Mahathir is only the calon PM but not the PM-in-waiting
There is absolutely no benefit to DAP and Pakatan to make Mahathir the PM. Mahathir is only the calon for PM to serve the purpose of DAP, PKR and PAN. If Pakatan wins GE14 there is no way Kit Siang, Anwar, Dr Wan Azizah and Mat Sabu will allow Mahathir to become the PM. Superman Hew told the Chinese crowd that Kit Siang is merely using Mahathir to garner Malay votes — use Malays to fight Malays. Superman Hew left no doubts in anyone’s mind that Pakatan Harapan is a DAP-led Pakatan Harapan and that Mahathir is their tool.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Superman Hew said Kit Siang is just using Mahathir so that Malays can fight Malays
The night-time DAP ceramah in Yong Peng town was in full swing and the party’s most controversial speaker Hew Kuan Yau, wearing his trademark Superman T-shirt, was blasting away at the government onstage.
Suddenly, the emcee cut in to announce that Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had arrived. The Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president walked in with Bakhtiar Shah Mustapa who is slated to contest in Semarang, one of the state seats in Ayer Hitam. The emcee asked the crowd to applaud the “next Mentri Besar of Johor”.
It must have been weird for Muhyiddin although it was not the first time that the DAP side had portrayed him as their Mentri Besar candidate. He was Johor Mentri Besar long ago. Then he rose to become Deputy Prime Minister and had aspirations to become Prime Minister. Now he is back to square one. He is not even Pakatan’s Deputy Prime Minister candidate, a post that has gone to Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. Things have not worked out as expected for him. (Joceline Tan, The Star, 3 April 2018)
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It was Mukhriz and not party President Muhyiddin who announced Mahathir as PPBM’s calon for Prime Minister
Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) today nominated its chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the next prime minister if Pakatan Harapan won the coming general election.
Dr Mahathir’s son, Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir made this announcement in his winding up speech during PPBM’s annual general assembly here.
Mukhriz, who is PPBM deputy president, said the party named Dr Mahathir to again lead the country based on his 22 years of experience as prime minister. (NST, 30 December 2017)
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Mukhriz Mahathir is only the Deputy President of PPBM. Yet it was he and not the President, Muhyiddin Yassin, who announced Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as PPBM’s calon for Prime Minister if Pakatan Harapan were to win GE14 expected to be held sometime next month. Normally, something as important as this would be announced by Pakatan’s Presidential Council and not the son of the calon.
Last night, DAP announced that Muhyiddin was going to be appointed the Johor Menteri Besar if Pakatan wins the state in GE14. Muhyiddin is PPBM’s President and one-time Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia but DAP decides where he goes while the Deputy President of PPBM announces his father, and not Muhyiddin, as Pakatan’s calon for Prime Minister.
DAP announced many times that Muhyiddin will be the Johor Menteri Besar if Pakatan wins that state in GE14 so DAP and not Mahathir decides
It makes you wonder whether the dog is wagging the tail or the tail is wagging the dog. But what Superman Hew Kuan Yau — who was at that same ceramah last night — said is probably what we are seeing here. Superman Hew told the Chinese crowd that Lim Kit Siang is merely using Mahathir to garner Malay votes — use Malays to fight Malays, said Superman Hew. Superman Hew left no doubts in anyone’s mind that Pakatan Harapan is a DAP-led Pakatan Harapan and that Mahathir is their tool.
That is why when you tell the DAP Chinese that it is ridiculous to propose Mahathir as Pakatan’s Prime Minister, considering whatever is wrong with the country was his doing, they do not seem perturbed. They do not consider proposing the problem as the solution as something weird. And this is because they know Mahathir will never be appointed the Prime Minister. Mahathir is merely the Prime Minister candidate to pit Malays against Malays and to garner Malay support but is not the Prime Minister-in-waiting.
It is like DAP’s announcement last night that Muhyiddin is Pakatan Harapan’s candidate for Johor Menteri Besar. DAP knows that first of all Muhyiddin must win the election, and secondly, and more important, HRH the Sultan of Johor must consent to Muhyiddin becoming the Johor Menteri Besar. So those are two hurdles that Muhyiddin needs to overcome. And even the first hurdle is going to be very difficult before you can come to the second and more crucial hurdle, the Sultan’s consent.
Kit Siang and DAP are not stupid. They have been playing the race card for more than 50 years and they know how to play that card well. They also know that Muhyiddin is not favoured by the Johor Palace just like Mahathir is out of favour with almost all the ten Monarchs, His Majesty Yang di-Pertuan Agong included.
Mahathir’s agenda is his sons and Kit Siang and DAP know that
Mukhriz can announce 1,000 times that Mahathir is Pakatan Harapan’s calun for Prime Minister. But it is DAP that decides who becomes Prime Minister (just like they decide who becomes the Menteri Besar of Selangor, Menteri Besar of Perak, Menteri Besar of Johor, Chief Minister of Penang, and so on). And while DAP will not openly contradict or dispute Mukhriz or PPBM, DAP knows that when the time comes it will not be Mukhriz or PPBM who decides who becomes Prime Minister.
