Kit Siang regrets convincing Mahathir to form PPBM
The irony of this whole thing is PPBM was Kit Siang’s idea (just like Amanah was). It was a weapon meant to divide the Malays. Now that same ‘weapon’ is going to be the one to unite the Malays. And many people who were opposed to Mahathir right up to GE14 in May 2018 are prepared to support Mahathir in the effort to unite the Malays. DAP has made Malays who were enemies with one another into friends. That is how the Chinese are going to remember Kit Siang.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s end game was simple. Oust Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and replace him with someone else. This was the same end game from 2006, which was to oust Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and replace him with someone else.
At that time, though, the ‘someone else’ in 2006 was not too clear. Mahathir had three candidates in mind — Najib, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and Muhyiddin Yassin, in that order of priority. The short-listed candidate would depend on whoever agrees to Mahathir’s terms and conditions.
And Mahathir announced his terms and conditions in a meeting in Hotel Singgahsana, Petaling Jaya, soon after the March 2008 general election — which was whoever becomes prime minister must agree to the setting up of a presidential council or council of elders (now called Council of Eminent Persons or CEP).
Ku Li did not agree to the CEP so Najib became prime minister instead
Ku Li did not agree to the CEP but Najib did. So Najib, instead of Ku Li (or Muhyiddin), became the new prime minister in April 2009.
But the CEP never happened (until 2018). Najib had played Mahathir out. Mahathir kept nagging Najib for four years. And when he finally could not tahan the nagging any longer, Najib ignored Mahathir altogether and refused to take his calls. For six months Najib refused to talk to Mahathir or take his calls. And that was when Mahathir decided Najib has to go.
Ousting Najib, however, proved more difficult. Instead, Najib ousted Mukhriz, prompting Mahathir, yet again, to resign from Umno. Mahathir now needed, as he himself admitted, a Plan B. And that was when Lim Kit Siang whispered in Mahathir’s ear that Plan B should be to set up an Umno Baru Lagi Baru to ‘steal’ Umno leaders, members and voters and ultimately replace Umno Baru with an Umno Baru Lagi Baru.
Najib did not want to listen to Mahathir so he had to go
It was actually a very brilliant plan. Form a new Umno to kill the old Umno — or, in this case, form an even newer Umno to kill the new Umno that had killed off the old Umno in 1988. But Kit Siang overlooked one very important point. And that point is: what will happen AFTER Mahathir’s Umno Baru Lagi Baru kills off the Umno Baru?
Kit Siang is not really a person with foresight. If he is he would not have said and done the many things he has said and done over the last 50 odd years. Today, Kit Siang is forced to eat his own words and swallow his own spit. Kit Siang now has to go against his own principles for the sake of political expediency — which means, in short, Kit Siang has no principles.
In other words, Kit Siang is nothing less than a pelacur politik.
Kit Siang convinced Mahathir to set up PPBM thinking it would divide the Malays further
Kit Siang’s Plan B meant Umno would be cut into two. DAP had already successfully cut PAS into two with the creation of Amanah. If Umno can now be cut into two, and with PKR also badly divided between Team Azmin and Team Anwar, the Malays would be divided into six while the Chinese would be all united, at least 95%, under DAP.
Yes, the Malays may be 60% of the population against only one-third for the Chinese. But if the Malays are split six ways that would average 10% per group against more than 30% for the Chinese. This would be what Sun Tzu meant by divide your enemy and was the backdrop of the British divide-and-rule strategy where a mere 150,000 British were able to rule over 300 million Indians.
But Kit Siang overlooked one thing. And that one thing is Kit Siang is Chinese and not Malay, so he does not understand the Malay psyche.
Leave the Malays alone and they will fight amongst themselves but threaten them and they will unite
Leave the Malays alone and they will quarrel amongst themselves. Threaten the position of the Malays (or Islam) and they will unite against the perceived threat.
Since May 2018, the Chinese and Indians have demonstrated biadap towards the Malays and Islam. The Chinese and Indians have been openly and blatantly vilifying the Malays and Islam. They even question the ‘ownership’ of the country and say the Malays are pendatang and that the Hindus were in Malaya first and can claim the right to the country.
The Malays are now feeling threatened. They can see that the May 2018 general election has gone to the heads of the Chinese and Indians. Now it is okay to whack the Malays and Islam. They can even kill Malays and get away with it.
Since 2008 the Chinese have been biadap towards the Malays and Islam and now it is payback time
The Malays have finally woken up to the reality they are losing their country to the non-Malays. The ‘fixed deposit’ of Sabah and Sarawak is no longer there. Umno is technically no longer there as well. Barisan Nasional is dead. What is going to happen to the Malays now that they are divided into six groups?
The only alternative is for another Malay entity to emerge that can unite all the Malays from Umno, PAS, PKR and PPBM. And at the moment that entity appears to be PPBM. Mahathir must now not only be the prime minister of Malaysia but the leader of the united Malays as well. That is the only way the Malays can stop Malaysia from falling onto the hands of the Chinese and Indians.
The irony of this whole thing is PPBM was Kit Siang’s idea (just like Amanah was). It was a weapon meant to divide the Malays. Now that same ‘weapon’ is going to be the one to unite the Malays. And many people who were opposed to Mahathir right up to GE14 in May 2018 are prepared to support Mahathir in the effort to unite the Malays. DAP has made Malays who were enemies with one another into friends. That is how the Chinese are going to remember Kit Siang.
