Muhyiddin’s power comes from Muafakat Nasional
This is the danger Muhyiddin faces as well. But the price Muhyiddin has to pay is different from the price Mahathir had to pay. Mahathir’s price was he had to hand power to Anwar Ibrahim within two years and when he refused to pay that price he fell. Muhyiddin’s price is he has to make Muafakat Nasional happy, and if he refuses to pay that price he is going to suffer the same fate as Mahathir.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
When you are riding a tiger, you are very powerful. No one can come close to you or cabar you. But then you must continue to keep riding that tiger because if you ever decide to get off, or circumstances force you to get off, the tiger would eat you.
In the meantime, you need to make the tiger happy by feeding it. If you do not, and the tiger gets hungry (or angry), it would end up eating you instead. Hence you need to make sure you have a constant supply of ‘food’.
That is the downside when you tompang someone else’s power. You need to ‘ride’ on someone else’s power like you are riding a tiger. But then there has to be a trade-off because power does not come free. It comes with a price. In fact, everything has a price (even freedom and life).
People do not seem to understand that everything has a price. The question is, can you afford to pay that price? If someone tells you that he or she cannot be ‘bought’, that is a lie. Everyone can be bought.
The Chinese support for DAP is not free, it comes with a very high price
Maybe that person cannot be bought with money. But there is a still a price to that person. For example, if you put a gun to that person’s child and threaten to blow its brains out if he or she does not reveal certain very crucial state secrets, do you think that person would rather see his or her child die than reveal the secrets? So that person’s price is the life of his or her child.
Jihadists say they would rather die in the cause of Islam than compromise their Islamic principles. Money cannot buy them, they claim. Are you sure? If there is no promise of heaven and virgins in the afterlife and so on, do you think anyone would want to blow up a busload of schoolchildren and die in the process?
Yes, even Christian crusaders and Muslim jihadists have a price, and the price is rewards in the afterlife. If not, they would not die for their religion if they just mati katak. So, everyone has a price and everyone can be bought. It may not be cash or property, it might just be the life of your child or rewards in the afterlife, but everyone can be bought.
Mahathir tompang the power of DAP and PKR
Even those Chinese who support DAP have a price. And the price is Chinese political power, Chinese schools, mother-tongue education, no Islam, no Sharia, no Malay political domination, no Jawi, no NEP, etc. If not, do you think the Chinese would bother about DAP?
So, yes, even the Chinese supporters of DAP are for sale. And the price of their support is very high indeed. Of course, they do not ask for cash because they have enough cash. They have so much cash they need to hide it overseas. But the price of their support is more expensive than cash. It is a pound of flesh, which if Pakatan Harapan cannot pay then the Chinese would abandon them.
So, never mind what race and religion you may be, you are all for sale. And if the price is not cash it will be in kind. In fact, the ‘in kind’ price is costlier than the cash.
And this is the price Muhyiddin Yassin has to pay to continue riding the tiger because he has no power of his own but has to tompang the power of Muafakat Nasional. Without the Muafakat Nasional of Umno and PAS, Muhyiddin would not be the prime minister. If Muafakat Nasional decides to switch loyalties and support Anwar Ibrahim instead, Muhyiddin would be out of office today.
Muhyiddin tompang the power of Muafakat Nasional
If Pakatan Harapan attempts a vote of no confidence in parliament, the only people who can prevent the vote from succeeding would be Umno, PAS and the parties from Sabah and Sarawak. These are the ‘tigers’ Muhyiddin is riding.
Terence Gomez can see this and he wrote about it in Malaysiakini (READ HERE: How Muhyiddin Consolidates Power Through GLC Appointments). That analysis or special report is reasonably accurate although it may be slightly anti-Umno or anti-Perikatan Nasional.
But then this was the same with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. When he became PM4, it was based on his own power. But he became PM7 not because he had power but because he borrowed the power from DAP and PKR. Then, in February, when DAP and PKR withdrew that power, Mahathir was forced to resign and allow Muhyiddin to take over as PM8.
Yes, that was why Mahathir and Pakatan Harapan collapsed and Muhyiddin and Perikatan Nasional took over. It was because Mahathir tompang the power of DAP and PKR and when they withdrew that power everything collapsed.
Muhyiddin, just like Mahathir before him, has to ride the tiger to stay in power
This is the danger Muhyiddin faces as well. But the price Muhyiddin has to pay is different from the price Mahathir had to pay. Mahathir’s price was he had to hand power to Anwar Ibrahim within two years and when he refused to pay that price he fell. Muhyiddin’s price is he has to make Muafakat Nasional happy, and if he refuses to pay that price he is going to suffer the same fate as Mahathir.
And this is what Terence Gomez’s article, ‘Muhyiddin Consolidates Power Through GLC Appointments’, is all about. It is about paying the price of riding the tiger. And if you do not feed the tiger, the tiger will eat you instead.
That is the adeen of politics. And if you think politics should be played another way then you probably also believe in the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. No, it is not true that good girls go to heaven. The truth is, bad girls have all the fun.
