Jahabar Sadiq is very angry with the Agong

Is this attack aimed at His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong? If Jahabar wants to attack the Agong then be man enough to name the Agong. Did Muhyiddin appoint himself the Prime Minister? The Agong appointed him the Prime Minister. So, whack the Agong if you are not happy.

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Jahabar Sadiq’s editorial, ‘Malaysia reaches 2020, no further action required’ (READ BELOW), is an exercise in bitching, moaning, groaning and selective nit-picking. (Nit-picking: engage in fussy or pedantic fault-finding).

Let us sieve through those many words in Jahabar’s 587-word editorial and try to sum up in a few words what he is bitching, moaning and groaning about.

Basically, Jahabar is saying that the government is useless and that there are so many problems with the current government.

“The government of the day refuses to prove its majority in parliament,” says Jahabar.

But why does the government need to do that? It is like when the judge found Anwar guilty of sodomy because, according to the judge, “Anwar failed to prove his innocence.”

Is it Anwar’s job to prove his innocence or the prosecution’s job to prove his guilt? In that same spirit, is it Muhyiddin’s job to table a motion of confidence or Pakatan Harapan’s job to table a motion of NO confidence?

Jahabar Sadiq is angry with His Majesty the Agong

Muhyiddin needs to do nothing. He is already the Prime Minister. So he does not need to fight to stay on as Prime Minister since he is already the Prime Minister. If you want him out, then you have to push him out. Muhyiddin does not need to push himself in when he is already in.

Jahabar went on to say: “This in 2020, in a country that is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy but with a prime minister who soldiers on without any electoral mandate.”

No, Muhyiddin won a seat in the 2018 general election. Hence, he does have an electoral mandate from the voters. And, according to the Federal Constitution of Malaysia, you need to be one of the 222 Members of Parliament to become the Prime Minister of Malaysia. That is all you need, and Muhyiddin has that. He does not need more than that.

“Instead of being a developed nation where everyone is equal and has equity in the nation, we now have a government that would only thrive and prosper in a feudal system,” added Jahabar.

Yes, Jahabar and many Pakatan Harapan people of his ilk want Malaysia to be turned into a republic. The Islamic Republic of Malaysia, maybe?

Ask Anwar and the 120 MPs who support him to table a motion in Parliament to abolish the monarchy and turn Malaysia into a republic

Why not get at least 112 (or better still, the 120 MPs who allegedly support Anwar Ibrahim for PM9) to table a motion in Parliament to abolish the feudal constitutional monarchy system and turn Malaysia into a Republic?

Let’s see whether that motion gets majority support in Parliament. They might get 42 votes from DAP and a few more from the East Malaysian non-Muslim MPs.

Jahabar said, “The rich and powerful are above the rules while the poor and underclass suffer.”

Is Jahabar talking about Lim Guan Eng and the many DAP leaders who escaped punishment for their crimes? What about Anwar Ibrahim’s attempted Sodomy and Sodomy 3.0 cases? Have Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin been punished for their crimes?

Ludah ke langit jatuh ke muka sendiri.

Jahabar forgot about Lim Guan Eng and his many corruption cases

Jahabar added, “That we have a government that came into being without any manifesto and is not answerable to the people. That we have a government refusing to prove its majority or right to run the country.”

Is this attack aimed at His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang di-Pertuan Agong? If Jahabar wants to attack the Agong then be man enough to name the Agong. Did Muhyiddin appoint himself the Prime Minister? The Agong appointed him the Prime Minister. So, whack the Agong if you are not happy.

And did Mahathir not say an election manifesto is not the Bible or Qur’an and hence does not need to be followed? So why is Jahabar screaming about the manifesto? And Muhyiddin plus Perikatan’s right to run the country was a mandate from the Agong. So, yes, Muhyiddin plus Perikatan DO have a right to run the country.

This October 2020 is when the chickens come home to roost in Malaysia. Where the mistakes of all these years and everything that can go wrong unsurprisingly does go wrong.

A minister is let off the hook for breaching Covid-19 quarantine because he was not handed the quarantine order form. It took more than a 100 days of police investigations for the Attorney-General’s Chambers to stamp “NO FURTHER ACTION” on the file.

The International Trade and Industry Ministry issues guidelines to restrict the number of workers with the hours and days of working in stricter locked down zones due to the Covid-19 pandemic with no rationale for the limits.

The Finance Ministry unveils a logo for the coming Budget 2021 to publicise a budget by a government under threat of collapse by angry allies.

The government of the day refuses to prove its majority in parliament, ignoring the slew of no-confidence motions let alone the fact that one would suffice to give doubts to the ruling coalition’s majority.

This is 2020. The year Malaysia was to achieve all nine points of its Vision 2020 set out by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad in his Way Forward speech in 1991. But not many remember those nine points.

Surprisingly, Dr Mahathir is prime minister again, only to resign in February and be replaced by a government without a mandate from the people. Instead his replacement is Muhyiddin Yassin, who proudly says he has a mandate from the king.

This in 2020, in a country that is a parliamentary democracy with a constitutional monarchy but with a prime minister who soldiers on without any electoral mandate.

Instead of being a developed nation where everyone is equal and has equity in the nation, we now have a government that would only thrive and prosper in a feudal system.

Is it any surprise then a minister can be so ignorant of quarantine rules set by his own palace-endorsed government? Is it a surprise that civil servants can ignore or bend the rules for ministers?

After all, this is feudalism. The rich and powerful are above the rules while the poor and underclass suffer.

Is it any surprise the government enact rules for the public and private sector workers where the management stays at home while the underclass works?

With working hours and limits that have no logical explanation except being plucked from nowhere and now set in stone?

Are viruses active on alternate days but not between 10am and 2pm daily? Is there a lesser chance at the golf courses, gymnasiums and restaurants due to stricter procedures there?

Is this all easier than actually implementing and enforcing rules for hygiene and safe distancing in workplaces? Or is everything a divine revelation and by fiat?

And what can a logo do to make things better? It is a harbinger of good news? Do we console ourselves with the colours and font and wait for the news weeks later?

Will this government even exist by the time Budget 2021 is slated to be tabled?

Perhaps it will while we quibble about all this and forget the wider scheme of things.

That we have a government that came into being without any manifesto and is not answerable to the people.

That we have a government refusing to prove its majority or right to run the country.

That we have a government of the people and above the people.

And in 2020, we finally realise what losing honesty and integrity means. It means no further action.