How easy it is for Mahathir to con the Pakatuns
When Mahathir launched his Anti-Najib Campaign (ANC) in January last year, he said he just wants to oust the Prime Minister first and that it was too early to talk about the succession. In spite of Muhyiddin being the number two, Mahathir refused to name him as the successor. Recently Mahathir said that Muhyiddin is the successor — but later changed his mind and, again, said it is too early to name the successor. Now Mahathir names Anwar as the successor.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Yesterday, Joceline Tan commented on the very surprising turnaround that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad made regarding his position on Anwar Ibrahim in her article titled ‘Political undercurrents in Pakatan’, which you can read below. What was most surprising is that after rejecting Anwar as Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s successor for so long, Mahathir suddenly campaigns for Anwar’s release from jail.
What is even more interesting about Mahathir’s support for Anwar’s release is that he did not state whether this is because he is of the opinion that Anwar is innocent of the crime of sodomy. I suppose after saying for 18 years that Anwar is a ‘sodomist’ (he probably means sodomite), is an immoral person and not fit to become Prime Minister, has had sex with boys, men, prostitutes and other people’s wives, Mahathir cannot now turn round and say he believes Anwar is not guilty.
Mahathir also did not explain whether he is campaigning for Anwar’s release because he believes that the court is corrupt and that the judges were bribed to convict Anwar and to sentence him to jail for five years. If the courts did the right thing by jailing him then there is no justification for campaigning for Anwar’s release. Only if the courts were wrong and only if Anwar was unjustly convicted would there be a justification to campaign for his release.
After all, back in 1998 Mahathir did say that Anwar is guilty and that he does not need any court to convince him about Anwar’s guilt and that Anwar had been committing sexual misconduct for a very long time and refused to stop even after the then IGP had advised him to stop before the shit hits the fan (which it did in 1998).
But then Mahathir knows it is safe for him to campaign for ‘Free Anwar Now’ because it is not going to happen. Anwar will never be released until he serves his full five-year term because the section of the law he was charged, convicted and sentenced under does not allow for an automatic one-third remission on the sentence.
That means Anwar will have to serve his sentence until 2020 and will be barred from contesting the elections for another five years until 2025, which means he can only contest the 2028 general election when he is already 81 years old or so.
So what does Mahathir gain from this charade? Simple, he scores points with Pakatan Harapan and the Anwarinas, which Pakatan Harapan is infested with like termites in an abandoned jungle cabin. The Pakatan Harapan people or Pakatuns are not realistic or people with brains. They are incapable of rationalising and will believe anything you tell them.
The Pakatuns believe that the party that wins the most number of popular votes wins the elections even if that party wins lesser seats. They believe that 40,000 Bangladeshis voted in the last general election because one DAP Chinese caught one Bangladeshi in Kelang who was on the way to meet his girlfriend. The Pakatuns also believe that there were blackouts all over Malaysia during the vote counting although they cannot tell us which were the places involved. They believe that Anwar is a victim of lies even though Mahathir swore so many times that Anwar is guilty like hell and that so many witnesses have come forward to personally confess to Mahathir.
Anyway, when Mahathir first launched his campaign to oust Najib he refused to name the successor in the event the Prime Minister is successfully ousted. Logically, since Muhyiddin Yassin was the number two, he should take over if the Prime Minster dies, resigns or is kicked out. That is by convention what has always happened.
When Mahathir refused to name Muhyiddin as Najib’s successor, it became apparent that the old man had someone else in mind. When Mahathir was asked whether Ahmad Zahid Hamidi was the successor instead, the old man rejected the idea on grounds that Zahid is too close to Anwar. That means Anwar or anyone seen as close to him are also not acceptable to Mahathir.
So it is not Muhyiddin and it is also not Anwar or anyone close to Anwar, such as Zahid. Who then is going to succeed Najib in the event he is ousted? Mahathir’s choice of successor is his son, Mukhriz. And when Umno found out that Mukhriz was going to replace Najib, they did not support Mahathir’s plan to oust Najib. Even many Umno Bloggers who had been with Mahathir since 2006 (when he made his move to oust Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi) decided to no longer support the old man in his bid to oust Najib.
At first, in 2015, Mahathir wanted to oust Najib from the inside, which means to get Umno to kick him out. Even in December 2015 Mahathir was still hoping that Umno would kick out Najib (during the party assembly) after failing in the vote-of-no-confidence plot in October’s session of Parliament. But when Umno would not go along with it (because Mahathir wanted Mukhriz as the new Prime Minister), Mahathir had no choice but to turn to the opposition and try to oust Najib from the outside.
But then Mahathir could not ask the opposition to help him oust an Umno Prime Minister and replace him with yet another Umno Prime Minister. And that was why Mahathir had to change his 2015 mantra from ‘oust Najib to save Umno’ to ‘oust Najib to save Malaysia’ in 2016.
And if you want to ‘oust Najib to save Malaysia from Umno’, that means Mukhriz cannot be an Umno Prime Minister but has to instead be an opposition Prime Minister. If not you would still be campaigning on the ‘Save Umno’ platform and not the ‘Save Malaysia’ platform. And this is what the stupid opposition people do not see (if they were clever enough to see this they would have dumped Pakatan Harapan a long time ago).
