The Semenyih by-election: The battleground between Mahathir and Muhyiddin
Actually, Aiman is not supposed to contest the Semenyih by-election. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had promised that seat to another person, someone who had donated a lot of money to the party during the last general election or GE14. This chap had more or less ‘bought’ the Semenyih seat.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The Semenyih by-election is the battleground between Mahathir and Muhyiddin
The Semenyih by-election is more than just a by-election. It is a testing ground for the Umno-PAS cooperation to see if it really works after the successful Cameron Highlands by-election. After all, one swallow does not make a summer, so they need to prove the Umno-PAS cooperation is working by winning a second by-election.
And this is what is upsetting Pakatan Harapan. They know Umno and PAS control about 35% of the Malay votes each and if Umno and PAS cooperate then they will jointly control at least 70% of the votes, and maybe even up to 75%.
This is why Pakatan Harapan is trying very hard to discredit PAS with the RM90 million cheque and tape-recording stories. They want the Umno-PAS cooperation to fail. But Pakatan Harapan’s campaign to discredit PAS seems to have failed in spite of everything they are trying to do.
According to intelligence reports, Pakatan Harapan or PPBM might lose the Semenyih by-election. In fact, PPBM’s candidate himself, Muhammad Aiman Zainali, complained about being sabotaged (SEE THE STAR NEWS REPORT BELOW). What Aiman did not mention is that the sabotage is internal, being done by those from his own party.
PPBM’s Aiman is not Mahathir’s choice of candidate
Actually, Aiman is not supposed to contest the Semenyih by-election. Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad had promised that seat to another person, someone who had donated a lot of money to the party during the last general election or GE14. This chap had more or less ‘bought’ the Semenyih seat.
But then Muhyiddin Yassin torpedoed Mahathir’s candidate and replaced him with this Aiman chap. Hence there are some within PPBM and Pakatan Harapan itself who want Aiman to lose the by-election just to teach Muhyiddin a lesson.
Muhyiddin and Mahathir have been at odds for a while now. Muhyiddin wants to see Anwar Ibrahim take over as Prime Minister as soon as possible and not wait until after May 2020 because that is 15 months from now and in 15 months many things can happen. And one of those many things that can happen is the Sodomy 3.0 case that Anwar may have to face.
Anwar’s dilemma: is he the next Prime Minister or is he going to jail for Sodomy 3.0?
The Sodomy 3.0 investigation has been completed and the evidence is overwhelming. It now only remains whether Mahathir wants to send Anwar to jail or not and if so when. Anwar may never see May 2020 as a free man and this time he may have to serve the full 20 years jail term as a repeat offender — or at least 14 years after a one-third remission.
Muhyiddin knows his career ends here. Mahathir cannot afford to allow him to go higher with the Nika Gee sex scandal still unresolved. How can Mahathir allow someone who has had an affair with someone’s wife to take high office? So Muhyiddin’s future lies with Anwar, and not with Mahathir. Bonking another man’s wife is acceptable to someone who bonks young men and boys. Hence Muhyiddin and Anwar make a good team.
Semenyih is in a mess. This is not Umno versus PPBM. This is Team Mahathir versus Team Anwar. And Team Anwar means Muhyiddin as well. Hence if Aiman loses then Team Anwar loses as well. And that is what is at stake here, which augurs well for Umno-PAS.
*************************************************
Pakatan’s Aiman upset over alleged campaign sabotage
(The Star) – Pakatan Harapan’s candidate in the Semenyih by-election, Muhammad Aiman Zainali, has decried actions by unknown individuals who allegedly attempted to sully his campaign with vote-buying offers and inflammatory flyers.
He said he was saddened by an incident on Monday (Feb 18) when a crowd had reportedly waited at a morning market to receive angpow, allegedly from Pakatan and the village head.
It is learned that members of the crowd had given their MyKad details to an unknown individual in order to receive the handout.
Pakatan has since regarded to incident as a scam and plans to lodge a police report over it at around 9am Thursday (Feb 21).
The campaign was further tarnished by the discovery of inflammatory flyers and banners featuring scandals surrounding former premier Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak and his wife Datin Seri Rosmah Mansor.
However, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) information chief Sallehudin Amiruddin, who was accompanying Muhammad Aiman on his campaign trail Wednesday (Feb 20), denied that the materials were from Pakatan’s main operations room at the Semenyih by-election.
Muhammad Aiman, who is standing in an election for the first time, believes the incidents smack of sabotage but does not know who is behind the act.
“What we can hope for is a clean fight and we will take further action against those individuals,” he said, adding that he viewed the incidents as a challenge that he has to overcome when standing in an election.
