The expected happened

Now do you understand the reason behind all this talk regarding the Chinese Tsunami? You may hate Umno but you have to take your hat off to them for how well they strategised the 13th General Election. Umno is years ahead of the Chinese. And the DAP Chinese are still political novices save a few people like Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Since last year I have been having a few meetings in Bangkok, Singapore and Jakarta with our ‘team’ in the run-up to the recent 13th General Election. We also had our ‘operatives’ moving on the ground, even in East Malaysia, to ‘feel the pulse’ of the voters.

Just for your information, our financier spent a lot of money to fund the activities of this team in this recent general election. And don’t ask me any details because you will not get any, although Haris Ibrahim can suspect whom I am talking about. (I bet Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak and Bukit Aman are now curious like hell).

That is the only way to get a correct reading of the sentiments of the voters. The comments posted in Malaysia Today, Malaysiakini, Malaysia Chronicle, The Malaysian Insider, etc., plus all those comments in the Blogs, are not an accurate reading. That is the work of the Umno and DAP cybertroopers -- whose aim is to confuse and distort plus play a psywar game.

I have to admit that Pakatan Rakyat is not as good at psywar as Umno is. Many times Pakatan Rakyat’s spin-doctors spin out of control. For example, they spun stories as early as 7.00pm on Sunday that Pakatan Rakyat had already won the election and that there were blackouts all over Malaysia at the vote counting centres. That has now all been proven false.

In between those meetings in Bangkok, Singapore and Jakarta, we conducted daily Skype ‘conferences’, sometimes going on for hours. And that was how we managed to get accurate feedback as to what to expect on 5th May 2013. And that was also why I was able to send out text, Black Berry and WhatsApp messages to many of my friends, days before 5th May, that Barisan Nasional was going to win the election with no less than 130 parliamentary seats but not more than 145 seats.

One thing that we discovered was that Umno had planned for DAP to win the most number of opposition seats. In fact, the plan was for DAP to win half the opposition seats with the other half being shared by PAS and PKR. And if DAP can’t get exactly half then the non-Malay seats in PKR, if added to the DAP seats, must give Pakatan Rakyat half the non-Malay seats versus half Malay seats.

Hence, to achieve this, the Malay candidates from Pakatan Rakyat must be defeated at all cost while the Chinese/Indian candidates can be allowed to win.

This sounds silly, some of you will say. Why would Umno want to allow the non-Malay candidates to win while targeting the Malay candidates for defeat? I agree, if looked at from the context of just the 13th General Election, this does not sound logical. But it would be logical if you look at it long term, such as the next general election in 2018.

And that was why the Bersih 3.0 rally was allowed. In the Bersih 2.0 rally, they discovered that a large segment of the crowd was Chinese. Hence if Bersih 3.0 attracts an even larger Chinese crowd, then the perception would be, while 2008 was a Hindraf or Makkal Sakti Tsunami (meaning Indian Tsunami), then 2013 could be touted as a DAP or Chinese Tsunami.

And this Umno successfully did. Hence people like Tunku Aziz Tunku Ibrahim who disagreed with the Bersih rally were correct. Unfortunately, when Tunku Aziz spoke out, he was disparaged and vilified by mainly the DAP Chinese crowd -- and anyone who is treated the way Tunku Aziz was would feel kecil hati and leave the party under very unhappy circumstances. (Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad felt kecil hati and unhappily left Umno in 2007 when they did the same to him).

I suppose old men are like that; me included. They get kecil hati when people the age of their grandchildren arebiadap towards them. I, too, feel kecil hati with the younger generation Chinese DAP supporters who disparage and vilify me. Hence I too have grown to hate these people when just a few years ago in 2008 I campaigned exclusively for DAP.

Anyway, the plan was to make Pakatan Rakyat appear more like a Chinese-dominated coalition while Barisan Nasional is made to appear like a Malay-dominated coalition. Remember my articles about the 3Rs (race, religion and royalty) -- which was also the gist of my talk in Cambridge University recently?

Of course, when I spoke out against the Bersih rally -- in the context of Bersih being hijacked by the politicians -- plus about Umno’s 3R strategy, even people like Haris Ibrahim whacked me and called me a racist. And when I said I disagree with the ABU (anything but Umno) approach, Haris and all my other friends disowned me and called me a traitor, turncoat and so on. 

Now what we expected has happened. Umno increased its seats from 79 to 88 (plus won almost half the 505 state seats contested) while DAP is now the dominant opposition party and second in size to Umno. And the perception being created is that Pakatan Rakyat’s success was made possible because of the Chinese Tsunami (just like the Indian Tsunami in 2008).

Is this true? Never mind if it is true or not. It is the perception that counts and politics is about perception, not about the truth.

The bottom line is the Malays are better at this political game than the Chinese are. And the Chinese walked right into the trap that Umno set up and then got snared.

Now do you understand the reason behind all this talk regarding the Chinese Tsunami? You may hate Umno but you have to take your hat off to them for how well they strategised the 13th General Election. Umno is years ahead of the Chinese. And the DAP Chinese are still political novices save a few people like Karpal Singh and Lim Kit Siang.

And remember one reminder I kept repeating over these last two years. The anti-Malay rhetoric by the Chinese DAP supporters is just going to send the Malays back to Umno. When I said that you shouted ‘bullshit’. Do you still think it is bullshit? Because of your racist comments what should have been a Malaysian Tsunami was turned into a Chinese Tsunami.

So, who gains now? First step: split the Malays from the Malaysian Tsunami of 2013 and turn it into a Chinese Tsunami. Next step: finish off the non-Malay political base in 2018.  Can’t be done? Well, compare the 1999 general election to the 2004 general election. Was that not what happened?

A stroke of genius I would say.

On another note, watch Selangor. There is currently a tussle going on between Team Khalid and Team Azmin for the post of Menteri Besar. I have, in fact, written about this a few times in the past.

PAS and DAP have both issued statements endorsing Khalid Ibrahim. Azmin Ali, however, insists that he be made Menteri Besar and if Khalid is given the post instead then he will leave the party together with his supporters.

Anwar Ibrahim is now in a dilemma. First of all, his wife and daughter support Khalid and not Azmin. Secondly, most of the candidates in the recent election were handpicked by Azmin. Hence many of the 30 PKR Members of Parliament are his people.

Hence, also, if Azmin leaves with, say, just 15 of this supporters and they declare themselves as ‘independents’, then added to the 133 Members of Parliament that Barisan Nasional has, Barisan Nasional will now have a two-thirds majority in Parliament.

So, either Azmin is made Menteri Besar or else Barisan Nasional will get its two-thirds majority in Parliament.

By the way, Kelantan is also having a crisis almost similar to Selangor.

Interesting, is it not?