The plan is to collapse Perikatan Nasional in 100 days

Anyway, backdoor government or not, Mahathir is not about to keep quiet and allow Perikatan Nasional to go on unchallenged. He is planning to bring about the collapse of this government and, if PM8 Muhyiddin Yassin is not careful, that may just happen. But then if Muhyiddin is a Trojan Horse and he is part of that plan, Perikatan Nasional will definitely collapse and, in the process, Mahathir would have eliminated Anwar Ibrahim once and for all, to be replaced with Mukhriz.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Since the end of World War Two 75 years ago, Italy has had 69 governments. Over that same 75-year period, Spain has had 23 governments, France 13, the United Kingdom 28, and Germany 26 governments.

Malaysia has actually had a number of governments over 65 years since 1955 but many do not seem to have noticed it.

In 1955, the Perikatan government of Umno, MCA and MIC were voted in when it won all but one seat in the election (PAS won that solitary seat). Because of the ‘political stability’ demonstrated by Perikatan, the British granted Malaya independence two years later.

Just 14 years later in 1969, the Perikatan government almost got wiped out in the general election, mainly because the Malays as well as non-Malays abandoned them. Perikatan was not expected to survive the 1974 general election with the non-Malays on the west coast and the Malays on the east coast (and in the Malay heartland states) voting opposition.

Tun Razak Hussein then mooted the idea of a new ‘unity government’ to replace Perikatan or the Alliance Party and in 1973 Barisan Nasional (BN) was formed comprising ten political parties — versus six parties choosing to remain in the opposition.

That move proved brilliant because BN garnered 61% of the votes and won 88% of the seats in the 1974 general election 20 months later.

BN may have had the same three partners of Perikatan but it was in essence a new coalition. Out of 88% of the seats that BN won, the three Perikatan parties won more than 55% of the seats.

Hence the spin that Malaysia has had the same government for 61 years (from 1957 to 2018) is a lie. The first government that Malaysia had was for less than 17 years from 27th July 1955 to 31st December 1972. Then, on 1st January 1973, a new unity government (what the critics today call a ‘backdoor government’) took over and the three-party coalition increased to a 10-party coalition.

This second government lasted for just 15 years until Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad collapsed it in 1988 by instructing the Registrar of Societies to deregister Umno. Technically, Umno no longer existed so it was also no longer in BN. The MCA President, Ling Liong Sik, then took over as the new BN Chairman.

What should have happened then is that Mahathir should have resigned as Prime Minister and Liong Sik should have taken over as PM5. But Mahathir held on to power even though he no longer had a party or had the majority number of seats in Parliament.

So how could Mahathir still remain as Prime Minister? He remained as Prime Minister because 148 out of 177 MPs (or 84% of the MPs) DID NOT pass any vote of no confidence against him.

In other words, Mahathir stayed on as PM because the MPs did not ask him to go. And it would need at least 89 MPs to oust Mahathir and he had 148 with him (and the 29 who were not with him did not bother to table a vote of no confidence in Parliament).

Now, if a vote of no confidence against Mahathir had been tabled, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah would have been able to swing about 80 MPs or so, leaving Mahathir with less than 100 MPs. But it was never tried so we will never know.

If Umno was no longer part of the government in 1988, that means BN was left with only 60 seats (with MCA in charge). The opposition controlled 29 seats while ‘independents’ held 83 seats. And from these 83 independent seats, Mahathir and Ku Li shared roughly 50:50 each.

So, there you have it. In 1988 the government had collapsed. But Mahathir ‘illegally’ held on to power mainly because no one challenged him, as what they should have done.

Mahathir then formed a new party, Umno Baru (which the RoS approved overnight — and which is not normal for Malaysia). This new party then applied to join BN. (You need unanimous agreement by all BN component members to admit a new member into the coalition).

Liong Sik called for an emergency meeting of BN and they approved Umno Baru’s application to join the coalition. Liong Sik also handed the chairmanship of BN back to Mahathir. (Liong Sik really had no choice because Mahathir had put the army on alert and May 13 version 2.0 would have happened had BN rejected Umno Baru’s application to join the coalition).

Anyway, in 1988, a new government took over and Mahathir, who had been the ‘interim’ Prime Minister for a few months, continued as PM4 — when actually he should have been PM5.

So, the first government ruled for 17 years from 1955 to 1972. The second government ruled for 15 years from 1973 to 1988. And the third government took over in 1988 and ruled for 30 years until 2018. Then we had the fourth government that ruled for 21 months from May 2018 until last week.

On 1st March 2020, Malaysia saw its fifth government in 65 years. Yes, the fifth government. And Malaysia’s fifth government took over just like the second one in 1973 and the third one in 1988. There was no general election and it was technically a unity government — or a ‘backdoor government’ if you wish.

In fact, another change of government or ‘backdoor government’ was attempted on 16th September 2008 but it failed to take off. Of course, at that time ‘backdoor’ governments were welcomed because it was opposition-led. Only Umno-led ‘backdoor’ governments are considered obnoxious.

So, do not believe all those lies the anti-Perikatan Nasional people are spinning. Malaysia did not see its first ‘backdoor government’ on 1st March 2020. We saw the first one in 1973 and the second one in 1988 (and almost saw the third one in 2008). This has never been an issue before so why is it an issue now? And ‘backdoor’ governments are legal and constitutional and have been done many times before all over the world.

Anyway, backdoor government or not, Mahathir is not about to keep quiet and allow Perikatan Nasional to go on unchallenged. He is planning to bring about the collapse of this government and, if PM8 Muhyiddin Yassin is not careful, that may just happen. But then if Muhyiddin is a Trojan Horse and he is part of that plan, Perikatan Nasional will definitely collapse and, in the process, Mahathir would have eliminated Anwar Ibrahim once and for all, to be replaced with Mukhriz.