Pakatan Harapan needs to return the money or deliver those promises
Hence Pakatan Harapan needs to create the impression that they are only temporarily out of power and very soon they will be back in power. This is so that those companies, businessmen and tycoons will relax and not panic (and not press for their money to be returned) because, before you know it, Pakatan Harapan will be back in business and those promises can be delivered.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
A number of bloggers/journalists in the UK and Australia have been employed to participate in a perang saraf or psywar campaign to create the impression that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin and the Perikatan Nasional government are about to fall.
Pakatan Harapan’s narrative is:
1. Pakatan Harapan has the support of 130 members of parliament (meaning Perikatan Nasional has only 92 MPs with them).
2. Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong abused His Majesty’s powers and authority by swearing in Muhyiddin Yassin as the Prime Minister or PM8.
3. Muhyiddin tricked (or lied to) His Majesty the Agong into believing that he (Muhyiddin) has majority support in Parliament or 115 MPs with him.
4. A vote of no confidence against Muhyiddin is pending in Parliament, which is why Muhyiddin is scared of holding the Parliament session.
5. Perikatan Nasional is an illegal government.
6. Perikatan Nasional does not have the mandate of the rakyat, Pakatan Harapan does.
7. Umno and PAS are using Muhyiddin and will be betray him once he is no longer useful to them.
8. If GE15 is held, Parti Pribumi Bersatu will no longer be part of Perikatan Nasional and Umno and PAS will contest the election as Muafakat Nasional minus Bersatu.
9. Muafakat Nasional is a coalition of thieves and robbers.
10. Muafakat Nasional is a coalition of Malay racists and Muslim extremists.
11. Pakatan Harapan’s concern is only about the rakyat and they do not care about power or personal gain.
12. Pakatan Harapan merely seeks equality, social justice, good governance, transparency, accountability and an end to corruption and abuse of power.
Everyone knew Mahathir will never make way for Anwar to take over in May 2020
Yes, that, according to Pakatan Harapan, is “the truth”. And there are enough gullible Malaysians who are prepared to swallow this “truth”, hook, line and sinker. As P.T. Barnum was alleged to have said, “There’s a sucker born every minute.” So naturally many would believe the spin from Pakatan Harapan and their team of spin-doctors.
But why are they going to extremes to give an impression that Pakatan Harapan will soon be back in power? The answer is simple.
Many of the Pakatan Harapan leaders and ex-Ministers have taken money from companies, businessmen, and tycoons with the promise that they would deliver concessions, projects, contracts, etc., as “balasan”.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said this is called “offset” and is normal and legal in business.
Mahathir said the general election cost Pakatan Harapan RM1.5 billion
But no one thought that Pakatan Harapan would suddenly collapse in February and Perikatan Nasional would take over. Hundreds of millions have changed hands but the “balasan” has not been delivered yet.
For example, in Penang, there are a number of projects worth billions, which are already paid for (“offset” fully settled) but remain stuck (even though DAP is the state government in Penang) because they cannot get federal approval. The Kampung Baru development project is another massive project worth billions, which is also already paid for but now cannot proceed.
When Pakatan Harapan took over in May 2018, they were not confident they would be able to win GE15 and rule a second term. The issue is, Mahathir was supposed to rule for only two years and in May 2020 he was supposed to retire and hand power to Anwar Ibrahim.
The tycoons want Pakatan Harapan to return the money or else deliver their promises
But everyone knew that was never going to happen. The only way for Anwar to take over would be if something happened to Mahathir, or the old man was ousted and pushed out by force. But that would be create instability and Pakatan Harapan might collapse.
So, there was a clear and present danger that Pakatan Harapan might be just a one-term government, or worse, a two-year government. It ended up that Pakatan Harapan was only a 22-month government.
Hence everything had to be fast-tracked. Within just two years the Pakatan Harapan leaders and ministers had to get all the deals done and the “offset” paid in full. And a lot of this offset was paid in advance, or part of it paid in advance.
Pakatan Harapan leaders and ex-Ministers are very desperate to return to power so that they can deliver their promises to those who have paid hundreds of millions
Now that Pakatan Harapan is out of power, the companies, businessmen and tycoons want their money back, or their promised concessions, projects, contracts, etc., delivered. However, those Pakatan Harapan leaders and ex-Ministers obviously cannot pay the money back (since most of it has been spent or used to pay the debts incurred by GE14) or deliver those promises (since they are no longer in power).
(According to Mahathir, the total cost to finance the general election is RM1.5 billion, so this was what Pakatan Harapan had to pay for GE14 in May 2018).
Hence Pakatan Harapan needs to create the impression that they are only temporarily out of power and very soon they will be back in power. This is so that those companies, businessmen and tycoons will relax and not panic (and not press for their money to be returned) because, before you know it, Pakatan Harapan will be back in business and those promises can be delivered.
