Muhyiddin’s public image takes a hit on account of the 1BestariNet revelation

One week is a long time in politics indeed.

Nehru Sathiamoorthy

Just last week Muhyiddin stood tall in the court of public opinion, by refusing to recant the truth, even when faced with sedition charges.

This week however, the 1BestariNet fiasco will likely wipe out whatever gains that Muhyiddin had made in the 115 SD fiasco.

The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) raiding YTL Communications Sdn Bhd’s office a few days ago (Sept 4) to probe into the controversial RM4 billion 1BestariNet project, which was initiated by Muhyiddin Yassin, who at the time was the education minister, will likely make it very difficult if not impossible for Muhyiddin to maintain his reputation as a truth teller, which he had earned through the 115 SD issue.

One cannot be seen as a truth teller while also being mired in dodgy dealings – something has to give.

To be seen as a truth teller who is being vindictively victimised for speaking truth to power, Muhyiddin must be able to deflect the accusation of corruption that the 1BestariNet fiasco will cast over him, but considering the damning revelations about the 1BestariNet project, it is quite unlikely that Muhyiddin will be able to do that successfully.

The 1BestariNet project  was a 15-year contract that was granted to YTL (Yes 4G)  in 2011, by the Education Ministry, then headed by Muhyiddin, to provide high-speed internet access to 10,000 schools in the country. Other than internet access, it was to also implement something called the Frog Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), which is a cloud-based learning platform that will grant teachers the ability to use ready-made lessons and quizzes or create their own virtual learning environment. Through the endeavour, teachers were also  supposed to be able to assign homework, mark homework, and track their students’ progress online.

Despite running from 2011 to 2019, and despite costing at least at RM 3 billion ringgit, the project, which awarded terms to YTL in a lopsided fashion, can probably be classified as an abject failure, that did not provide the people, the students, the teachers, the schools, the taxpayers or the country much if any benefit, despite the hefty price tag it carried.

According to Maszlee Malik, who took over the education portfolio in 2018, the 1BestariNet project was so hopeless, that whatever the 1BestariNet project can provide to the students and the teachers could be provided by the Google Classroom platform in a better manner free of charge!

Worse, despite not providing any benefits to students and teachers, according to the terms of the contract, YTL was also allowed to put up communications towers in school grounds, which serviced its YTL’s YES network, without requiring YTL to pay a single cent in rent to the schools for using up their resources. Not only was YTL allowed to put up its communication towers rent free, the cost of  electricity for running these towers was also borne by the schools!

Despite being a white elephant, when Maszlee decided not to extend YTL Communications’s contract in 2019, his tenure as the Education Minister was prematurely cut short in just 2 years, because according Maszlee, Muhyiddin had relentlessly pushed the then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to ask for Maszlee’s resignation, on account of Muhyddin’s dissatisfaction with the manner that Maszlee had handled the YTL Communications’s contract.

Will Muhyiddin be able to remove the negative implication that the 1BestariNet scandal will cast on his reputation?

I certainly doubt it. For him to be able to do it, the 1BestariNet project has to have at least some redeeming quality, which it appears to not have. If Muhyiddin himself had terminated the program on account of being a failure, maybe he would have been able to salvage his reputation, but the fact that he defended it to the very last, even to the point of getting Maszlee fired (as Maszlee claims), simply because Maszlee had terminated the project, makes Muhyiddin’s position in the matter of the 1BestariNet fiasco to be utterly indefensible.

How big a problem will the 1BestariNet be for Muhyiddin?

It will be a very big problem for Muhyiddin.

Muhyiddin’s career was already in the doldrums until the 115 SD fiasco gave him a lifeline.

Not only had Muhyiddin dropped the ball and cost PN the right to rule Putrajaya at the conclusion of GE 15, he had repeatedly failed to ride the “green wave” that followed to topple the unity government for the last 2 years. Not only had Muhyiddin failed to launch an offensive, despite favourable tidings, he had also failed to take an effective defensive position, and lost 6 Bersatu MPs to Anwar.

By the time PN lost the Nenggiri by-election in the PN stronghold of Kelantan, Muhyiddin’s position was so abject, that his own supporters and allies were likely going to abandon his leadership, if he refused to step down.

A few weeks ago however, by a stroke of luck, an obscure speech that Muhyiddin made in some unknown stage became viral, and caused his public image as a sore loser to abruptly take a turn and transform him into a courageous truth teller, who was being persecuted by the government over the 115 SD issue, simply for stating the truth.

However, with the revelation about the 1BestariNet project set to take center stage in the coming days, it is quite unlikely that Muhyiddin will be able to retain his public image as a courageous truth teller.

Rather, his many problems with the law, including his sedition charges, will likely just be seen as a  comeuppance for his previous actions. The chickens might not be coming home to roost for him in a straightforward fashion, but the court of public opinion, unfortunately for Muhyiddin,  unlike the court of law, is not averse to seeing poetic justice as a legitimate form of justice.