Kit Siang Played Right Into Najib’s Hands

In fact, the new Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup is adding insult to injury and is going to cause DAP to lose Chinese votes rather than win Malay votes. Najib knew this but Kit Siang, somehow, did not see this coming. So either Kit Siang is losing his touch or he is just no match for Najib. Either way it is Najib one goal and Kit Siang zero. And, to make matters worse, Mahathir’s statement yesterday, “In the hierarchy, I am the top dog there”, and “We can’t have a country ruled by three prime ministers” is a disaster that Kit Siang and DAP are never going to recover from.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Last Friday’s press conference by Pakatan Harapan to finally announce its leadership lineup after dilly-dallying for some time has attracted different reactions from different people. Some have reported the matter as follows:

Deal delivers boost to Malaysia’s opposition, but it’s still “not going to win” (Southeast Asia Globe)

Malaysia: Politics will be politics… always dirty, no matter the side (Asian Correspondent)

The local publications, however, in particular those that are pro-opposition, have reported this so-called historical ‘alliance’, after the even more historical break-up between Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim 18 years ago, as a boost for Pakatan Harapan. The impression they are trying to create is that this has caught Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak off-guard and that he never expected this to happen and he is in now in a state of panic, etc.

In short, the score is now 1:0 for the DAP-led Pakatan Harapan versus the Umno-led Barisan Nasional. And this is why, the pundits say, Najib is undecided about when to hold the next general election. Najib is not sure if Barisan Nasional can still win now that Pakatan Harapan has been ‘formalised’ with its leadership line-up confirmed.

Najib played Kit Siang well and the beautiful thing about it is Kit Siang still does not realise that

These people are living in denial and are either wishful thinking or delusional if they think they have caught Najib with his pants down. The truth is Najib not only had his eyes on the ball the entire time but was also in control of the ball. He was in charge of determining not only the rules of the game but the tempo and rhythm as well.

What happened last Friday was precisely how Najib had planned it and what he wanted to happen. There was no sneak-attack here if that is what the opposition is trying to suggest. It was more like a trap that Najib had laid and which Pakatan Harapan walked right into.

Najib wanted Pakatan Harapan to prove to the Malays that it was an Ali Baba setup with DAP the real power behind the throne. And that is precisely what they did. Lim Kit Siang thought he was very clever in hiding behind the scenes and allowed the ex-Umno Malay leaders to stand on the frontline. But what happened instead is it reinforced the belief that Pakatan Harapan is Pakatan Ali Baba. It was an ‘out of the frying pan into the fire’ situation. In trying to avoid being called a DAP-led Pakatan Harapan — meaning, therefore, Chinese-led — they inadvertently fell into the trap of now being called Pakatan Ali Baba.

That was what Najib wanted. But then Najib ended up getting more than he expected. Lim Kit Siang not only delivered the Pakatan Ali Baba that Najib wanted, he, in fact, delivered a Pakatan tiga-Ali-satu-Baba. Now they have three Prime Ministers-in-waiting and all three are fighting to be the first amongst equals. How can you get Mahathir and Anwar, who have never forgiven and forgotten what happened 20 years ago, to agree to sit at the same table as equals? That is a recipe for disaster and even before anything can happen Mahathir already announces he is top dog and there can never be three Prime Ministers.

Kantoi Kit Siang!

Kit Siang not only turned Pakatan Harapan into Pakatan Ali Baba but into Pakatan tiga-Ali-satu-Baba

Last Friday’s announcement of the Pakatan Harapan leadership line-up was the result of the meeting in London between Nurul Izzah Anwar and Mahathir. It was agreed that Mahathir would be made the Prime Minister if Pakatan Harapan wins the general election and his first act as Prime Minister will be to get a royal pardon for Anwar. Kit Siang knows that any alliance between Mahathir and Anwar is safe because both are never going to get to become Prime Minister anyway. Anwar is in jail while Mahathir is too old so both will never become Members of Parliament and only a MP can become the Prime Minister.

It was Kit Siang who asked Nurul to meet Mahathir because he needed the issue of the Pakatan Harapan leadership to be resolved. And for this to happen Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim have to kiss and make up. If those two enemies cannot be made to agree to an alliance then the Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup is never going to happen and in the same process Pakatan Harapan will be doomed.

