Dr M bags Pakatan with their pants down
Narinder Singh, Berita Daily
Like a sly fox, Dr Mahathir Mohamad snuggled his way into the opposition coalition, making himself pretty comfortable in the laps of those that he had once shoved into prisons.
And in no time he has successfully charmed the blind, ignorant and plain stupid leaders in Pakatan Harapan that he is the best choice that they can ever have as the next prime minister candidate in the event they take over Putrajaya.
He is so ‘princely charming’ that even his former deputy and nemesis in the past has conceded to the fact that going against the wishes of this grand old man could bring irreversible damage to the opposition front, and has thus brushed off the desire to be the next premier.
Anwar Ibrahim has been championing his cause for nearly 20 years since his unceremonious departure from the shadows of Mahathir due to the financial crisis in 1998.
And when Mahathir resigned as the prime minister in 2003, everyone assumed the doors could widen a little more in giving hope to the cause of Anwar and his reformasi movement – since the ‘dictator’ had no more executive powers.
But alas that was not to be. Mahathir has once again made a rather an uninvited entry into the very folds of the team headed by Anwar and swiftly frustrated the jailed man into retracting his desire to one day lead the country and bury BN into history.
Mahathir is a bad omen for Anwar. Strangely, things just do not seem to gel when they are on the same court.
Though Anwar has said that it will be the Pakatan Harapan presidential council’s prerogative to name the prime ministerial candidate for the coming general election, the voices from Mahathir’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) are getting more vocal and assertive in promoting their chairman as the best choice.
For the fact that Mahathir himself has reiterated many times that he is the most suitable, the implication he makes is that if he is rejected by the Pakatan Harapan leaders, there will be repercussions in getting full support.
Mahathir keeps emphasising that his PPBM has the required credentials in getting the Malay support swinging in the favour of the opposition since he had in the past reached the pinnacle in defending the Malay agenda.
He is shaping Pakatan Harapan leaders to accept that to further defend the Malay agenda, it must be through him and his PPBM – not via PKR or any other party, be it political or an NGO.
Mahathir is a nonconformist with some labeling him as a maverick of sorts. He will never toe the line and take orders. That is the reality.
PH’s biggest problem
Events of the past weeks have shown that he has cunningly sidelined Anwar and his family’s influence on PKR.
Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail cannot play the game of continuous deferment in naming the prime ministerial candidate. The public is just not buying into the play any longer and the writing on the wall is too bold to be ignored.
As in a game of chess, to win you let the opponent fumble. And that is exactly what Mahathir has done to Pakatan Harapan today. They walked right into his lair voluntarily though in the real sense he has hijacked the entire opposition front.
Mahathir has too much of pride and he will never be remorseful for all the political wrongs he did in the past while in power for 22 long years.
The biggest problem in Pakatan Harapan is that they have some weird mantras that they follow religiously – one being to always ‘agree to disagree’. The other is that all in the coalition be it DAP, PKR, Amanah must have equality on everything.
The political realm is far from that, what more in Malaysia. One cannot have two or even three monitors in a classroom, right?
It has been made worse when Wan Azizah said: ”Let us win first before talking about PM candidate.”
This would not have gone down well in the Mahathir camp as he most probably knows that if that happens (opposition wins the GE14), there is a high probability that he and his PPBM could be sidelined on the very night of victtory unless PPBM wins far more parliamentary seats than PKR or Amanah.
For that to be realised is extremely slim and thus all his efforts now will not be reaped by his son Mukhriz Mahathir.
For Mukhriz to get that gigantic leap back into power, PPBM and Mahathir (as PM candidate) must lead the opposition into the election and if they win, then Mahathir will have all the trump cards in calling the shots as to who gets what in the government formed.
Pakatan Harapan thought they had won the most precious prize when Mahathir and his PPBM joined forces against Prime Minister Najib Razak.
He practically caught them with their pants down for lacking a clear leader as Anwar went to jail for sodomy.
