Muhyiddin is tying himself to the past. And, as they say, there is no future in the past. The future lies in the future.
Muhyiddin’s move is as silly as those Islamic State people who dream of bringing back the Ottoman Empire or those Germans who still dream of the Third Reich. So what are they going to dream of next, the restoration of the Melaka Sultanate, Sarawak being returned to the Brooke family, Johor merging with Riau so that the Bugis Empire can return?
We need to be realistic. The era of Mahathirism has come to an end. Today we talk about globalisation and the social media. Mahathir is as relevant to Malaysia as the Brooke family is to Sarawak or the Islamic State is to Turkey. And this is the wakeup call that Mahathir has not woken up to yet while Muhyiddin is still rubbing his eyes and is not fully conscious yet.
Even I, at only 65, realise my age and have given up motorcycle racing and disco dancing. And for sure Kamasutra is out of the question, even if I do happen to have a younger Chinese mistress on the side. With six grandchildren people expect me to act my age — and for someone who is 91 and is still trying to become Prime Minister or the de facto Prime Minister is a bit too ambitious even for my Bugis blood.
Muhyiddin probably wakes up every morning, looks at how tired he is in the mirror, and asks himself, “Sigh…what the fook have I done? How could I have been so stupid? I started off as Deputy Prime Minister and now I have nothing. And I might even have to marry my Chinese mistress to stop all the talk about me bonking another man’s wife.”
Mahathir probably also looks at himself in the mirror every morning and says, “Sigh…what the fook have I done? How could I have been so stupid? I put all my trust in the Deputy Prime Minister to help make my son the Prime Minister and now I have nothing. And my stupid kuda might even have to marry his Chinese mistress to stop all the talk about him bonking another man’s wife. Well, at least that can help get some Chinese votes when Muhyiddin tells them he is not anti-Chinese when it comes to sex.”
Today, maybe because he is bankrupt of issues, Muhyiddin has labelled Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad as a ‘yes man’ (which you can read below). That reminds me of 1987 when Muhyiddin played ‘yes man’ to Mahathir in the Team A versus Team B tussle.
Muhyiddin was actually Tun Musa Hitam’s man but then he was not sure who was going to win. So Muhyiddin played safe and supported both sides. Then, when Mahathir won, Muhyiddin quickly dumped Musa and supported Mahathir. And for that Mahathir made Muhyiddin the Johor Menteri Besar, a post that made him filthy rich.
Privately, of course, Muhyiddin told his friends he actually supports Musa but then for political expediency he has to support Mahathir and be seen as the Prime Minister’s yes man. Mahathir will not accept anything less than that. And when Mahathir made him the new Johor Menteri Besar, Muhyiddin knew he made the right choice and playing yes man to Mahathir can be very lucrative indeed.
But then is this not a prerequisite for the opposition, to be a yes man? When Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim refused to be Anwar Ibrahim’s yes man they ousted him. When I refused to be Anwar’s yes man they whacked me as well.
In 2008, when Perak Menteri Besar Nizar Jamaluddin refused to be Anwar’s yes man they tried to oust him and ended up ousting the entire Pakatan Rakyat Perak state government instead.
When Abdul Hadi Awang refused to be PKR’s and DAP’s yes man, they tried to oust him and when they failed they kicked PAS out of Pakatan Rakyat by forming PAN and Pakatan Harapan.
Yes, the opposition history is full of incidences of people being brought down because they refused to be yes men to certain leaders. And Muhyiddin’s entire political career is based on him being a yes man to those at the top, Sultans and Chinese tycoons included.
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PM’s aide: I am a ‘yes man’, but so is Muhyiddin
(The Star) – Datuk Seri Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad says he is a “yes man” as labelled by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin because he believes in the Prime Minister’s vision for Malaysia.
Returning fire in his ongoing war of words with Muhyiddin, the aide to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak also called the axed Umno leader a fellow “yes man” for turning into a puppet of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
“The Prime Minister remains true and committed to the causes of religion, race, and nation. It is for these reasons I have supported and worked for him for 20 years. If that makes me a ‘yes man’, then I am proud to be one.
“The irony is that Muhyiddin himself is a ‘yes man’ but in his case, he is not guided by principles or values,” Tengku Sariffuddin said in a statement Saturday.
He said that Muhyiddin and Dr Mahathir’s “onslaught of smears and lies” about 1Malaysia Development Berhad were only aimed at achieving their own selfish political ambitions.
Tengku Sariffuddin also declared that the coup masterminded by Dr Mahathir had failed, adding that Muhyiddin only had himself to blame for his removal from the Cabinet and Umno.
“Now Tan Sri Muhyiddin has little choice but to continue this fight, even though he knows he has lost.
“Tan Sri Muhyiddin should now do the right thing for the country, the people, and the party that gave him so much – and fade away quietly,” he added.
Tengku Sariffuddin had issued a statement on Tuesday, calling Muhyiddin disappointed and desperate after failing to unseat Najib as Prime Minister.
He had also called on the public not to believe anything the former deputy prime minister says.
Muhyiddin responded by calling Tengku Sariffuddin a “cat paw” of the Prime Minister, claiming that false allegations made against him by the aide were reflective of how low Najib’s “yes man” would go.
