Anwar outmanoeuvred Mahathir beautifully

By MT Webmaster Last updated Jun 24, 2017

And that is how Anwar very cleverly and very beautifully outmanoeuvred Mahathir. The ball is now at Mahathir’s feet. Mahathir cannot say nothing. He also cannot say he still wants to become the Prime Minister. And with only one seat he has no business to even offer himself to become the Prime Minister. The decision as to who becomes the Prime Minister rests with DAP. And if Mahathir says he, too, just like Anwar, does not want to offer himself as Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister, both he and his party, which includes his son Mukhriz, are history.

PAKATAN’S GAME OF THRONES

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“In order to call for a focus on the general elections, I am choosing not to offer myself as the candidate for prime minister,” said Anwar Ibrahim yesterday, the only prisoner out of thousands who keeps issuing press statements from behind the prison walls.

“In hopes of amassing all strengths in a team to go against UMNO-BN, it is fair to ensure the participation of all leaders effectively. This includes benefiting from the position and role of Mahathir,” added Anwar.

Anwar is no longer offering himself as Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting

Now, that statement is vintage Anwar. Even if he did not put his name to it everyone would know it came from Anwar. That is the way Anwar loves to talk. What brought him to great heights and what almost made him Malaysia’s fifth Prime Minister is his skill of talking a lot but saying nothing.

Take his opening statement as an example. “In order to call for a focus on the general elections, I am choosing not to offer myself as the candidate for prime minister.”

What does that sentence really mean in plain and simple English? Does it mean if Anwar offers himself as Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister nobody can focus on the coming general election? Why is that? Will everyone spend so much time arguing and quarrelling about whether Anwar should or should not be the Prime Minister that no one will be spending any time campaigning in the general election?

That first sentence means nothing and does not explain what the issue really is.

The second sentence is even more nonsensical. “In hopes of amassing all strengths in a team to go against UMNO-BN, it is fair to ensure the participation of all leaders effectively. This includes benefiting from the position and role of Mahathir.”

What in heaven’s name does that mean? Can that be translated into Bahasa Malaysia for Malays to understand? Anwar is so fond of doing this. He will make long and complicated statements and then send everyone home confused and too embarrassed to ask what he means lest people might think they are stupid for not understanding what Anwar said.

Mahathir and Kit Siang are playing Taichi but cannot beat Anwar’s tikam belakang

But then that is what Anwar intended all along — to make a long and complicated statement that is cryptic and which people cannot really decipher. Then no one can whack him for what he says. And if they quote what he says and it triggers a controversy, he can say they misunderstood or misquoted him and he did not say what they allege he said.

The truth is, the ‘reason’ Anwar gave on why ‘he is choosing not to offer himself as the candidate for prime minister’ is just a red herring. That is not really the reason and that is why he makes the ‘reason’ confusing and complicated.

What Anwar is really ‘saying’ (in other words): if he does not offer himself as Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister, in spite of the 30 seats PKR won in the 2013 general election and the 35 seats they hope to win in the coming general election, how can Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad offer himself to be Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister with currently only one seat and most likely less than five seats in the coming general election?

Anwar’s announcement is not meant for the Malaysian voters. It is meant for Mahathir. Anwar is saying to focus on winning the next general election he is not offering himself to be Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister and hence Mahathir should also do the same for the same reason.

Can you see how Anwar very cleverly and very beautifully outmanoeuvred Mahathir? Now Mahathir, or his people in PPBM a.k.a. Pribumi, cannot insist that he be appointed Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting. Mahathir will have to do the gracious thing of also withdrawing as the candidate for Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting so that everyone can focus on winning the general election. And if Mahathir does not withdraw, and they lose the next general election, then he and not Anwar must take the blame for that.

Nurul Izzah says they do not need to name either Anwar or Mahathir as the Prime Minister-in-waiting

To strengthen what Anwar said yesterday, today his daughter Nurul Izzah said, “What makes anyone think that it must officially name a PM designate or a supreme leader to lead the alliance as a prerequisite to winning GE 14? Didn’t Pakatan Rakyat win the majority vote in GE 13 without officially naming a supreme leader or a PM-designate?”

What Nurul means is they do not need to name either Anwar or Mahathir as the Prime Minister-in-waiting. They can face the general election without any Prime Minister-in-waiting. And that means Mahathir must also make the same announcement that Anwar made yesterday.

Clever, no?

So now Anwar has trapped Mahathir into a corner. Anwar has demonstrated how noble and gracious he is. So now it is Mahathir’s turn. If Mahathir does not make that announcement, or worse, he announces he is still prepared to become the Prime Minister, he is going to be perceived as a totally useless person who is only interested in personal gain and not about the good of Pakatan Harapan. And if Pakatan Harapan does not win the general election, which is what is going to happen, Mahathir is going to be blamed for it.

What happens if Mahathir does announce that he, too, is not offering himself as Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting? Who will then become the Prime Minister in the event Pakatan Harapan wins 112 parliament seats or more in the next general election?

Kit Siang and not Mahathir or Anwar will decide who becomes Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister

Well, that is for DAP to decide. DAP currently has the largest number of seats, 38, and they expect to win 55 seats in the coming general election. Against 35 for PKR and at best another 25 for PAN and PPBM combined (if Pakatan Harapan wins 115 seats in the next general election, that is), DAP will call the shots.

So, who then will DAP appoint as Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister? Well, note that Anwar said, “I am choosing not to offer myself as the candidate for prime minister.” Anwar is choosing ‘not to offer himself’ (meaning he will not ask for the post). But he did not say he will decline if others offer him the post. He will only not ask for the post, not he will not take it if offered to him.

So, is Anwar clever or not? He has nothing to do in prison except sit and think all day and at least that brought him some good. Finally, after 20 years of trying, Anwar has managed to reduce Mahathir to a footnote in history.

And have you noticed one thing? In all this to-and-fro, Lim Kit Siang is keeping very quiet. In fact, if you look at the Pakatan Harapan structure below, Kit Siang does not even appear on it. And that is for a reason. When you are the power behind the throne it is best you remain invisible. And without his face on the structure he can argue that while Barisan Nasional is Umno-BN, Pakatan Harapan is not DAP-PH.