Mahathir is second-fiddle to Kit Siang

Mahathir is an expert at destroying and that is why Kit Siang needs him. However, while it looks like Mahathir is in charge and is calling the shots, in reality he is just playing second-fiddle to Kit Siang. As Superman Hew said, Kit Siang is using Mahathir to screw the Malays because it is better that a Malay rather than a Chinese screw the Malays.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The DAP-led Pakatan Harapan is spinning that there is trouble in Umno. And that was why Defence Minister Hishammuddin Tun Hussein was recently appointed a Minister with Special Functions, said these soothsayers of doom. Actually that is only wishful thinking. It is as wishful thinking as those who say that Abdul Hadi Awang would be ousted in the coming PAS party election. Instead the opposite happened: Hadi has emerged even stronger.

The 1-2-3 formula: Hishammuddin, the next Deputy Prime Minister when Zahid takes over as Prime Minister

What Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak was trying to achieve is to establish the line of succession. Najib’s message is: after him comes Ahmad Zahid Hamidi followed by Hishammuddin. So the one-two-three leadership structure is clear and not in dispute. There is no need for jostling and ousting. Everyone waits their turn and Najib is also telling Umno that he is ready for when his term is up due to the fact that he already lined up not only the next Prime Minister but the next Deputy Prime Minister as well.

While Umno’s leadership line-up is clear, Pakatan Harapan’s is very hazy. Who is actually in charge? Who is their Prime Minister-in-waiting? They keep changing their Prime Minister-in-waiting depending on who they are talking to. One thing that is very clear, though, is Lim Kit Siang is Pakatan Harapan’s de facto Prime Minister-in-waiting even if they deny that and say otherwise.

Anyway, that is what Umno needs: stability. So the one-two-three leadership line-up works well for Umno. In 1981 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad left the field open for Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Tun Musa Hitam to slug it out that resulted in Umno being destroyed. Mahathir did that again ten years later in 1991 when he appointed Anwar Ibrahim the Finance Minister and exposed Tun Ghafar Baba to an attack from behind (pun intended).

Mahathir has always tried to destroy Umno. He did it in 1969. He did it again in 1981. He did it in 1991. He did it in 1998. He did it in 2006. He did it in 2014. And now he is doing it again. Seven times in a row. The Malays have a saying: tujuh kali pindah papa. And Mahathir is tujuh kali pindah already.

And that is the most valuable property that Kit Siang sees in Mahathir. Mahathir is a destroyer. He destroyed Umno many times. He causes conflicts. He almost destroyed the monarchy. He destroyed Malaysia’s relationship with the UK, US and Australia. He destroyed and bankrupted Bank Negara Malaysia. He destroyed Malaysia’s economy and cost the country RM200 billion. He destroyed race relations. He destroyed Islam. There is nothing that Mahathir touches that he does not destroy.

As the saying goes: use a thief to catch a thief. And that is why Kit Siang finds Mahathir very useful. If you want to destroy Umno then Mahathir is the best man for the job. And that is what Kit Siang wants: to destroy Umno. Mahathir also hates PAS and the Sharia, especially the Hudud part of the Sharia. So Kit Siang can use Mahathir to attack PAS, Islam and the Sharia. It is better that the attacks come from a Malay rather than from a non-Malay, especially a DAP non-Malay.

DAP is opposed to the Sharia but pretends that they only oppose the Hudud part of the Sharia

But Kit Siang must make sure it does not look like he is calling the shots. He has to make sure that it is seen like Mahathir is taking the lead or else they will not get the support of the Malays. So they need this Ali Baba arrangement. In reality, however, it is all Kit Siang with Mahathir merely playing second fiddle to him.

The fact remains that DAP won 38 parliament seats and 97 state seats in the previous general election. That comes to roughly 17% of the seats in parliament and also 17% of the seats in the state assemblies. PKR, on the other hand, won only 13% and 8% respectively. Mahathir’s Pribumi, however, has only one parliament seat and two state seats. Even DAP’s Islamic party, PAN, has more than that.

