The “Kerajaan Gagal” blunder
Pakatan Harapan and the anti-Muhyiddin faction in Umno are keeping very quiet. No longer do they come out with their daily chant or mantra about the alarming Covid-19 figures and that this is evidence kerajaan gagal. They realise the “Kerajaan Gagal” campaign was a blunder because they are now being measured by the same yardstick. If the Covid-19 figures do not come down to zero very soon, they will be hard-pressed to explain why. And WHO has just said it is never going to become zero, mainly because of the mutations and the new strains.
NO HOLDS BARRED
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Before GE14, Rafizi Ramli told Malaysians all they need to do is eradicate corruption and the amount of money saved can be used to develop the country. Billions would be saved once corruption ends and these billions can be used to build roads, bridges, tunnels, schools, hospitals, and much more.
The voters believed him and Pakatan Harapan won GE14.
Before GE14, Lim Guan Eng told Malaysians once Pakatan Harapan forms the new government they will abolish the GST and the cost of living will come crashing down and Malaysians will have more money in their pockets.
The voters believed him and Pakatan Harapan won GE14.
Before GE14, Lim Kit Siang said once Pakatan Harapan forms the new government they will arrest all the crooks and kleptocrats and send them to jail, the biggest crook of all who turned Malaysia into a failed state, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in particular.
The voters believed him and Pakatan Harapan won GE14.
None of that happened and 22 months later the government collapse due to an internal power struggle between Dr Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim.
Basically, Pakatan Harapan tried to oust Dr Mahathir so that Anwar could take over as the new prime minister. And to make sure this does not happen, PPBM left the Pakatan Harapan coalition and formed a new coalition government with Umno and PAS, which they called Perikatan Nasional.
However, a few months later, when they realised Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was not going to give anyone a get-out-of-jail-free card, a number of Umno leaders turned on him and ousted him with the help of the opposition.
But they could not say they were trying to bring down Muhyiddin because he refuses to bury the court cases of the Umno leaders, especially Pakatan Harapan. After all, was not eradicating corruption one of Pakatan Harapan’s GE14 election promises? Hence, they had to look for another excuse to oust Muhyiddin.
And this excuse was the government is badly handling the Covid-19 pandemic. In short, the government has failed, or KERAJAAN GAGAL. That was what the campaign was going to be, “Kerajaan Gagal”, the failure of the government to solve the Covid-19 problem.
That is almost like blaming Muhyiddin and the Perikatan Nasional government for global warming and the melting ice caps when 70% of the pollution comes from motor vehicles and Malaysians refuse to take public transport and insist on driving.
Anyway, they decided they would use the Covid-19 pandemic and the “Kerajaan Gagal” campaign to bring down the prime minister and the government. They rejected Muhyiddin’s invitation to form a unity government where the government and the opposition would jointly combat Covid-19 and implement a number or reforms both in Parliament as well as the government.
No unity government, no cooperation, no compromise, just Muhyiddin’s resignation, replied Anwar and Pakatan Harapan.
So, a month ago, Muhyiddin resigned, and now Malaysia has a new prime minister, Ismail Sabri Yaakob. Tomorrow, Parliament will convene to discuss the future of the country. Anwar, however, insists that a confidence vote be held to determine whether Ismail has the support of the majority of the 220 members of parliament. And if Ismail cannot get the support of at least 111 MPs, then Parliament has to be dissolved to make way for a snap general election.
The new government is going to face the same problem that the old government faced. Pakatan Harapan promised so much before GE14, but it could not deliver a single promise in the 22 months it was in power. To make matters worse, instead of sending what they called the biggest thief in Malaysia to jail, they appointed him Pakatan Harapan’s prime minister.
The new government must prove that Muhyiddin and his Perikatan Nasional government failed to solve the Covid-19 problem — hence the “Kerajaan Gagal” label. However, after one month, things are no better — in fact, have become worse. We are seeing Pakatan Harapan’s GE14 election manifesto fiasco all over again.
The 14-day quarantine period for those tested Covid-19 positive is to break the chain of infections. For the death rate, they would calculate it over a 30-day period. After 14 days there should no longer be any infections and after 30 days no more Covid deaths.
But the Covid-19 in Malaysia is going the opposite direction. No longer can Muhyiddin and the Perikatan Nasional government be blamed for it. Looking at the figures, things were better under Muhyiddin and the Perikatan government. Kerajaan lama lagi berjaya dari kerajaan sekarang.
So what is the government going to say? If they say Covid-19 is a global problem and you cannot blame the government for it, then you will be admitting that the “Kerajaan Gagal” campaign was total bull. If the government cannot be blamed, then why blame Muhyiddin and the Perikatan Nasional government?
Pakatan Harapan and the anti-Muhyiddin faction in Umno are keeping very quiet. No longer do they come out with their daily chant or mantra about the alarming Covid-19 figures and that this is evidence kerajaan gagal. They realise the “Kerajaan Gagal” campaign was a blunder because they are now being measured by the same yardstick. If the Covid-19 figures do not come down to zero very soon, they will be hard-pressed to explain why. And WHO has just said it is never going to become zero, mainly because of the mutations and the new strains.
