Is Maszlee’s Sacking A Plan To Make Mukhriz The New PM-In-Waiting

One thing that is very clear is the pressure on Mahathir to retire and hand power to Anwar by or before May 2020 has increased. But with Mahathir you cannot apply pressure. The more pressure you apply the more he will fight back. Hence expect fireworks after the New Year’s Eve display of three days ago.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

It is only a coincidence that YTL Corporation Berhad’s shares shot up after Education Minister Dr Maszlee Malik was sacked (unless you believe the story that Maszlee was sabotaging YTL’s contract with the Ministry of Education).

The popular talk is that the Chinese are very angry about the Ministry of Education dragging its feet on recognising the Unified Examination Certificate (UEC) qualification plus on the plan to introduce Jawi as part of the Bahasa Malaysia (or Bahasa Melayu) curriculum. It is said the issue of Dr Zakir Naik in the examination question was “the last straw that broke the camel’s back”, so say some critics.

Anyway, whatever it is that triggered the sacking of Maszlee and whatever may have been the bones of contention, the bottom-line is there is much unhappiness with Pakatan Harapan, plus the ruling coalition is very badly divided. Pakatan Harapan has failed to live up to the expectations of those who had put their trust in them and had voted for them in the May 2018 general election.

Based on the GE14 election promises, plus what was stated in Pakatan Harapan’s election manifesto, the voters were promised a land of milk and honey and roads paved in gold. Taxes and toll charges would be abolished, education and healthcare would be improved and free of charge, the cost of living would come down, one million new jobs would be created, one million new affordable homes would be built, abuse of power and corruption would be zero so that the savings on corruption can offset the loss of income from the removal of the GST, and so on.

In short, within two years from May 2018, that is by May 2020, the aspirations of Vision 2020 or Wawasan 2020 would be realised. Malaysia would join the four Asian Tigers of Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea and Taiwan and would become the fifth Asian Tiger.

After that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would retire and would hand the post of Malaysia’s eighth Prime Minister to Anwar Ibrahim, as promised before the GE14.

Malaysia is supposed to be the fifth Asian Tiger by 2020, now postponed to 2030

But all that did not happen. So, they need to find a scapegoat to blame for it.

When they made those promises they did not realise how bad Malaysia’s situation is. When they made those promises they did not think they would win the general election and hence would actually have to deliver those promises. There is a ‘Deep State’ in the government secretly sabotaging the government’s effort to deliver its promises. Election promises or manifestos are not the Bible that needs to be strictly observed.

In short, whatever the reason may be, real or fabricated, Pakatan Harapan cannot deliver its promises to the voters.

Many GE14 promises were supposed to have been delivered on 10th May 2018

But why must Maszlee alone pay for it? Many others have fallen short as well. To say that Maszlee must go because the Chinese are not happy with him and that Pakatan Harapan cannot afford to offend the Chinese is not a good enough reason because there are others who the Chinese are not also happy with — Lim Guan Eng as one example.

The long and short of it is Mahathir needs to remove a PPBM Minister. If he removes Guan Eng, another DAP Chinese will take his place. Mahathir needs to create a vacancy in the Cabinet for a Malay from PPBM. And that is why Maszlee needed to be sacked.

Is Maszlee’s sacking to pave the way for Mukhriz to become the new Prime Minister-in-waiting

In that case, which Malay from PPBM not yet in the Cabinet is going to be brought in to the Cabinet? Is it Mukhriz Mahathir? And who is going to replace Mukhriz as the new Kedah Menteri Besar? Is Mukhriz slotted to become the new Prime Minister-in-waiting? What is going to happen to Anwar Ibrahim then? Is it true that Anwar is going to go down (pun not intended) on the Sodomy 3 issue? Is it true that PDRM is looking into six new sodomy cases involving Anwar?

Yes, questions, questions, questions, and no answers in sight. The Maszlee sacking appears to be a straight forward case of poor performance and many blunders. But with Mahathir nothing is straight forward so you need to look at the behind the scenes shenanigans to see a clearer picture.

One thing that is very clear is the pressure on Mahathir to retire and hand power to Anwar by or before May 2020 has increased. But with Mahathir you cannot apply pressure. The more pressure you apply the more he will fight back. Hence expect fireworks after the New Year’s Eve display of three days ago.