Muhyiddin’s regret at becoming just another Wan Azizah without the Japanese fan

Muhyiddin now realises he is just a horse that can be discarded any time it breaks its leg. And that is why he was not in the loop on 26th July 2016. Muhyiddin had to sulk before he was given the party presidency but now even that is in question if he does not solve his Nika Gee case. And if push comes to shove Mahathir might have to dump him totally and look for someone else.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

I have always said that a marriage must emerge from love and not from hate. Marriages founded on hate without the element of love will not last. Some say marriages of convenience can last even if the element of love may be absent because love can develop later as the marriage develops.

That may be true for some marriages that do not come from love. Love can develop later as the marriage matures. But not if the starting point or foundation of that marriage is hate. Seldom can hate replace love.

And that is the problem with those from the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign), who later went on to form the all-Malay party, Pribumi. There is no love between, say, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Muhyiddin Yassin. There is only the common hate they share for Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. The only reason Mahathir and Muhyiddin look at each other is because of the shared hate for Najib is even higher.

We saw this during WWII. America and Russia hated and distrusted one another but they both hated the Germans even more. So they became allies in the fight against Germany. But what happened after Germany was defeated in 1945? America and Russia went back to hating one another and almost blew the world up in the 1960s.

And that was precisely how Pribumi was born, not born from a marriage of love (for each other) but from a marriage of hate (for the Prime Minister). And such marriages are recipes for disaster, as how Pribumi has proven. From the word ‘go’ they could not agree on many things and from the beginning they distrusted one another and played the game of one-upmanship.

When you start off with a crisis it will be crisis every step of the way and all the way. And Muhyiddin now regrets the whole thing. He was a fool to imagine that the ouster of Najib meant a gain for him and that if Najib goes he would take over as Prime Minister. He now realises he was the mere leverage and leverages are never the real benefactors.

By the time they got to the stage of forming Pribumi, Mahathir more or less already had enough of Muhyiddin’s screw-ups. Mahathir realised that Muhyiddin is not really sharp or dependable and would  mess up every assignment he was given. Whether it was incompetency or just slackness does not matter but it all boils down to never ask a boy to do a man’s job.

When the move to launch Pribumi first started, Mahathir was supposed to have been the party president with Muhyiddin his deputy. Of course, Muhyiddin was terribly displeased with this and he merajuk. Muhyiddin did not want to accept what he considered a turun pangkat. That would make him below the status of even Mat Sabu and you cannot go lower than that.

How can from a Deputy Prime Minister and the number two of the biggest party you become number two of a mosquito party? Malu besar! Even Mat Sabu and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah did not have to stoop that low and they became presidents of their party.

But then putting Muhyiddin in charge of the party would be like putting Jonah in charge of the ship and everyone knows that Jonah will only sink the ship. That is how low Mahathir thought of Muhyiddin. But then Mahathir could not afford for Muhyiddin to merajuk either and announce he was not joining Mahathir’s party, never mind how insignificant or irrelevant that party may be.

So Mahathir gave in to Muhyiddin’s tantrums and agreed to allow him to become the party president just as long as Mahathir himself becomes the party chairman and can pull the stings from behind the scenes — just like Anwar Ibrahim and PKR who plays the de facto role from behind the walls of the Sungai Buloh Prison.

However, that still makes Muhyiddin the number two but wearing the name tag of the number one (just like Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail is the party president as long as Anwar gets to make all the decisions). So, while Mahathir is now of the same status as Anwar (which to Mahathir is a fate worse than death), Muhyiddin is now of the same status as Wan Azizah (but minus the Japanese fan).

As Chubby Checker would say: how low can you go?

Many see this as the greatest political disgrace. Mahathir is known to be a very proud and uncompromising person. Mahathir would never accept indignity at any cost. But today Mahathir demonstrated he would even lick back his own spit if need be, which you can see in the photographs below.

I never thought I would live to see the day that Mahathir would grovel at Anwar’s feet just to win the game against Najib. Today, the old man proved me wrong. I am just glad I lived to see this day when Mahathir becomes so desperate to oust Najib that he will drop his pants and bend down if necessary.

But the issue here is not just about Mahathir finally embracing Anwar.  This matter has even larger and far-reaching implications. It demonstrates that Mahathir has finally come to the conclusion that Muhyiddin is so hopeless that as much as he may hate or despise Anwar he still has no choice but to make a deal with the man he once spat on.

Muhyiddin began to realise he might no longer be the favourite horse when he was left out of the loop in the 26th July 2016 plot that Malaysia Today spoke about in earlier articles.

Just to digress a bit, on 26th July the Tan Sri Trio (former Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) chief Abu Kassim Mohamed, former Attorney-General Abdul Gani Patail, and former Bank Negara Governor Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz) were supposed to have held a press conference during Abu Kassim’s farewell dinner in response to the 20th July announcement by the US AG and Justice Department.

Simultaneously, Mahathir was supposed to hold his press conference with the foreign media in Jakarta. But the whole thing got messed up and before they could take off they were shot down while still taxiing on the runaway.

While Kadir Jasin was supposed to handle the press conference in Kuala Lumpur, Tan Say Jim handled the one in Jakarta. But Tan had to coordinate the press conference 48 hours before so he had no choice but to let the cat out of the bag. Kadir, too, was forced to coordinate things 24 hours before the event but by then it was no longer a secret. Kadir says the leak, therefore, came from Jakarta and it is not fair to call him a moron who messed everything up.

Anyway, whether it was Kadir or Tan who is the culprit for messing things up, the fact remains that Muhyiddin was not in the loop and did not know about this plan. Mukhriz, Kadir, Tun Daim Zainuddin, etc., however, did. And that means Muhyiddin is even lower down the food chain. And this point has not gone unnoticed, which upsets Muhyiddin even more.

The fact that Mukhriz was in the know is when on Thursday, 21st July 2016, the day after the 20th July announcement by the US AG and Justice Department, he and four others were celebrating their ‘victory’ at Ben’s in the Bangsar Shopping Centre (BSC). So, while they were enjoying their cigar, Muhyiddin was in total ignorance about what was going to happen next.

And now Muhyiddin knows they were celebrating behind his back while he was in blissful ignorance. So what does this say about what Mahathir thinks of him? And yet he has sacrificed and lost a lot just to help make Mukhriz the Prime Minister.

To add insult to injury, Muhyiddin is now facing s serious crisis in his marriage. At a recent wedding event Muhyiddin want alone unescorted by his wife, who is said to be very pissed with him. His wife was said to have told their in-laws that Muhyiddin is suffering from insomnia due to the stress he is facing.

Muhyiddin’s family is worried about his health. Many have commented that Muhyiddin looks very haggard and they do not know whether his health is in jeopardy.

Muhyiddin now has to decide which come first, politics or his family. If he wants to save his political career he may have to consider marrying his mistress, Nika Gee. Then, once he makes an honest woman out of her, the Malays may forgive him for his affair with a married woman.

But if he does that then Muhyiddin has to be ready for a crisis with his wife who would never agree to the marriage. So, to keep the peace at home, Muhyiddin may have to sacrifice his political career.

And that was why today Mahathir ‘pay homage’ to Anwar. In the event Muhyiddin chooses his wife over Nika Gee, which means his political career is going to go as well, then Mahathir might need PKR to save his son, which means Anwar becomes more important than Muhyiddin.

What a terrible fate for Muhyiddin to suffer.