To Hasan Ali, Umno is now the best party in the world but how long will the honeymoon last?

Hasan Ali is one angry man, and rightfully so. With a general election coming up, he must find ways to remain relevant and be considered a candidate. But unfortunately, he just got sacked from PAS and his reputation is now in tatters. Accused of being no better than a 'frog' or a political mercenary, Hasan is now working overtime to win a candidacy so that he can withdraw the benefits and perks accorded to parliamentarians.

Of course, PAS won't be having anything to do with him, nor will PKR or DAP. So, Hasan will have to go slumming, begging bowl in hand to Umno. And Umno being the mother of all mercenaries, will make him beg, then utilize and demean him to fullest before it casts him aside on the rubbish heap alongside other Pakatan turncoats Zahrain Hasim, Zul Noordin, Hee Yit Foong, Keshvinder Singh, Tan Tee Beng and the like.

Hasan rushes for Umno honey

But for now, Prime Minister Najib Razak who is in charge of Umno's list of 'winnable' candidates is dripping honey, so Hasan Ali may be forgiven for thinking he is now the ruling party's blue-eyed boy - the second Ibrahim Ali. However, given the tough infighting Umno diehards have to undergo to be considered for seats, the chances of Hasan and Ibrahim Ali making it onto this select Umno list is as high as a snowball's in hell!

So, without a political platform, Hasan may be forced to join Perkasa, where Zul Noordin is already kicking his feet. If Perkasa wins the right to contest in elections, Hasan will surely smirk. But imagine, who would even to vote for such a skewed, unhinged and racist group? Nonetheless, these guys may still have the last laugh. Speculation is rife that they have already taken 'upfront benefits' to perform their monkey tricks. For Hasan, the latest to join the Umno-inspired circus, his act is newly begun and Malaysians can expect to be treated to more episodes of wild accusations that underscore Najib's and Umno's penchant for gutter politics.

Strip away all the rhetoric that Hasan Ali has been spewing over mainstream media, at the heart of his anger is his ambition to be the next Mentri Besar or Chief Minister of Selangor. Back in the 2008 elections, when Selangor was delivered to Pakatan Rakyat, Hasan Ali lined himself up to take over Khir Toyo’s post. Unfortunately for him, that post went to PKR's Khalid Ibrahim. Worse still, to his megalomaniac thinking, PAS seemed to have conceded all power over to PKR, allowing the state to be ruled by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim's party.

It seemed to have completely missed Hasan's radar that, of Selangor's 56 state seats, it was PKR which won the most number. PKR holds 15, DAP 13 and PAS only 8 seats. Yet, Hasan insisted Selangor should belong to PAS and he be its emperor! That's right, even then Hasan exhibited the traits of greed and power-craziness most commonly associated with the Umno pirate-ship and not surprisingly, he has gone home to that party which may be his most natural environment, instead of the no-nonsense and Islamist PAS.

That was also when Hasan Ali tinkered with the idea of wrestling Selangor from PKR hands with a coup of sorts. All he needed to do was get PAS to work with Umno. Hence began the tedious and long drawn-out media courtship between an eager Umno and a cold and rebuffing PAS.

Selangor's rejection of BN so massive, the media was ordered not to report it

The combined wins of PAS, DAP and PKR unseated BN from Selangor in 2008, a result that was shocking to BN. Although, BN-run media refused to reveal the total story of why BN fared so poorly in Selangor, just a quick look at the numbers 36 Pakatan 20 BN tells it all. The damage was shocking, widespread and cut through all spectrum of Selangor society.

Those who are wondering why the newspapers keep talking about Pakatan being sure to lose Selangor in the 13th general election when MB Khalid and team have done an excellent job - perhaps 100 times better than the previous Umno-Khir Toyo administration - need ponder no more.