A Mahathir-Anwar alliance will benefit Kit Siang because then Anwar will never testify and sell out Mahathir at the RCI that is investigating the US$10 billion forex scandal. And if Anwar does testify against Mahathir then Pakatan Harapan, which has tied itself to Mahathir, will be dragged down as well.

Kit Siang sent Nurul Izzah to London to meet Mahathir to make a deal and promise him the premiership if Pakatan Harapan wins the general election

However, to get Anwar to agree to not testify at the RCI certain concessions need to be made. And currently Mahathir is not in any position to say no. So all it needs is for Kit Siang to play the role of bridge and get the two onto the same page and announce to the world the Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup.

Kit Siang thought he had made brilliant moves to end the impasse and resolve the issue of Pakatan Harapan’s leadership. Now Najib can no longer hammer them on this issue. And Najib also cannot keep saying that Pakatan Harapan is DAP-led or Chinese-led. But that is what Najib wants. He keeps hammering them on these issues to provoke them to react. And Kit Siang reacted, and reacted precisely the way Najib wanted him to. In the end Najib proved a better chess player than Kit Siang.

Just like in a game of chess, you do not look at just the last move or the final checkmate. You need to start monitoring from the opening move and all those other moves along the way that brought on that eventual checkmate. And this chess game is between Najib Tun Razak and Lim Kit Siang and no one else. All those others such as Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar Ibrahim, Muhyiddin Yassin, etc., are mere chess-pieces on the chessboard. They are Kit Siang’s chess-pieces for him to use in an effort to block and hinder Najib’s moves…or so he thought.

Mahathir promised that the first thing he will do on becoming Prime Minister will be to seek a royal pardon for Anwar

While the opposition and their minions are popping champagne and celebrating last Friday’s ‘victory’, Najib is having the last laugh. Not only did Kit Siang walk into Najib’s trap, Pakatan Harapan is actually very happy about it and partied the whole weekend as if they, instead of Najib, came out the victor. Does this not remind us of Nero fiddling while Rome burned?

One can only say, “Well played, Najib,” as it was definitely well played indeed. It is one thing to out-play your opponent. But to have that opponent conclude that he or she is the winner instead of the loser is a brilliant masterstroke. However, once Najib makes that special announcement regarding Felda on Sunday, Kit Siang is going to suddenly wake up to the realisation that not only has he been out-played, but also how Najib did it. But by then nasi sudah jadi bubur and the most Kit Siang can do is scream and wail, as what he normally does

They say when a shark is circling you, to frighten it off you punch it in the nose. But to kill it you need to strike its soft underbelly. And Kit Siang’s soft-underbelly is the ‘Chineseness’ of DAP. And the fact that Superman Hew Kuan Yau had already revealed that Kit Siang is just using Mahathir to bring down Najib and that DAP is using the Malays to screw the Malays lends credence to DAP’s Chinese agenda.

So all Najib had to do was to hit that soft underbelly by telling the Umno convention on 3rd December 2016 that the next general election is going to be between a Chinese-led coalition and a Malay-led coalition. So, the voters have a choice between voting for the DAP-led Pakatan Harapan and the Umno-led Barisan Nasional. One choice gives you a Chinese-led government and the other a Malay-led government.

DAP must now explain to its Chinese supporters why DAP is being sidelined in Pakatan Harapan’s leadership lineup

This really sent Kit Siang into a spiral dive. He knew that DAP has already maximised its Chinese voter base and even at peak or 100% it can win just 54 seats or so. But it needs 112 or another 58 seats to march into Putrajaya and form the next federal government. And the Chinese voters cannot give them those additional 58 seats. They must come from the Malay voters and those Bumiputeras from East Malaysia. Even then 58 seats gives them just a two-seat margin and the death, disqualification or crossover of just one MP means we are going to see a hung parliament.

Kit Siang’s panic is apparent when he did a U-turn regarding Mahathir. Earlier Anthony Loke had announced that Mahathir was not being invited to DAP’s convention that same weekend. To counter what Najib had just said, Kit Siang called up Mahathir and asked him to attend the convention. DAP needed a Malay face, so Mahathir’s presence at the DAP convention would help counter what Najib said in that DAP translates to Chinese.

