What is the purpose of Muhyiddin’s and Bersatu’s existence?

What we still don’t know is what is the purpose of Bersatu existing, and why should anyone, especially Pas, lug its deadweight around, when despite having nothing to offer, it has the ambition of being the party of the Prime Minister of Malaysia? 

Nehru Sathiamoorthy

I think Muhyiddin has read my “Bersatu and Pas’s breakup is long overdue” article.

The speech Muhyiddin gave at Bersatu’s AGM a couple of days after the article came out, sounded like it was made with that article as one of its frames of reference.

It is indeed well that Muhyiddin has acknowledged that Bersatu’s role in PN is to spearhead a campaign to conquer Putrajaya and that it is upon it that PN is resting its hope to plant its flag in the central, western and southern half of Semenanjung.

What was missing in his speech though, was what exactly is Bersatu planning to do to achieve its aims?

In the “Bersatu and Pas’s breakup is long overdue” article, I opined that Bersatu is a deadbeat party and Pas is better off being alone than hauling the deadweight of Bersatu as it makes its way forward.

In his speech however, all I heard from Muhyiddin to indicate that Bersatu is not a deadbeat party that is only weighing PN down, is his personal assurance that Bersatu is not a deadbeat party but a party that is capable of taking on the “failed” Madani government.

The Madani government however, is not a failed government. Rather, after two years of being a “do nothing but politicking” government, the Madani government is finally showing its mettle, and I believe that what it has shown so far will only cause it to go from strength to strength in the days to come.

The Madani government is currently showing that it is going to be a party of the working class, which unlike the BN governments of the past, is going to empower the working class, instead of the Mahakaya, to take the country forward.

It has already raised wages, set a higher minimum wage, increased social security for all workers, both domestic and foreign and is taking real measures to distribute the wealth of the nation, that is currently concentrated in the hands of the elite, to the population at large.

In the second half of its term, the working class can expect greater opportunities and freedom to improve ourselves, or even self-realise or self-actualise, under the new economic landscape that the Madani government might create for Malaysia.

Economically, PN cannot compete with PH. Mahathir Mohd Rais might be to the opinion that if PH reaches out to the working class, then PN might be able to win the support of the capitalist class, who will likely feel that they are losing more than the working class feels that it is winning, but which capitalist in the country is going to put its trust in a Malay-centric and Muslim-centric coalition like PN, who is not only by nature not capitalistic, but has a penchant for bashing the non-Muslims and non-Malays whenever it needs to motivate its members and increase support to its side, when the bulk of the capitalists in the country are non-Malay and non-Muslim?

No matter how worried or alarmed the capitalists are with PH, they are likely going to put their trust in PH anyway, rather than assume that it is PN that will be able to secure its interests and prospects.

The only card that PN currently has to play against the PH  currently is the “enemy of Islam” card, as PAS’s spiritual leader Datuk Hashim Jasin recently played it during an interview by Utusan Malaysia.

“Looking at the current situation, the Malay Muslims need to unite because subtly, the enemies of Islam are planning and moving,” Hashim said.

“Whether it is PAS or Umno, we must be aware of the threat from the enemies of Islam,” he was also quoted as saying.

Is there really an enemy of Islam in Malaysia and are they really plotting harm against Islam in Malaysia, as Hashim believes?

Well, the answer is a little complex – the best way to answer it is by asking in return as to whether there is really an enemy of non-Muslims in Malaysia and whether they are plotting harm against the non-Muslims in Malaysia?

The answer to both these questions are complex, because you can’t say that the answer is no, but at the same time, you can’t say that the answer is yes either.

The answer is certainly not yes, because I seriously doubt that there are a bunch of people who are meeting in secret in the depth of the night to plot how to cause harm to the Muslims or non-Muslims in the country.

But saying that, we also have to accept that the Muslims and non-Muslims in Malaysia, despite sharing a country, have two distinct identities.

Even when you share a house with your spouse, someone will have to give in to the other so that the other can be as they are.

In other words, if even with your spouse, who you likely chose out of love, you will be expected to not fully be yourself, so that your spouse can feel more at home, what more amongst Muslims and non-Muslims in the country, who didn’t choose to be with each other and cannot be said to have much love for each other?

At the end of the day, it will be either the Muslims or the non-Muslims that will get to feel like they are at home in Malaysia, and to achieve that, each will have to convert the other to be more like them, and less like themselves.

Considering that DAP is the biggest party in the ruling coalition, I suppose the fear that the non-Muslims have a greater advantage in converting the Muslims to be like them rather than the other way around, will always engulf the minds of the Muslims in Malaysia, for as long as PH rules.

But saying that, a lot of that fear has likely abated in the last two years, due to Anwar showing quite clearly that he is the one that wears the pants in PH, and it is not DAP that is calling the shots from behind the scene, as how it was suspected to be during the Pakatan 1.0 reign under Mahathir in 2018.

As it stands today, the Muslims in Malaysia, though still suspicious of advantage that the non-Muslims possess in Pakatan, are likely going to give the Madani government  the benefit of the doubt when it comes to Islam, and allow it to execute the economic reforms that it has planned, which is likely going to be beneficial to the working class, which the Malay-Muslims are largely a part of.

Even if the Muslims are suspicious of the Madani government’s intentions towards them, the party that they will rally under to address their worry is Pas, not Bersatu.

So this again brings us back to the question, what exactly does Bersatu and Muhyiddin have to offer the people and the country to justify its existence?

We know the economic transformation that PH is offering, and we know that Pas is going to be there to prevent PH from engineering any social transformation, even if it succeeds  in transforming the country economically, but what we still don’t know is what is the purpose of Bersatu existing, and why should anyone, especially Pas, lug its deadweight around, when despite having nothing to offer, it has the ambition of being the party of the Prime Minister of Malaysia?