I realised this long ago, back in February 2015, when I was invited to join the Anti-Najib Campaign (ANC). The Chinese Datuk who arranged my meeting with Mahathir in London told me that I was involved in the ‘Oust Abdullah Badawi Campaign’ back in 2006-2008 so they feel I can, again, play a role in the ANC.
But there was this one needling issue that I was not comfortable with. And that issue is: if and when we oust Najib, who will take over? In 2006-2008 this was not clarified and many of us supported Mahathir in his ‘Oust Abdullah Badawi Campaign’. But then different people in that group had a different person in mind as successor.
For example, Aspan Alias, John Pang, etc., and gang thought that Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah would take over. Muhyiddin’s people thought that Muhyiddin will take over and were actually talking to Tengku Razaleigh’s people about the Kelantan Prince becoming Muhyiddin’s number two. Then, of course, Najib’s Boffin Boys knew all along that Najib would be taking over and that Mahathir was just using Muhyiddin and Tengku Razaleigh to oust Abdullah Badawi.
So Mahathir was actually backing three horses but only one was the real horse while the other two were just red herrings. And we all fell for it hook, line and sinker. So, in February last year, I wanted this very important question cleared up: who will be taking over once Najib is ousted?
And I did not get the answer to that very important question. And my 50 years of motorcycling has taught me one very important rule in making sure you stay alive (and 13 crashes in 50 years and still alive means I learned that thing well). And that important rule you need to remember to stay alive is ‘when in doubt, don’t’.
I failed to observe this very important rule in June 2008 and fell into the trap that Nik Azmi Nik Daud and John Pang set up. I signed the Statutory Declaration based on the promise of the evidence without actually sighting the evidence. And when they told me later that the evidence had been destroyed I knew then that I had been tricked.
The same thing happened from 2006 to 2008 when we supported the ouster of Abdullah Badawi based on the promise that we oust the Prime Minister first and then settle the matter of the successor later. Now, again, we are being asked to oust Najib first and then settle the matter of his replacement later.
But we are not going to get caught a second time. Only Pakatuns get caught again and again and still do not learn. Pakatan Harapan people believe that if you do the same thing again and again while expecting different results that is not lunacy.
The other thing is, in his plot to oust Najib, Mahathir is using the same strategy he used on Abdullah Badawi. What Mahathir did to oust Abdullah Badawi may have worked at that time (10 years ago). But then Najib’s Boffin Boys already know Mahathir’s tricks in ousting Abdullah Badawi so there is no way he can use the same tricks a second time.
Mahathir is now so desperate he is prepared to even accept Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the temporary Prime Minister who will take over from Najib until Anwar can be freed from jail. But there is a problem with this. First would be that Wan Azizah can become Prime Minister only if Pakatan Harapan wins the next general election. If Najib is ousted now then another Umno leader would take over as Prime Minister. So they need to oust Barisan Nasional, not just Najib.
Next, if Barisan Nasional is ousted and Wan Azizah becomes Prime Minister, she will have to be Prime Minister for more than ten years until Anwar is eligible to become a Member of Parliament in 2028 or so. So that would mean she is not a temporary Prime Minister if she is going to be Prime Minister for more than ten years. And that would also mean there has to be someone else after Wan Azizah and before Anwar. In short, Anwar is never going to become Prime Minister at age 81.
One more very important point that the Pakatan Harapan people are too dumb to see is that Muhyiddin is playing footsie with PAS while Mahathir is playing footsie with DAP. They know that PAS and DAP cannot sleep in the same bed so Muhyiddin is sleeping in PAS’s bed while Mahathir is sleeping in DAP’s bed. And then Muhyiddin and Mahathir sleep in the same bed.
This is just like Muhyiddin is married to Mahathir but at the same time Muhyiddin keeps PAS as a mistress while Mahathir keeps DAP as a mistress. And everything will be fine as long as the two mistresses do not get to meet one another.
What an arrangement! And the Pakatuns feel that this is fantastic because that would mean the next general election will be a straight fight and because of that Barisan Nasional is going to get kicked out. I would take on any bets that Barisan Nasional is not just going to stay in power but they are going to do better than in the previous general election. Want to bet?
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“But the convention was important to show Pakatan supporters that the former prime minister and deputy prime minister are now on their side. Few people thought they would live to hear Dr Mahathir declare his support for the Reformasi cause but he did that at the end of his keynote address, drawing huge applause. He even wore a “Free Anwar Now” button on his red shirt,” said Joceline Tan in her article ‘Political undercurrents in Pakatan’.
Joceline went on to say:
“It was quite amusing to watch him (Muhyiddin) hold up the “Bebas Anwar” placard that the audience had to hold above their heads when the emcee gave the signal. On top of that, Muhyiddin had to endure all the top Pakatan leaders declaring that, “Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is still our choice for Prime Minister”. It was as good as telling Muhyiddin that he is not their choice.”
“It is understood that Muhyiddin’s reluctance to proceed with the cooperation agreement is because he is still talking to PAS. The sense is that he has been unable to strike a comfort level with DAP. His party is going for Malay seats and having DAP as his ally may backfire. Muhyiddin is said to be exploring the idea of a separate Opposition coalition comprising Parti Pribumi, PKR and PAS. This will be the grand coalition that has been floated by some leaders. Pakatan is, of course, against the idea.”
