The move to cut short Nurul Izzah’s career and all those others (such as Zaid Ibrahim) who can prove a threat to the ‘succession plan’ was mooted during the PKR party elections. They managed to destroy Zaid Ibrahim but failed to also bring down Nurul Izzah. So they will need to bring down Nurul Izzah in the coming general election.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
There are those who want to know why Malaysia Today is not playing up the Shahrizat Jalil Cowgate issue. It is actually quite tiring when you have to keep replying to the same questions. I think I have already said it before: Malaysia Today wants to tell the untold story. Malaysia Today wants to reveal the behind-the-scenes goings-on about those who walk in the corridors of power.
Furthermore, the Shahrizat Jalil Cowgate matter is already well covered by both the mainstream as well as alternative media. So does Malaysia Today really have to also report about a matter that is already suffering from a case of information overload? There is such a thing called overkill, you know. And when you overkill, the people either get lethargic with this information overload or they might become immune to it. Hence too much is also counter-productive. There is no shock-and-awe in carpet-bombing. This, the strategists can’t seem to grasp.
Take the sodomy matter as one example. Back in 1998, there was shock-and-awe in the issue when it first exploded onto the scene. Today, almost 14 years on, people have become immune to the issue. Some have become meluat (nauseous). Hence this issue does not really earn any extra votes for Umno or Barisan Nasional. In fact, the reverse might happen.
The same applies to the Shahrizat Jalil Cowgate issue. We are beginning to see an overkill situation. By the time the next general election is upon us, there will no longer be any shock-and-awe value in the issue. People will become immune and will just shrug their shoulders. In fact, we are already seeing that happening. The Russians explained this aptly in 1983 during the aftermath of the Korean Air Lines flight 007 tragedy. The people have a memory of only 100 days, said the Russians. After 100 days, the matter will be forgotten.
In the early days of the Shahrizat Jalil Cowgate issue, I did write about it. But I wrote about it from a different angle. And that angle was not so much about the damage to Shahrizat Jalil but the benefit to Raja Nong Chik and how this is also going to hurt Nurul Izzah Anwar.
You see, when someone loses, someone else will gain, and when someone gains, another person loses. That is the angle I wrote about. In this Shahrizat Jalil Cowgate issue, the loser is Shahrizat Jalil and the winner is Raja Nong Chik. And the gain to Raja Nong Chik will also mean a loss to Nurul Izzah.
In March 2008, one of the factors for Nurul Izzah’s win was that the Umno supporters did not want Shahrizat Jalil as the Member of Parliament for Lembah Pantai. They wanted Raja Nong Chik. And when Shahrizat Jalil instead of Raja Nong Chik was selected to contest Lembah Pantai, many Umno supporters actually supported Nurul Izzah to punish Umno for fielding the ‘wrong’ candidate. I know because I personally met some of them.
So, to these Umno people, the formula is simple. If it is Shahrizat Jalil versus Nurul Izzah, then vote Nurul Izzah. However, if it is Raja Nong Chik versus Nurul Izzah, then vote Raja Nong Chik.
And that is why I was not too excited about the Shahrizat Jalil Cowgate issue. My worry was not that this would mean the death of Shahrizat Jalil. My worry was that it might spell the doom of Nurul Izzah.
Raja Nong Chik is not banking just on a popularity contest to win the Parliament seat of Lembah Pantai. People change and feelings change. How they felt four years ago might not quite be how they still feel today. So Raja Nong Chik is ‘adjusting’ the electoral roll in his favour.
We must remember that Nurul Izzah’s win was with not that too great a margin. It was only a 7% majority. Hence a 4% swing would have been enough for her to lose the election in 2008. And if 5% of the opposition supporters are to be removed (transferred) from the Lembah Pantain electoral roll and 10%-15% ‘new’ voters (meaning government supporters) were to be added to the list, Nurul Izzah could lose the coming election by a larger majority than the one she won in 2008.
