Anwar 140, Mahathir 40, abstention 42
Parliament will be sitting soon and if Anwar does not make his move then that would mean he is never going to be the next Prime Minister. Mahathir has about two weeks to decide what he is going to do unless he wishes to throw in the towel and call it a day. As it stands now, unless Mahathir has a golden bullet hidden up his sleeve, it is more or less a foregone conclusion that Anwar will be celebrating Christmas in Seri Perdana…finally.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Never allow Anwar to stand behind you because you will not be able to see what he is up to
While Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad has been busy appointing “his people” to key positions in the government, Anwar Ibrahim has been busy rallying the Members of Parliament from both sides (or five sides) of the political divide to his cause.
As has often enough been repeated, Sabah and Sarawak are the kingmakers, or what both Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan call the “fixed deposits”. Combined they control 25% of the seats in Parliament. Sabah has 26 seats (Labuan included) and Sarawak 31.
That leaves only 165 seats for Semenanjung Malaysia.
According to Anwar’s camp, they have the support of at least 37 of the MPS from Sabah and Sarawak and another 103 from Semenanjung Malaysia. Mahathir has only 40 seats in total with 42 abstentions.
Sabah and Sarawak will support whoever is the winner
Basically, in Sabah and Sarawak it is all about money and with a budget of RM1 billion, or roughly RM25 million per Member of Parliament, one can control those two states (like what Anwar did when he ousted Tun Ghafar Baba in 1993 — which cost him RM500 million just for Sabah alone even back then).
Mahathir’s camp has already identified five tycoons who are Anwar’s “runners” in Sabah and Sarawak. Basically, these people “talk” to those 57 MPs and take care of the funding. So RM1 billion financed by a consortium of five tycoons is more than manageable. And most of the money is parked overseas such as in Hong Kong.
The problem that Mahathir faces is, even his own party is divided between the Anwar camp and the Mahathir camp. It is said that Muhyiddin Yassin is with Anwar as is Mat Sabu of Amanah and the father and son Lim of DAP. Mohamad Hasan of Umno is with Mahathir while Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is with Anwar.
Muhyiddin is with Anwar
PAS is clearly going to take a neutral stand and will most likely abstain if a vote of no confidence is passed in Parliament (unless it is 50:50, which means PAS will then decide who is going to win).
Hence the final tally is Anwar 140, Mahathir 40, and abstentions 42.
Parliament will be sitting soon and if Anwar does not make his move then that would mean he is never going to be the next Prime Minister. Mahathir has about two weeks to decide what he is going to do unless he wishes to throw in the towel and call it a day. As it stands now, unless Mahathir has a golden bullet hidden up his sleeve, it is more or less a foregone conclusion that Anwar will be celebrating Christmas in Seri Perdana…finally.