But then earlier they had publicly announced that Mahathir was not invited so if they have done a U-turn that can only mean Kit Siang is very desperate and that Najib has sent him into a panic. Mahathir was not about to give Kit Siang what he wants that easily and if he says yes it has to come with terms attached. And that term and condition is regarding the choice of Prime Minister in the event Pakatan Harapan comes to power — because Mahathir knows at 50 or so parliament seats DAP will call the shots and gets to decide who becomes the PM.

With just hours to spare Kit Siang had no choice but to agree to Mahathir’s terms. And Mahathir attended the DAP convention with the power to decide the PM safely tucked away in his pocket. Kit Siang, however, knew that one must not count one’s chickens before they hatch because many things can happen in the meantime.

There is no way Mahathir will play second-fiddle to Anwar or vice versa so Kit Siang has just made the whole situation worse

But Kit Siang needed to fight one battle at a time. First he needed to dispel what Najib said: that DAP is Chinese and Pakatan Harapan is a Chinese-led coalition. Next he can solve the problem of who should become the seventh Prime Minister of Malaysia — or Pakatan Harapan’s choice of PM if they win the next general election. Mahathir will need to be neutralised but that can come later.

From the December 2016 experience Najib knew Kit Siang can be easily spooked and how to do it. DAP is very sure of its Chinese support but the Malay and Bumiputera support is still very dicey. Pakatan Harapan needs to reduce its Chinese prominence and play up its ‘Malayness’ if it wants to garner more non-Chinese votes.

And that was the reason why last Friday Pakatan Harapan’s new leadership lineup was ‘Malay-heavy’ and less Chinese in structure. And even then it brought other problems and DAP has to now explain why there is less Chinese presence in the Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup and assure the Chinese that DAP has not been sidelined, as the impression seems to create.

So, in trying to please the non-Chinese and in hoping that the new ‘Malay-heavy’ Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup would help get Malay votes, DAP has upset the Chinese. So DAP is now busy trying to assure that Chinese that the Malays have not taken over Pakatan Harapan or have sidelined DAP but this is just DAP’s strategy of using the Malays to screw the Malays and using Mahathir to attack the Prime Minister, Umno and Barisan Nasional.

In short, DAP needs to tell its supporters that Pakatan Harapan might look Malay but in essence it is still Chinese and merely an Ali Baba set-up. And this is exactly the message that Najib wanted to send out. And Kit Siang helped send out that message last Friday when they announced their leadership lineup. And that is why since last Friday Najib can’t stop laughing.

Kit Siang panicked when Najib told the 3rd December 2016 Umno assembly that the next general election is between a Malay-led coalition and a Chinese-led coalition

Now Kit Siang is no longer sure whether the plan is as brilliant as he first thought after all. He thought Friday’s Pakatan Harapan leadership line-up would be able to checkmate Najib and he can no longer say that the next general election is a DAP-led Pakatan Harapan versus an Umno-led Barisan Nasional. Instead it has created a lot of confusion as to who is really heading Pakatan Harapan and people are asking why the hell are old, expired and tainted ex-Umno people in control of Pakatan Harapan while DAP has been kicked out into the cold.

Even more important is people are confused as to who of the three top dogs is really in charge of Pakatan Harapan because it looks like all three are equally in charge and the only difference is they are being given different tittles for the same function to disguise the fact that the ship has three proxy captains while the real de facto captain not mentioned in the leadership list is Kit Siang. And this would make Kit Siang the de facto leader with three Malay proxies playing Ali Baba — or one Baba with three Alis as proxies.

Najib played Kit Siang beautifully. Kit Siang thought Friday’s Pakatan Harapan leadership announcement was a masterstroke that is going to silence Najib forever. Now Kit Siang realises that he has played right into Najib’s hands and did exactly what Najib wanted him to do. So how is Kit Siang going to get out of this corner he has painted himself into?

One factor that may throw a spanner into the works is DAP’s CEC meeting today. On Monday, the Registrar of Societies (RoS) sent DAP a letter giving them two weeks to respond. This is actually not a new issue but a follow-up of a four-year-old issue which the RoS had already told DAP to rectify — but which they did not because they wanted to prevent Tan Seng Giaw from taking over the leadership of the party at the expense of Lim Guan Eng and possibly his father as well.