Further to that, Raja Nong Chik is throwing in a few ‘incentives’ to win the voters over. One of these incentives is housing for the homeless or squatters. EPF will be funding these houses to the tune of RM1.5 billion. And in June, around the date when the next general election is expected to be called, 7,000 houses will be given to those homeless or squatters -- mostly Malays, mainly those living in the Federal Territory, and in particular those from Lembah Pantai.
In short, Raja Nong Chik has a war chest of RM1.5 billion. What does Nurul Izah have? And Raja Nong Chik is going to give out 7,000 houses. What is Nurul Izzah going to give out? That itself is already working with a handicap. Added to ‘we prefer Raja Nong Chik to Shahrizat Jalil’ and the padded voters list, how is Nurul Izzah going to fare in Lembah Pantai come the next general election?
Now, it is not that PKR does not know about this. They do. The question is: what is PKR doing about it? And the answer is: nothing! Yes, that’s right, nothing! The PKR people are standing by and twiddling their thumbs and are just watching Nurul Izzah fight tooth and nail to try to survive.
The reason is simple. PKR does not expect to form the federal government this general election. In fact, they are only confident of retaining Penang. Kelantan, Kedah and Selangor are touch-and-go. That is why Pakatan Rakyat may not dissolve the four State Assemblies at the same time when Parliament is dissolved. They know that there is a genuine danger they may lose those states.
This means they will have to wait for another general election, the 14th General Election, to make a bid for the federal government. By then Anwar Ibrahim will be around 70 and thus too old. It will be time for the next generation to take over. And this ‘next generation’ will be people from Nurul Izzah’s generation.
However, if Nurul Izzah loses this next election and becomes a one-term MP, then the door would close for her. She needs to first win this coming general election. Or else she can more or less retire.
And this would work in favour of certain PKR leaders who want to eliminate Nurul Izzah from the race, just like they did Zaid Ibrahim earlier. In fact, they tried to eliminate Nurul Izzah as well at the same time when they eliminated Zaid Ibrahim. But somehow Nurul Izzah managed to just scrape through.
Many people are asking whether I have done a U-turn. In fact, many do think I have done a U-turn and are quite puzzled as to why. Yes, I did do a U-turn, I confess, but not quite the U-turn that you think. And, if you can remember, my U-turn was around the time of the PKR party elections, which can be considered a fiasco and a farce.
The move to cut short Nurul Izzah’s career and all those others (such as Zaid Ibrahim) who can prove a threat to the ‘succession plan’ was mooted during the PKR party elections. They managed to destroy Zaid Ibrahim but failed to also bring down Nurul Izzah. So they will need to bring down Nurul Izzah in the coming general election.
Now, if this was just ‘certain people’, I can live with that and would regard it as ‘normal’ politics. After all, is this not what politics is all about? (Yes, I know, you thought it was about serving the rakyat). But these are not just the hands of ‘certain people’. This goes all the way to the top, in fact, to the very top.
So, yes, I have done a U-turn. I have done a U-turn against the top leadership of PKR. And I have done a U-turn against the top leadership of PKR because of their ‘succession plan’. And this ‘succession plan’ includes the assassination of Nurul Izzah.
So you can go fight for ABU if you wish. My fight is another fight. My fight is to expose those Umno-minded people and people in the opposition with Umno culture who are dirtier than even Umno people.
Some of you do not eat pork. Some of you do not eat beef. And some of you do not eat goat’s meat. At the end of the day, you eat what you want to eat and don’t force others to also eat what you eat.
And the same philosophy applies here. You swallow what you want to swallow and I will swallow what I want to swallow. Just as I will not force you to swallow what I swallow, you too better not force me to swallow what you swallow. And what I will not swallow is this song-and-dance routine that the opposition is trying to sell us while secretly hatching plans to assassinate Nurul Izzah because she is an obstacle to the ‘succession plan’ that does not include her.
ADDENDUM
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