WHY IS MAHATHIR NOT HELPING IN SARAWAK?

Everyone knows that DAP wants its puppet as the Selangor Menteri Besar. But why must Wan Azizah go and do a stupid thing by openly declaring that? At least Azmin has thus far demonstrated that he is not DAP’s puppet. He refuses to cut links with PAS and refuses to kowtow to DAP in the Sarawak seat issue.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The story we are being told is that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is now the new de facto Opposition Leader who has replaced Anwar Ibrahim. Suara Tian Chua said that Anwar is planning all the moves from the Sungai Buloh Prison and is feeding Mahathir with the ideas on how to move.

This makes Anwar the strategist and Mahathir the Gurkha, placing Anwar on a much higher level and lowering Mahathir to the level of Badrul Hisham Shaharin a.k.a. Chegubard, who the old man once calledthe kucing kurap from PKR (in English we would say a mangy dog).

Mahathir is the leader of the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign). Anwar, Lim Kit Siang and Mat Sabu have all agreed to that. (In fact, they have even agreed to forgive Mahathir for all his past transgressions). And the purpose of the ANC, in collaboration with Pakatan Harapan, is to save Malaysia. Hence the reason why the ANC-Pakatan coalition is called Save Malaysia, although in reality it is to save Mukhriz.

However, what is puzzling is why has Mahathir not been asked to help sort out the mess in Sarawak? If Mahathir cannot save Sarawak how does he want to save Malaysia? Mahathir wants Umno and Barisan Nasional brought down so that Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak can be ousted and replaced with his proxy Prime Minister and his son, Mukhriz, as the new Deputy Prime Minister. That would be the only way for Mukhriz to become Prime Minister by 2020.

If the ANC-Pakatan alliance fails to oust Barisan Nasional in Sarawak, or at the very least deny Barisan Nasional its two-thirds majority in the Sarawak State Assembly, then the plan to bring down Barisan Nasional in the 2018 general election is going to fail.

Pakatan would need at least 42 seats to win Sarawak or 28 seats to deny Barisan its two-thirds majority in the Sarawak State Assembly. And for that to happen, not only must it be a one-to-one contest, but Mahathir, Mukhriz, Muhyiddin Yassin, Shafie Apdal, and all those in the ANC must go down to the ground in Sarawak to help campaign for Pakatan.

This is not happening. So that means Pakatan may struggle to win just 18 seats let alone 28 seats or 42 seats. Maybe it should look at 15 or 16 seats to be realistic. But that would not help the ANC-Pakatan alliance to kick Umno and Barisan Nasional out in the next general election, which is only about two years away.

One thing that Pakatan forgot is that Barisan Alternatif was built on the back of the ‘hate Mahathir’ campaign. PAS, DAP, and the ex-Umno group that went on to form Keadilan, really did not have anything in common other than their hate for Mahathir. So this hate united them and they managed to set their differences aside for a short while to take on Umno and Barisan Nasional in the November 1999 general election.

Of course, once the election was over, DAP cari pasal with PAS and left Barisan Alternatif. The excuse they used was Hudud, whereas Hudud had already been passed by the Kelantan State Assembly about ten years before that (but DAP pretended that that was not an issue).

DAP did the same thing again in 2014. DAP cari pasal with PAS because Azmin Ali instead of Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was appointed the Selangor Menteri Besar. But it was HRH the Sultan of Selangor who appointed Azmin and it was because Azmin lobbied for the job. PAS just supported Azmin because he wanted the job while the Sultan agreed to it.

So why did DAP cari pasal with Hadi and back the ‘Team B’ in PAS to try to oust Hadi? Why did DAP notcari pasal with Azmin and the Sultan? It was Azmin who wanted the job and it was the Sultan who agreed since Azmin wanted the job. Did DAP expect the Sultan to agree to Wan Azizah after she had announced that she does not mind becoming a puppet Menteri Besar?

Everyone knows that DAP wants its puppet as the Selangor Menteri Besar. But why must Wan Azizah go and do a stupid thing by openly declaring that? At least Azmin has thus far demonstrated that he is not DAP’s puppet. He refuses to cut links with PAS and refuses to kowtow to DAP in the Sarawak seat issue.

Anyway, now Pakatan is in a mess and this mess in Sarawak is not going to end in Sarawak. Once the Sarawak state election is over and Pakatan wins just 15-16 seats instead of 28 or 42, the blame-game is going to start and they are going to point fingers at one other. Then there will be a move to oust Azmin, and for him to cling to power Azmin will need to turn to PAS and Umno.

Mahathir is keeping surprisingly quiet about this whole thing. Even more perplexing is the silence fromSarawak Report. Sarawak Report was set up with the sole purpose of ousting Barisan Nasional in Sarawak and to replace Taib Mahmud with Baru Bian as the new Chief Minister.

That failed to happen in 2011. But now Sarawak Report has a second shot at making Baru Bian the next Chief Minister. However, Sarawak Report is remaining very silent. No longer is it coming out with daily articles about Sarawak. Instead, Sarawak Report is still talking about 1MDB, which is not going to have any affect on the Sarawak state election.

Is Sarawak Report no longer interested in making Baru Bian the next Sarawak Chief Minister? Or do they realise that making Baru Bian the next Sarawak Chief Minister is a pie in the sky? Or maybe they think that if they continue to bash 1MDB then the Sarawak voters would vote for Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional is going to fall.

What is even more ironical is that the opposition alliance of 1998 was built on the back of the hate Mahathir movement. That was the foundation that united so many enemies and made them friends, although for just a brief period.

Today, Mahathir is leading the hate Najib movement. However, the opposition appears to be in an even worse mess because of it. I suppose it is not easy for them to bury their old animosities although they pretend that they can and are telling us that everything which happened before has already been forgiven and forgotten.