It is not in the interest of DAP to openly contradict or dispute Mukhriz or PPBM. They need the support of the Malays so they have to appear to be supporting Mukhriz’s or PPBM’s choice of Prime Minister. More importantly, they need Mahathir to continue to whack Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Umno, Barisan Nasional, PAS, Islam, the Malays, the NEP, and so on.
When you attack a high profile Chinese leader, such as a Chinese business tycoon, the Chinese will interpret this as an anti-Chinese move or racism. Attack one Chinese ‘tokong’ and you are attacking the entire Chinese race. This is how the Chinese see things.
It is better that a Malay like Mahathir attack Najib than a Chinese party like DAP so Mahathir is doing them a great favour
So, DAP is worried that any attack on Najib, Umno, Barisan Nasional, the Islamic Sharia laws, the NEP, and so on, would similarly be seen as an anti-Malay move or racism. But then if Mahathir is the one doing the attacks, it is not racism or anti-Malay, it is to ‘save Malaysia’. Hence Mahathir is a very useful tool to attack Najib, Umno, Barisan Nasional, PAS, the Islamic Sharia laws, RUU355, the NEP, and much more. This is a fellow Malay-Muslim attacking everything Malay and Islam.
Mahathir is DAP’s and Pakatan’s most valuable asset. They could not have found a better weapon than Mahathir. And presenting him to the Malays as Pakatan’s candidate for Prime Minister is brilliant. This is because GE14 is being presented as a Mahathir-versus-Najib contest — the ex-Prime Minister versus the current Prime Minister.
As Mukhriz said, PPBM named Dr Mahathir as the calon for Prime Minister based on his 22 years of experience as Prime Minister. Basically, those are Mahathir’s credentials: his 22 years as Prime Minister. Hence his 22-year experience makes him the most suitable calon for Prime Minister.
The Pakatan Harapan leaders have no intention of allowing Mahathir to become Prime Minister and they need Mahathir only to gain Malay support and garner Malay votes
Mahathir may have had 22 years experience as Prime Minister. But what did he achieve in those 22 years? What is his track record as Prime Minister for 22 years? How much good and how much bad did he do and does the bad outweigh the good or vice versa?
That is not important. Whether he was a good or bad Prime Minister is not the issue. He may have been a bad Prime Minister but that does not matter. The only thing that matters is he was Prime Minister for 22 years and that is all that is needed for him to become Prime Minister again.
Yes, that is how Mukhriz and PPBM see it. But that is not how Kit Siang and DAP see it. To Kit Siang and DAP, Mahathir is a tool to be used to attack Najib. Mahathir is merely a Malay to fight Malays. Mahathir is a mascot to gain Malay support and garner Malay votes. After that, once Polling Day is over, there is no longer any need for Mahathir.
There is absolutely no benefit to DAP and Pakatan Harapan to make Mahathir the Prime Minister. Mahathir is only the calon for Prime Minister to serve the purpose of DAP, PKR and PAN. If Pakatan wins GE14 there is no way Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and Mat Sabu will allow Mahathir to become the Prime Minister.
Mahathir announced Anwar as his successor one day, and then threw him in jail the next day, so everyone knows Mahathir cannot be trusted to keep his word, just like how he betrayed the Siqiu in 1999
They all know very well that if Mahathir becomes the Prime Minister he will do another U-turn of his many U-turns so none of them trust him. They know Mahathir cannot be trusted to make Dr Wan Azizah the Deputy Prime Minister as promised. He will find a convenient excuse to renege on his promise and blame someone else for it, as he is so fond of doing, and make Mukhriz his deputy.
That’s why Pakatan Harapan’s leaders are not concerned about Mahathir’s health. They know they do not intend for him to become Prime Minister anyway so why worry about whether Mahathir is going to survive or not?
At this stage it is best they remain silent and play along with the game. Mahathir is doing exactly what they expect him to do. Mahathir is hitting Najib, Umno, Barisan Nasional and so on. So, they need not do anything and can just leave everything to Mahathir.
Pakatan Harapan leaders are not naïve and they are fully aware that Mahathir has no intention to save Malaysia but is doing everything for his personal agenda. That is why DAP, PKR and PAN are not concerned about PPBM’s problem with the RoS or whether PPBM gets deregistered before Polling Day. They only need Mahathir till Polling Day. After that he serves no purpose anymore.
In the meantime, they will allow Mahathir to say and do what he wants because he will use all his resources within PPBM and UMNO — people such as Tun Daim Zainuddin, Rafidah Aziz, Rais Yatim and Syed Hamid Albar — to attack the Prime Minister and Umno. Daim, Rafidah, Rais and Syed Hamid believe that if Mahathir becomes Prime Minister again they will be brought back into the Cabinet so they are going all out to oust Najib and Umno. Little do they know that Mahathir is merely DAP’s tool and in that same spirit so are they.
