KARMA WILL GIVE NAJIB HIS COMEUPPANCE: Anwar's jailing a sign Umno ready to strike a deal with Hadi

For any party to form a government the most important factor is to win as many parliamentary seats as possible. Thus if any party or Umno for that matter has more seats than the total number of seats added together by the rest of the parties it can form the government on its own.

Unfortunately or fortunately depending on one’s point of view, this is not quite possible at least in Malaysia because we have so many parties to cater for the various tastes people have. Therefore in Malaysia, there is no one party who can stand on its own to form the government; there has to be some sort of a coalition.

However the most talked about is the possibility of Umno forming a coalition with the opposition party; the so-called unity government. This in effect will wipe out any differences between Umno and that particular party, well at least be kept aside for the time being but not swept under the carpet. See, it is simply impossible to cooperate when there are too many differences.

So which opposition party would Umno be willing to work with? Surely Umno would choose the one that it can control but at the same time so eager and ever willing to work with Umno.

But first of all, Umno itself has to be in a very precarious situation whereby, even with its present coalition parties, Umno/BN could not form the government, if it could, there is no need for a unity government in the first place.

Thus the talk of unity government is not the real plan; it was plan B.

Either Anwar or Hadi but not DAP as that would upset MCA

If there was an effort to form a unity government, the offer or plan B could only come from Umno and that would be from Datuk Seri Najib Razak, its president. This is because if the opposition had the majority seats, it would simply form the government and would not waste time in offering anything to Najib!

Jusuf Kalla one of those asked to broker a peace deal

If both Umno/BN and Pakatan Rakyat had equal number of seats for argument sake, the offer would still come from Umno/BN because they were the ‘care taker’ government and had all the machineries to prolong their tenure until a deal was made, with them still in control.

Najib must have had plan B because, during the campaigns of the GE-13, there was a wind of change blowing through the country especially in the peninsula which sent shivers to the spines of Umno/BN leaders.

The choices that Najib had were either Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) led by Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim or with Tuan Guru Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang who led Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS), but not DAP because that would anger MCA.

While it is an open secret that PAS has held talks with Umno, there was not much talk about the Umno-PKR deal.

Still Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim acknowledged that the opposition was in secret talks with the prime minister to form a unity government as reported by The Edge Review digital magazine in 2013.

Nurul's bombshell

Nurul Izzah Anwar also mentioned during the ‘ceramah’ in Seberang Jaya, Penang on 14th February 2014 that her father was offered the post of Deputy Prime Minister by Najib but the deal was with PKR and not Pakatan Rakyat.

Ashen-faced Wan Azizah takes Anwar's conviction badly...Nurul Izzah on her right, S'gor exco Eli Wong on the left

Anwar rejected the offer because he would never let down his comrades in PR. Anyway Anwar would prefer to form the government on his own terms, with his own comrades rather than be controlled by Najib.

But since Umno/BN won in the GE-13, plan B was just a plan.

The next situation when Najib became desperate was when Umno failed to win back Selangor in the GE-13. He lured PAS but it failed too.

Later there was a huge pressure from Tun Dr. Mahathir to force Najib out. Although Najib was quite sure that he would not be ousted, still he had to have plan B.

Kajang move

Most probably Najib approached Anwar again, thus the ‘Kajang move’ had some credible link to ensuring Najib stayed in power and a compromise with Anwar that he would not be jailed.

The much misunderstood Kajang Move

However since Najib has been able to maintain the status quo until now, Anwar was not important anymore. In fact Anwar is the real enemy and not one of those senile politicians making loud noises. Najib was also afraid that Anwar would be used by the anti-Najib group to ultimately topple him from the Umno presidency and the premiership!

There is a very important lesson to be learned here; Umno-Najib will only show its fake kindness if it is desperate.

But the most important lesson to be learned and remembered by all opposition politicians, please take note that PAS had been had. The late Tuan Guru Datuk Nik Abdul Azizi Nik Mat had learnt the lesson too well and had been adamant until his death that to never trust Umno and never take the bite if lured by Umno leaders with their sweet talks and promises. As the saying goes, once bitten twice shy.

Of course, politics is the art of the possible, but don’t fall into the same trap. However there will always be some fools who would be trapped. Who would that be? - MAILBAG