Mahathir wins the headcount and Anwar is checkmated
PPBM has 25 parliament seats. PAS has 18, and all of them are with Mahathir. The Azmin Ali faction in PKR comes to 19 (which is why they are very worried). Five from Mat Sabu’s Amanah are with Mahathir. Mahathir has kowtim 30 MPs from Umno. That totals almost 100 seats. And with the MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, the total comes to 130 parliament seats, more than enough to counter any planned vote of confidence against Mahathir in parliament.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Let us move away from daily fixation and obsession with the transition of power
Lim Kit Siang
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has advised Pakatan Harapan leaders not to discuss the transition of power issue openly and to honour the consensus on the matter reached in January 2018.
Let us move away from the daily fixation and obsession with the transition of power and focus all our efforts on how to deliver our promises in the 2018 general election as 2020 is going to be a make-or-break year for Pakatan Harapan.
Undoubtedly, one of the most important Pakatan Harapan promises is the successful and amicable transition of power from the seventh Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to the eighth Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
The details of the transition of power should be left to the Pakatan Harapan Presidential Council although there no need to for a special meeting on the matter.
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That is Lim Kit Siang’s latest statement on the succession issue that is ripping Pakatan Harapan apart. Kit Siang boasts that in his more than 50 years political career he has written or uttered tens of millions of words. The fact is, most of what Kit Siang writes and says is political double-speak.
Today’s statement, which is only 136 words, is probably Kit Siang’s shortest statement ever. Normally, Kit Siang’s postings run into 1,000-2,000 words. Why this short-and-sharp statement and what is he trying to say?
Syed Saddiq is shooting anything that moves
On the surface it looks like a pendamaian or reconciliatory statement asking everyone to stop quarrelling over the succession issue. But, if you were to read between the lines, it is not. It is actually a warning to Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
The title says “daily fixation and obsession”. That is already very negative. It is more or less saying “otak tak betul”.
Then Kit Siang says “…and to honour the consensus on the matter reached in January 2018.” In other words, Kit Siang is telling Mahathir he must go on or before 9th May 2020 and no two ways about it.
DAP’s Ramkarpal Singh wants Mahathir out now
This next part is the icing on the cake:
“Undoubtedly, one of the most important Pakatan Harapan promises is the successful and amicable transition of power from the seventh Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to the eighth Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.”
In other words, Mahathir’s resignation and transfer of power to Anwar is the number one election promise and more important than all the other promises or the election manifesto. Handing over the reins of power from PM7 to PM8 overrides everything else.
So, although Kit Siang’s latest very short-and-sharp statement appears like a peace offering, in essence it is actually a warning to Mahathir that he cannot stay longer than another 108 days. That is all, 108 days more and Mahathir has to go.
Otai Reformasi has warned they will take to the streets if Mahathir stays on beyond 9th May 2020
But why are Otai Reformasi and various leaders from DAP and PKR pressuring Mahathir? If Mahathir has to go in 108 more days, then why not just wait for another 108 days? Why keep pressuring, whacking and warning Mahathir? Is it because Mahathir is not able to count?
Of course Mahathir can count. And he knows that 9th May 2020 is 108 days from now. But what all these people are worried about is that come 9th May 2020 Mahathir will not resign and hand power to Anwar. They feel Mahathir will stay on and will tell them to go jump in the lake.
But why do they think that? Has Mahathir said he will not resign and hand power to Anwar on 9th May 2020? Well, Mahathir has sort of said that but in a pusing-pusing or roundabout way. What is more crucial, though, is they know Mahathir has the numbers to stay on. Mahathir has won the headcount.
Khairuddin Abu Hassan is ready for the most bloody fight in Malaysian history
PPBM has 25 parliament seats. PAS has 18, and all of them are with Mahathir. The Azmin Ali faction in PKR comes to 19 (which is why they are very worried). Five from Mat Sabu’s Amanah are with Mahathir. Mahathir has kowtim 30 MPs from Umno. That totals almost 100 seats. And with the MPs from Sabah and Sarawak, the total comes to 130 parliament seats, more than enough to counter any planned vote of confidence against Mahathir in parliament.
That is what the Mahathir camp says. And the fact they are even doing a headcount in preparation for any possible vote of no confidence in parliament means Mahathir has no plans to let go on or before 9th May 2020 and will fight tooth and nail to stay on.
PAS with its 18 parliament seats may end up as the kingmaker
And that is why we are seeing the PPBM, DAP and PKR leaders shooting at each other. This is like India and Pakistan in their cross-border skirmishes. But, as they say in California, the big one is coming. And, according to Mahathir ‘s boys, the big one may come before 9th May 2020 and may involve criminal cases against Anwar.
Two days ago, we published an article titled “AG Tommy Thomas ordered to bury Yusoff Rawther’s assault case”. Muhammad Yusoff Rawther’s lawyer will be meeting the AGC to complain about this. They allege that the instructions to bury the case came from Anwar himself and they are going to show WhatsApp messages to prove that Anwar was aware that Farhash Wafa Salvador Rizal Mubarak had assaulted Yusoff Rawther and that Anwar ordered the case to be buried.
From the look of things, Mahathir is not waiting for the attack to come but will shoot Anwar down even before he can take off. With so many criminal cases against Anwar being prepared, Anwar may be out of the race even before the race can start. And the story regarding the Yusoff Rawther case has not ended yet.