Mahathir or his Pribumi is more or less insignificant. And unless DAP gives them ‘Chinese seats’ to contest in the next general election and instructs the Chinese voters to vote for them, Pribumi is not going to win a single seat.

In short, Mahathir and Pribumi are not bringing anything to the table. So why do they need Mahathir and Pribumi? Well, they need Mahathir and Pribumi so that they can hide behind their ‘Malay face’ and use them to attack Umno, the Malays, Islam, the Sharia, PAS and so on. Kit Siang and DAP cannot do that because it will backfire. So, as Superman Hew Kuan Yau said, Kit Siang and DAP are using Malays to screw Malays.

Superman Hew is DAP’s ‘Jamal’

But Mahathir does not mind playing second fiddle to Kit Siang or allowing DAP to use Pribumi as its Ali Baba front. The objective is to bring down Najib and Umno. And if that can be done Mahathir does not mind how it is done. The next general election has been reduced to Umno versus DAP. And Kit Siang has to do whatever to takes to bring down Najib because unless Najib falls then Umno will not fall.

Kit Siang, however, does not want this to be seen as Chinese versus Malays. And with Mahathir leading the charge it would be seen as Malays versus Malays and not Chinese versus Malays. That is what Kit Siang is doing and is also why Mahathir is playing second fiddle to him.

The next general election is Chinese versus Malays but they have to hide this fact by using Mahathir as the Ali Baba front

If Karpal Singh were still alive this would not be happening. Even from way back in 2008 Karpal did not like the ‘16th September’ plot that involved buying off 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament at RM10 million per person. That would come to RM300 million and the man supposed to fund this whole exercise, John Soh Chee Wen, also thought it was a silly idea.

Soh’s argument was simple. If these 30 can be bought at RM10 million per head that means they are for sale. So what is to stop Barisan Nasional for upping the figure to, say, RM15 million or RM20 million? And is this not what happened in Perak? Anwar bought over one Umno State Assemblyman and Umno bought him back plus two PKR and one DAP Assemblypersons as well and Perak fell.

Anwar Ibrahim asked John Soh to fund ‘16th September’ but he knew it was not going to happen

Nevertheless, in spite of how clever Kit Siang may think he is, Najib is even cleverer. Najib is allowing the RCI to investigate the US$10 billion Forex robbery to go on. Since 1993 Kit Siang has been screaming for the RCI to be set up and for the culprits to be punished and be made to hand back the money they stole (meaning Mahathir and Tun Daim Zainuddin, of course). Now that the RCI is going ahead Kit Siang is caught between a rock and a hard place. What is Kit Siang going to do?

Kit Siang knows he has no choice but to testify in front of the RCI since it was he who brought his matter up in Parliament in 1993. But if he does that he would be hanging Mahathir. If he does not do that, however, after screaming about it for more than 20 years, he would look like an opportunist and a hypocrite.

Kit Siang’s only hope is that the general election will be held this August while the RCI will only be able to complete its exercise next year. If the RCI meets this year while the general election is held mid-next year, then Kit Siang is in trouble. And that is what is going to happen: the RCI will meet this year while the general election will be held mid-next year.

So what is Kit Siang going to do? He either hangs Mahathir or he refuses to testify in front of the RCI. Both ways Kit Siang will die. If Kit Siang hangs Mahathir there goes the DAP-led Pakatan Harapan’s Malay face. If he refuses to testify in front of the RCI then Kit Siang has a lot of explaining to do. So how is Kit Siang going to explain this: that ousting Najib and Umno is more important than recovering US$10 billion of the money that Mahathir and Daim stole?

Kit Siang is beginning to look like a pimp with Mahathir as his whore. Kit Siang is acting like Kapitan China. The first Kapitan China was also a pimp so that role suits Kit Siang fine. The only difference is the first Kapitan China brought in sweet young girls from China and not over-the-hill Indians from Kerala.

These are the Malay faces of DAP who they hope will win over a sizeable number of Malay votes in the next general election