The question is: is Dr Mahathir using the opposition or is the opposition using Dr Mahathir? I suppose it could be a case of both parties using each other for their mutual benefit of grabbing power while using the voters in Permatang Pauh as their pawns in this game of thrones.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
In the 28th August 2008 Permatang Pauh by-election, Anwar Ibrahim won that seat with 31,195 votes or 66.6% of the 47,410 votes cast, an improvement of 2.4% over the general election just five and a half months before that. Anwar’s wife, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, had earlier secured that seat on 8th March 2008 with 30,338 votes or 64.1% of the 47,442 votes cast.
Permatang Pauh is, yet again, going to see another by-election, but this time two years after the May 2013 general election. However, while in the 2008 by-election it was just about transferring the seat from wife to husband (and the other way around in 1999), it is not known this time around whether it is still going to be a transfer from husband to wife situation like in 1999.
Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali and his close circle of supporters do not want Dr Wan Azizah to contest that seat. If she does contest that seat and wins it, and becomes the new Member of Parliament for Permatang Pauh, then she will be poised to take over from her husband as the new Opposition Leader.
And that would not go down well with Azmin because moves are already being made to isolate Azmin by purging the party, the Selangor State government, and the Selangor GLCs of Azmin’s supporters. Meetings are being held nightly in Istana Segambut about who should be ousted and how.
It is going to be a bitter take-no-prisoners fight to the end with winner takes all while losers lose all. Invariably, the survival and future of PKR is going to be decided by which of the two factions end up controlling the party.
Anwar has told the Azmin faction that if they do not want Dr Wan Azizah then Saifuddin Nasution may be given the seat to contest. This is even more unacceptable to the Azmin faction that regards Saifuddin as a Trojan horse. Azmin’s boys have accused Saifuddin of feeding very confidential information, basically sensitive party secrets, to Umno, PAS and DAP, which can be used to undermine and checkmate PKR.
Furthermore, Saifuddin is behind the move to form a unity-government between Umno, PAS and PKR. He and some of the ‘moderate’ and anti-Abdul Hadi Awang faction in PAS met in London in December 2013 to moot this idea but it was torpedoed by Hadi and his ulama’ group.
According to Saifuddin, he is not doing this on his own initiative (pandi-pandai sendiri) but at the behest of Anwar. Hadi, in fact, confirmed this by revealing that it was Anwar who had requested him to attend the meeting in London but he refused to do so even though he happened to be in town at that time.
Last month, Azmin flew to London to meet Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad to continue the discussion on the unity-government. One of the terms of this unity-government is that Anwar must be released from jail. While Dr Mahathir can agree to a unity-government, he cannot agree to the request to release Anwar from jail.
The following day Azmin flew back to Malaysia and two days later he visited Anwar in the Sungai Buloh prison to report that the mission had failed. Dr Mahathir said yes to the unity-government and no to releasing Anwar. I suppose Dr Mahathir told Azmin what Karpal Singh said, “Over my dead body!”
Azmin’s message from Anwar was simple. Let us — Umno, PKR and PAS — unite to oust Najib. Then Muhyiddin can take over and Anwar would be released from jail and appointed the Deputy Prime Minister. Dr Mahathir, however, would rather see Najib remain as Prime Minister than Anwar becoming the new Deputy Prime Minister.
Azmin would have been better off proposing that Umno, PKR and PAS form a unity-government while they just leave Anwar to rot in jail. Probably by today Malaysia would have a new government minus Najib as the Prime Minister. The problem with this, though, is that Dr Mahathir would be the de factoPrime Minister and Malaysia would re-establish Mahathirism complete with the Crooked Bridge to Singapore.
Anyway, that is what Machiavellian politics is all about. The end justifies the means and you make a pact with devil himself if need be to meet your objective.
So Permatang Pauh is not just a by-election to choose the new wakil rakyat for that parliamentary constituency. Amongst others, it is going to be a tussle between PAS and PKR about which party gets to contest that seat. PAS says that the only reason PKR has been wining that seat since 1999 is because PAS ‘gave’ PKR that seat.
The argument from PAS is that there are more PAS than PKR supporters in Permatang Pauh. Without PAS there is no chance that PKR can win that seat. This has more or less been confirmed by DAP’s Lim Guan Eng who said that Permatang Pauh is no sure thing. It is 50:50. And if PAS boycotts PKR then Umno might win that by-election.
But even if PAS contests that seat there is no guarantee they can win. It will all depend on who the candidate from PAS is. The moderate faction in PAS wants Mat Sabu as the party candidate. DAP would support Mat Sabu but the ulama’ faction in PAS would not. Hence the party’s own members might sabotage Mat Sabu. And PKR might merajuk and sabotage PAS as well.
If PKR contests that seat and fields Dr Wan Azizah then the Azmin faction plus the ulama’ faction in PAS will sabotage her. And if Saifuddin contests instead it would tantamount to the same thing with Dr Wan Azizah’s faction also sabotaging him.
I think Anwar is facing more worries in Sungai Buloh than just the problem of mosquitoes.
In the meantime, Dr Mahathir is monitoring all this with great interest. He has already spoken out against what he calls PAS’s version of Hudud, which he says is not Islam’s version. What is the difference between PAS’s version and Islam’s version is not clear but this basically shoots down the ulama’ in PAS.
Depending on who from the opposition will end up contesting that seat, it is to the interest of Dr Mahathir that he makes sure Umno loses the by-election. If Pakatan Rakyat is so splintered and divided and if there is so much internal sabotage that they end up losing Permatang Pauh, then Najib will look good. For the first time since 1999 Umno would have managed to win that seat.
Hence Umno has to lose. And they must lose by garnering just 30% or so of the votes. If Umno wins, or it loses by just 48-49% of the votes (like in 2004), then Najib would not be undermined.
Dr Mahathir has no problem losing one seat. In fact, he had no problem with losing the whole of Penang back in 2008 just so that he could use this to prove that Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi (Pak Lah) no longer has support and must resign.
It is no secret that in 2008 Dr Mahathir threw his support behind the opposition to make sure that Penang falls. He then attacked Pak Lah and said that since the Prime Minister could not even hold on to his home state he should resign.
Pakatan Rakyat’s only hope is to make up for their weaknesses by enlisting the help of Dr Mahathir in undermining Umno. After all, currently Dr Mahathir is Umno’s greatest enemy. If Umno does not win Permatang Pauh in spite of the mess that Pakatan Rakyat is in then this is ‘proof’ that Najib has to go. So, while Malaysia might not yet have a unity-government, it does at least have a group that is united in its hatred for Najib.
The question is: is Dr Mahathir using the opposition or is the opposition using Dr Mahathir? I suppose it could be a case of both parties using each other for their mutual benefit of grabbing power while using the voters in Permatang Pauh as their pawns in this game of thrones.
One thing that you need to remember, though, is that Dr Mahathir is a master of this game and he will give the impression that he is being used while he is actually the one using you. And in this case the voters of Permatang Pauh are being used as well.
Aren’t voters just plain stupid?
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