BOMBSHELL – A NEW KLEPTOCRACY ORDER IN MALAYSIA – WITH MAHATHIR & MUHYIDDIN POISED TO STRIKE NEW DEAL? BERSATU-UMNO MERGER LOOMS AMID COVID-19 DISTRESS & RED-HOT TALK MUKHRIZ WILL GIVE WAY TO MUHYIDDIN FOR TOP PARTY POST

People who think politicians would not or should not play politics during the Coronavirus pandemic are a bunch of fools. They thought corrupt politicians would give a damn about an outbreak. In every crisis, there is an opportunity. It was absolutely hilarious when former premier Mahathir Mohamad said yesterday that there is no need for popularity contests during Covid-19 outbreak.

As an old fox, he should know better than anyone else that now is the best time to play politics and undermine the incompetent and clueless Muhyiddin government, the same backdoor government whose legitimacy is in question, and the same traitor who had betrayed Mahathir himself by plotting with UMNO crooks and PAS extremists behind his back

Right after a declaration of MCO (movement control order) on March 16, PM Muhyiddin Yassin wasted no time in playing politics when he chaired a special National Action Council meeting the next day with all the chief ministers – except those from the states controlled by opposition Pakatan Harapan, namely Selangor, Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Penang and Sabah.

The comical stunts demonstrated by Health Minster Dr Adham Baba, whose “drink warm water to kill the bloody Coronavirus” formula had shocked the world’s top scientists, and Doraemon Minister Rina Mohd Harun, whose advice to all women to talk and giggle like Doraemon had taken the world by storm, were political moves to impress – but failed – upon the people.

Even the authorities’ pussyfooting in hunting the remaining stubborn Tabligh religious members who refused to come forward to be tested for Covid-19 was a careful political move not to offend the sensitive Malay-Muslim vote bank. There’s a reason why Malaysia is still plagued with 3-digit new cases, despite having the fourth strictest movement control in Asean. Go figure!

The permission for beer makers Heineken and Carlsberg to resume their operations, only to retract it, was a political stunt to divert attention from dozens of screw-ups by Muhyiddin’s half-past-six ministers. The creation of a post – Special Envoy to the Middle East – was a wasteful, yet a necessary political move to pacify PAS president Hadi Awang who did not get to become deputy prime minister.

Acting innocence in front of the TV and portraying a generous government by splashing truckloads of cash to the people was just a smokescreen. The prime minister knew that “cash” could easily blind gullible people. Behind the scene, Muhyiddin spends most of his time playing politics. And his true face is emerging – slowly but surely – as the lockdown enters the second month.

All hell breaks loose after Islamist party PAS secretary-general and de-facto Law Minister Takiyuddin Hassan announced that all MPs (Members of Parliament) of the Perikatan Nasional backdoor government who currently do not hold positions in government will be made heads of GLCs (government linked companies). It means the scumbag politicians will rob more taxpayers’ money.

GLCs are companies that have a primary commercial objective and in which the Malaysian Government has a direct controlling stake. In essence, they are business entities, not political parties. Exactly how could corrupt and extreme politicians add value to private or public companies? Still, some shameless politicians could justify such daylight robbery.

Mohd Zuhdi Marzuki, a PAS central committee member with “IQ of a carrot”, claimed if all the MPs can be appointed as chairpersons of government linked companies, they can act as the people’s representatives to “monitor” those companies. Sure, what could possibly go wrong. The last time a politician was put in charge of Tabung Haji, he happily laundered RM139.3 million.

Yes, we’re talking about UMNO warlord Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim (former Tabung Haji chairman) and his brother Abdul Latif, who had abused their position to enrich themselves with corruption and money laundering. Similarly, former Felcra chairman Bung Moktar and his wife Zizie Izette had taken bribes in a RM150 million investment in Public Mutual unit trust products.