DAP’s CEC is invalid and if they try to rectify that then Tan Seng Giaw is going to be the new party leader

What is DAP’s CEC going to decide today? First of all it really does not matter what it decides because the CEC is invalid anyway. The CEC was voted in through a fraudulent party election in December 2012. So whatever it decides is poisonous fruit from a poisonous tree, as they say in legal jargon. Hence the RoS need not layan today’s CEC decision.

If DAP refuses to abide to the RoS demand, which is to hold a second party re-election, then DAP’s CEC will remain invalid and the office bearers appointed by this CEC become equally invalid. And that would mean, in short, DAP will not have any Secretary General to sign the Surat Watikah for its candidates in the next general election.

But all is not lost. DAP will not need for its candidates to contest as ‘independent’ candidates or contest without DAP’s rocket logo. DAP’s candidates can contest as Pakatan Harapan candidates and use the new Pakatan Harapan logo. However, DAP will have to make sure that none of its candidates display the rocket logo because then the Elections Commission or SPR can disqualify them and give a walkover to the other side.

This, in fact, is precisely what Najib wants them to do. Najib is forcing DAP to abandon the high ground that they control and move down into the swamp to defend their very weak position. No general in his right mind would do something like that but Najib managed to force Kit Siang to do it.

Furthermore, if DAP does not use its rocket logo (since it will not be allowed to) and instead uses the Pakatan Harapan logo, how are they going to explain last Friday’s Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup, which, according to the DAP supporters, DAP had been sidelined? Is DAP going to, again, go all over Malaysia to inform the Chinese voters that never mind what the Pakatan Harapan leadership line-up looks like because that is merely window-dressing and the reality is Kit Siang is just using Mahathir to oust Najib, Umno and Barisan Nasional while they are merely using the Malays to screw the Malays?

DAP’s new party logo

This time Kit Siang has really stepped into knee-deep shit. And come Sunday Kit Siang is going to wake up with a serious migraine when he realises that Najib has out-played him and this is not just check but checkmate. And all those who hailed last Friday’s ‘earth-shattering’ and ‘ground-breaking’ alliance between Mahathir and Anwar will change their minds and will reassess the whole thing as similar to the Dunkirk disaster.

So who is panicking now? Is it Najib Tun Razak or Lim Kit Siang? Why should Najib panic when Kit Siang played right into his hands? It is Kit Siang who is panicking because he now realises he walked right into Najib’s trap and there is no way of getting out of it now unless DAP breaks away from Pakatan Harapan. Pakatan Harapan, which many thought was going to help ‘save’ DAP by bringing in Malay votes, is actually hurting DAP more than it is helping.

In fact, the new Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup is adding insult to injury and is going to cause DAP to lose Chinese votes rather than win Malay votes. Najib knew this but Kit Siang, somehow, did not see this coming. So either Kit Siang is losing his touch or he is just no match for Najib. Either way it is Najib one goal and Kit Siang zero. And, to make matters worse, Mahathir’s statement yersterday, “In the hierarchy, I am the top dog there”, and “We can’t have a country ruled by three prime ministers” is a disaster that Kit Siang and DAP are never going to recover from.

DAP’s new party leader once they follow the RoS directive and hold a second party re-election

Mahathir has just helped Najib nail Kit Siang’s and DAP’s coffin. Kit Siang thought he was promoting himself from dictator of DAP to dictator of Pakatan Harapan. Today Mahathir destroyed that illusion. And this proves that the Pakatan Harapan marriage, just like all those others before this, is not sustainable and will not last longer than two months.

So do not be surprised if Pakatan Harapan may not exist by the next general election and that the reason Najib delayed the general election is not because he is scared, as some say, but to give Pakatan Harapan time to disintegrate.

If DAP follows the RoS directive then Tan Seng Giaw is going to be the new man in charge. And Tan Seng Giaw thinks just like the late Karpal Singh did. If Karpal were still alive DAP would never have gone to bed with Mahathir. And this is the same course Tan Seng Giaw will take if he is the new man in charge of DAP. So either way the DAP-Mahathir alliance is doomed. And that would mean Kit Siang is back to zero while Najib will most likely fall off his chair laughing.