Is the Tanjung Piai by-election Mahathir’s demise?
But now Otai Reformasi is going to use the Tanjung Piai defeat as the excuse to force Mahathir to resign and hand power to Anwar. They are going to say the Tanjung Piai defeat is a referendum against Mahathir. If Mahathir does not go and stays right until GE15, then Pakatan Harapan has as good as lost GE15. To save Pakatan Harapan, Mahathir must resign. That is the campaign from now on.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
The Anwar for PM Movement, also known as Otai Reformasi, is launching a campaign to ask Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to resign and hand power to Prime Minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim. The reason Mahathir must go, says Otai Reformasi, is the humiliating defeat in the Tanjung Piai by-election on Saturday.
In fact, defeat is not even the right word to use. It is more like a massacre. If this was a football tournament, the club or owners of the football team would have sacked the manager the very next morning after the game. No way would the manager be allowed to continue managing the team after such a defeat.
The reason for the Tanjung Piai defeat, says the anti-Mahathir gang, is because the voters want Mahathir to go. The Tanjung Piai by-election was actually a referendum against Mahathir.
Otai Reformasi is using the Tanjung Piai by-election defeat to force Mahathir to resign
Mahathir, in fact, used this same argument last year. Barisan Nasional’s defeat in the 14th general election or GE14 in May 2018 is mainly because of Najib Tun Razak. It was a referendum against Najib. The people were angry that Najib had stolen tens of billions of 1MDB’s money and that is why they kicked Najib out by kicking out Umno and Barisan Nasional.
It is very naughty to say Umno-Barisan Nasional lost GE14 because of Najib just like it is very naughty to say PPBM-Pakatan Harapan lost the Tanjung Piai by-election because of Mahathir. There is never a single factor determining the outcome of any election. It is normally a multiple or collection of factors.
The reason the rakyat voted Pakatan Harapan in GE14 was simply because they wanted change and Pakatan Harapan promised them this change. Different people wanted to see different changes so there is no one common change for everyone.
For example, some viewed Umno as a racist party. Some viewed Pakatan Harapan as promoting “liberal” Islam, whatever that is supposed to mean. Some wanted the GST to be abolished. Some wanted their PTPTN debts to be “forgiven”. Some wanted the LGBT lifestyle to be legalised. Some wanted to “protect” Chinese schools and the Chinese education system. Some wanted the UEC examination to be recognised. Some wanted toll charges on highways to be abolished. Some wanted the minimum wage to be increased to at least RM1,500. Some wanted petrol prices to come down to RM1.50. Some wanted the cost of living to come down. Some wanted to see Najib arrested and jailed the day after GE14.
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Different people had different reasons for voting Pakatan Harapan. However, whatever the reason may have been, these were all based on promises that Pakatan Harapan made before GE14 plus what was stated in their election manifesto.
But Pakatan Harapan was not able to deliver all these promises. In fact, things not only did not get better, as promised, they actually became worse. They did abolish the GST, as promised, but then they replaced it with a worse form of tax, the SST. And the cost of living did not come down. It did not even remain the same. The cost of living has gone up.
At the end of the day, say what you like, as far as the rakyat are concerned it all boils down to bread and butter issues. But now the bread is stale and the butter is rancid. There is no milk and honey and the roads are not paved in gold. That is the long and short of it all.
So now, after 18 months, the people no longer want Pakatan Harapan. They no longer believe in Pakatan Harapan. Najib, Umno and Barisan Nasional may not be perfect, the rakyat are saying, but at least things were not as bad then as they are today. That is what it is all about. Compare “then” with “now”, and “then”, although not the best, is still better.
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Politicians from both sides of the divide do not seem to understand that they cannot klentong the rakyat so easily like before. Out of a population of 32 million, 20 million Malaysians access the internet through their mobile phones. And 90% obtain their news and information through the electronic media (mainly videos) — it is a fact that Malaysians do not like reading as much as viewing. (Why do you think I also now do videos?).
Maybe last year the rakyat wanted to give Pakatan Harapan the benefit of the doubt and voted for them. But after 18 months there is no longer any doubt that Pakatan Harapan cannot do what they said they would do. Even Mahathir confessed that when they made those promises they did not think they would win GE14.
But now Otai Reformasi is going to use the Tanjung Piai defeat as the excuse to force Mahathir to resign and hand power to Anwar. They are going to say the Tanjung Piai defeat is a referendum against Mahathir. If Mahathir does not go and stays right until GE15, then Pakatan Harapan has as good as lost GE15. To save Pakatan Harapan, Mahathir must resign. That is the campaign from now on.