This strategy is called - a self-fulfilling prophecy. Umno cannot afford to let it be know how weak and how terribly it has been rejected throughout Selangor, hence the order to the mainstream media to keep regurgitating news that BN will sweep the ill-administered Selangor from Pakatan in GE-13. Over and over again, like a broken record, it hopes to win the psy-war. But winning an election is more than psy-war, as the foolish and vain Najib needs to learn and which he probably will learn - albeit too late!

PAS too didn't want Umno

Unfortunately for Hasan Ali, the folk at PAS also were not keen to have anything to do with Umno. So Hasan ferreted out the next best stratagem - which was to undermine the PAS leadership.

When Hasan Ali spoke about parasites in PAS, he failed to mention, that the original parasite was he himself. Yes, it is funny that the Mother of All Parasites should talk exposing her children, but some in PAS say they would not put it past Hasan to even consider trading off his grandmother if it suited his purposes. Such political ruthlessness and chicanery, any yet there were the few in PAS who actually felt sad for him and urged him to appeal his sacking!

Luckily, Hasan knew better. The highest levels of PAS leadership would never take him back - same goes for former member, Ibrahim Ali. You see, Hasan committed the cardinal sin. He tried to hijack PAS while he was still a member. In his demented thinking, Hasan though  that if he took over the leadership of PAS, he could still manage a merger with Umno. As such, he tried to play his cards carefully.

But misfortune hit him again, with a change in guard during last year's historic PAS muktamar or annual congress, when party delegates formally voted to close the door on Umno and hardline policies - opting instead for a modern and refreshed Islamic party. The bumbling and luckless Hasan found himself dropped like a stone - he lost his command over PAS Selangor, with Abdul Rani made the state commissioner in his place.

What a humiliation for Hasan! He had been so sure that no one knew what he was up to, he thought he been cunning enough to cover his tracks but his party mates knew him better and made no bones about dumping him before he dumped them.

Part of a plan of Evil

The King maker in Selangor is the Malay vote. When Najib Razak said he would wrest back Selangor by 'all ways and means', he was confident because he knew that all he had to do was work on the Malay vote. And this is why it was so vital to get Hasan to sing Umno song to PAS members. The Malay community remains split down the line between these two giant parties, with relative newbie PKR also garnering a sizeable share. PAS and PKR are able to at any time command a combined 45 to 55 percent of the Malay vote. Umno needs to whittle this down by by at least 5 to 10 percent to be sure of victory.

This also explains Umno's and Hasan Ali's use of the racial and religious card, most recently seen in the failed Himpun rally. In recent weeks, Hasan even went on religious raids with the Umno-controlled state religious department JAIS. Umno's need to paint DAP as agents for Christianity is another tactic to rally Malays to their side in an us-against-them showdown. At the Umno AGM last month, delegates openly pointed out that Umno just needs to affect the Malay vote in the 8 PAS and 15 PKR seats in Selangor. Hasan's renewed play on the Muslim sentiment, calling PAS a party that has lost its Islamic identity, is another phase of the overall Umno attack to discredit Pakatan and Anwar.

This then s the evil plan that Hasan Ali has become part of. A move to destabilise Selangor and bad-mouth Pakatan. Hasan Ali became a cancer killing off the good cells in PAS and he needed to be removed. PAS did what any other political party would do when a member is plotting a mutiny - give them the sack!

Who won't Hasan Ali play out?

And this explains why Hasan Ali seems so angry, venting his frustration over main-stream media and basically acting like a spurned lover. His ambition to be Mentri Besar has been destroyed, his political career hangs in the balance. He knows he has nothing to offer the people; he has taken to heckling and bullying his way to get what he wants now - a continuation of his political career as a state assemblyman.

Well, good luck to him because of all people, he has placed his bets on the empty promises of an insincere Umno. Soon, he will find that the people who truly treats him kindly are those he is currently smearing. But by then it will be too late and Hasan will realize that the only one who will listen to him will be God. Hopefully, he won't play out God!

Malaysia Chronicle