In fact, the Tabung Haji was so screwed up that by December 2015, Zeti Akhtar Aziz, Governor of Bank Negara (Central Bank) sent two letters to the chairman of the fund, Abdul Azeez and copied to the then-PM Najib Razak, who was also the Finance Minister – warning that the pilgrims’ fund was on the brink of collapse and a massive bail out by taxpayers may be required.

Thanks to the corrupt Barisan Nasional regime, which Muhyiddin is partnering now, taxpayers’ money to the tune of RM17.8 billion was used in a bail out exercise to rescue Tabung Haji, who had been illegally distributing “hibah” to depositors since 2014 and even cooked its books to justify paying extraordinary dividend in a business engagement called “get-rich-quick scheme“.

The previous Pakatan Harapan government, which despicable Muhyiddin had toppled, had also rescued Felda with RM6.3 billion of taxpayers’ money due to crooks and thieves like former Felda chairman Isa Samad and former PM Najib Razak. In total, a whopping RM24 billion was spent to bailout Tabung Haji (Hajj Pilgrims Fund) and Felda alone.

And do we need to start on 1MDB (1Malaysia Development Bhd) scandal, a sovereign wealth fund, which had accumulated a staggering debt of RM50.75 billion? Not only Najib appointed himself chairman of the board of advisers of 1MDB, he also paid himself RM120,000 per year as allowances – on top of plundering at least US$4.5 billion (RM19.5 billion), according to U.S. Department of Justice.

But we know why Mr. Mahathir appears to have accepted Muhyiddin as his successor, despite his initial cries that he was incredibly sad with the betrayal of his most trusted lieutenant. The 94-year-old fox was the real puppet master who had given his blessing for Muhyiddin to topple his own government. The coup was to deny PM-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim from taking over the leadership.

In the same breath, Mahathir could use Muhyiddin as his proxy to tap into the 6-million support base of UMNO and PAS to retain power. On its own, Mahathir’s weak party Bersatu (PPBM) had only 25 seats in the 222-seat Parliament. Not only had the old man stolen 11 MPs from Anwar’s PKR party with the defection of Azmin Ali’s faction, Bersatu now controls PAS’ 18 MPs and UMNO’s 39 MPs.

The sudden migration of 11 MPs linked to Azmin, who was caught in a gay sex video scandal, has increased Bersatu’s “direct and indirect” number of MPs to 36. We had said this a dozen of times and we’ll say this again. Mahathir’s endgame is to merge his party with UMNO. And now Kadir Jasin, Mahathir’s media and communications adviser, has admitted that possibility.

The idea of giving every UMNO and PAS MP (who had not been given a minister or a deputy minister post) a chairmanship in GLCs is clearly a despicable act of bribery to buy the loyalty of allies, especially UMNO warlords. With Bersatu’s strength ballooned to 36 MPs, it can now negotiate – on an equal level – with UMNO’s 39 MPs to form a new Malay party that possesses 75 MPs.

Of course, now that his proxy Muhyiddin is in the driver’s seat, Mahathir could save the embarrassing moment of having to rub shoulders and sharing jokes and laughters with the same UMNO crooks whom he had despised and condemned earlier, such as Najib Razak, Zahid Hamidi, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim, Tengku Adnan, Bung Moktar.

Whether he realizes it or not, the disgraceful PM Muhyiddin is building a “New Kleptocracy Order” – feeding all the power-hungry, immoral and corrupt politicians from UMNO and PAS with a bloated Cabinet of 71 ministers and chairmanships in GLCs. Mr. Kadir should stop insulting people’s intelligence by constantly trumpeting that Mahathir would not accept UMNO en bloc.

Perhaps he should explain the speculation that his boss’ son, Mukhriz Mahathir, may not challenge the so-called traitor Muhyiddin for the presidency of Bersatu. If indeed Mahathir can’t stomach the prospect of the return of crooks like Najib Razak and Zahid Hamidi to power, should not Muhyiddin be denied his chance to retain his post uncontested in the upcoming Bersatu election?

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