The Political Situation On The Peninsula And Anwar Ibrahim’s Narrowing Options
Syed Akbar Ali
As a political movement the Barisan Nasional is effectively dead.
But the components MCA, MIC, Gerakan and UMNO are not yet finished.
Besides being political parties they are also huge business and property owners.
MIC is believed to be worth about a billion in property and corporate assets and is also believed to have close to a billion Ringgit in cash.
MCA is believed to have much more, especially their cash holdings.
At least two or three billion cash, (so I heard lah).
Gerakan is not too far off. Both MCA and Gerakan have property holdings overseas as well. These are political parties worth billions of Ringgit.
So although (for the first time in history) MIC has 100% more Parliamentary seats than MCA (2 to 1), MCA is not dead as a business and money entity.
Taking care of their assets alone will be enough to keep the party presidents of MIC, MCA and Gerakan busy for a long time.
I think there is no need to talk about UMNO’s assets.
The PWTC alone should be worth over a billion Ringgit.
Talk is right now inside UMNO there are three factions.
Two are extremely weak and they have been betting on the wrong horse.
The first of the two factions is Zahid Hamidi and Hishamuddin Hussein.
The second one is Khairy Jamaluddin plus one or two more.
Both these weak factions are pro Anwar Ibrahim or have no qualms working with Anwar Ibrahim. Here Zahid Hamidi seems to be front runner ahead of Khairy Jamaluddin.
They are said to be the weakest factions because the majority of UMNO does not want them.
The vast majority in UMNO do not want Zahid Hamidi, Hisham Onn or Khairy Jamaluddin to be their leaders.
Both these factions are aware of this.
Hence the order has gone out that there shall be no contests for the top posts in UMNO. Again.
But rumour is Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah may take a shot at UMNO’s presidency again. Meaning he will be gunning for Zahid Hamidi.
Also that Mohamed Hassan (ex MB Negeri Sembilan) wants a crack at Timbalan Presiden, to unseat Hisham Onn.
So there should be some fireworks in UMNO by end June 2018.
Anyway the third and the most powerful group inside UMNO is the group that really matters for now. This group is now leaderless but they share very strong common motivations.
This most powerful group (it is also the largest) does not like Najib, they do not like Anwar Ibrahim, Zahid Hamidi and Khairy Jamaluddin.
They support Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed and as more time passes their support is turning into genuine adoration for Tun Dr Mahathir.
So the BN and UMNO are politically quite dead. They are of little effect in their present condition.
If Zahid Hamidi becomes party president UMNO will be in the tong sampah and forgotten by the time of the next elections.
If Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah wins the presidency of UMNO, the equation will change completely. For everyone. Do read on.
Then we come to the Pakatan Harapan. The DAP, Amanah and Pribumi Bersatu are strong. United. The three parties are also very comfortable with each other. The membership for PPBM is increasing. More people are signing up as PPBM members.
PKR is facing some serious internal stresses. Just like UMNO, there are at least three factions inside PKR.
The Anwar Ibrahim family plus Rafizi Ramli is one faction.
But I believe cracks are developing even inside this faction.
Secondly there is the Azmin Ali faction. This is a very powerful faction on account of Azmin’s good track record in managing Selangor so well over two terms.
