Some believed that Muhyiddin Yassin had outfoxed the old fox Mahathir Mohamad in the coup that toppled his own Pakatan Harapan government. If that is true, then surely Mr. Muhyiddin, a pancreatic cancer survivor, was clever enough to have a plan on how to control his new allies – UMNO and PAS – once he became the 8th Prime Minister.
So, what’s the next step after forming the “Malay-only” backdoor government with UMNO Malay nationalist party and Islamist party PAS? PM Muhyiddin appeared to be clueless, except to keep giving in to the demands of his corrupt and greedy allies. If you think his already bloated 72 ministries Cabinet was bad, wait till you hear how many GLCs have been abused.
To ensure his survival, the weak and lame prime minister has also irresponsibly given away chairmanship in about 30 GLCs (government-linked companies) to dozens of warlords of UMNO and PAS whose lust for power and position were shockingly uncontrollable. Heck, even the “six-million-dollar-man” Tajuddin Abdul Rahman was appointed as Prasarana chairperson.
The simple fact that Muhyiddin was not in the driver seat of the backdoor Perikatan Nasional government proves that he was not the so-called genius architect of the coup. He was just a pawn in a chess game of Godfather Mahathir. The current split in the Bersatu (PPBM) party was deliberately designed so that the old man can control both sides of the political divide.
The plan was to kill many birds with a stone – to deny PM-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim from becoming the next PM, to stop Bersatu’s dwindling support among Malays, to tap into UMNO and PAS Malay zombie-like voters and of course, to rejoin or merge Bersatu with UMNO. After failing to entice UMNO MPs to join Bersatu, Mahathir had no choice but to rejoin his former party.
Mr. Mahathir has never denied his evil intention of leaving the Pakatan Harapan coalition. It was just about the right timing when to leave. By staging the greatest show on the planet, his faction, which includes his son, Syed Saddiq, Amiruddin Hamzah, Maszlee Malik and 9 MPs from Sabah-based Warisan plus UPKO (1), Parti Bersatu Sarawak (1) and independent Baru Bian (1) – acts as a fallback plan.
Together with 92 MPs (DAP 42, PKR 39, and Amanah 11) from former ally Pakatan Harapan (PH), Mahathir could swing 109 opposition parliamentarians, just short of 3 MPs, to form a new government with a simple majority. Considering Mahathir’s bloc of 17 MPs, the PH realised it has to open to the possibility of working again with the same old man who had played them.
PM Muhyiddin now has only one option – to rejoin his former corrupt party, UMNO, if he does not wish to lose everything. The national cooperation between UMNO and PAS, glorified as “Muafakat Nasional” under the pretext of Malay-unity, will almost certainly divide the seats between themselves in the next general election, leaving nothing for Muhyiddin’s Bersatu at all.
Exactly why should UMNO and PAS share the spoils of the kingdom with Bersatu when both parties can win all the Malay-majority parliament seats themselves by playing racial and religious extremism? It’s hilarious when UMNO president Zahid Hamidi suddenly asked the party members to stop making demands because UMNO is not in a “dominant” position in the backdoor government.
Sure, after squeezing almost 99% of the necessary chairmanship in the GLCs for UMNO warlords, the corrupt crook called Zahid Hamidi now talks like a saint and wants everyone to stop demanding from the poor PM Muhyiddin. Perhaps he should explain why UMNO, armed with 39 MPs (excluding 2 MCA and 1 MIC), is not a dominant party when Muhyiddin’s faction has only 31 MPs.
In conjunction with the party’s 74th anniversary, the disgraced Zahid apparently gave the order through UMNO’s Facebook page, despite his leaked letter dated April 16 demanding that the prime minister appoints four Sabah UMNO leaders (Bung Moktar Radin, Mohamad Alamin, Rahman Dahlan and Yakubah Khan) to government positions not only at federal but also at the state level.
The latest melodrama was to stop making Muhyiddin like a lame duck. More importantly, the next phase appears ready for Muhyiddin to rejoin UMNO. A week ago, six-million-dollar-man Tajuddin Abdul Rahman, who happens to be an UMNO supreme council member, was tasked to test the water by inviting the backdoor prime minister to return to his former party.
In the same interview on UMNO’s Facebook page, UMNO president Zahid has dropped the strongest signal that the party is ready to welcome back PM Muhyiddin. Despite possessing an “IQ of a carrot”, Zahid talked like a scientist about DNA, lecturing about all Malaysian prime ministers having UMNO DNA – including Mahathir (7th Prime Minister) and Muhyiddin (8th Prime Minister).
Obviously, the sudden call for all UMNO leaders to stop asking for positions, let alone questioning Muhyiddin leadership, is to pave the way to facilitate the prime minister’s return with dignity to his good old party. Such tone was different from that of UMNO deputy president Mohamad Hasan, who announced that the Perikatan Nasional was just a loose political cooperation.
In fact, the UMNO No. 2 strongman told all and sundry that UMNO, being the country’s largest Malay-based political party, will field candidates in all seats that it has traditionally contested, not to mention those seats it has the potential to win in the next general election. Essentially, UMNO will fight Bersatu heads on when the time comes for the nationwide poll.
But how could Muhyiddin fit into the picture since Zahid is already the UMNO president. True, by tradition, the UMNO president becomes the de-facto prime minister. But it’s not cast in stone. Muhyiddin, fond of his “Malay first” racist stand, could rejoin UMNO and still continue his premiership by way of a special circumstances or special provisions.
After all, bending rules to suit their personal purposes are like breakfast to power-hungry UMNO leaders. Zahid Hamidi said in the same interview – “God willing, PM9 (9th Prime Minister) will be from UMNO (again).” Yes, not only it increasingly looks like Muhyiddin is getting ready to go back to UMNO, at the same time Zahid fantasizes about becoming the next PM.
UMNO leaders can accept the return of Muhyiddin largely due to the fact that the prime minister’s health will not allow him to serve for long. It would be a perfect solution. Muhyiddin is very eager to go back to his beloved party before he kicks the bucket, while UMNO will be strengthened with the return of Muhyiddin followers back to their “Mothership”.
How UMNO leaders treat Muhyiddin after the merger exercise is a crucial litmus test on whether Mahathir and his son Mukhriz will follow suit at a later stage. However, if Muhyiddin were to rejoin UMNO, what will happen to his lieutenant – Azmin Ali? Judging by the recent open warfare, where the Senior Minister Azmin was butchered like a pig, there seems to be no place in UMNO for him.
Azmin, who was caught with his pants down enjoying gay sex at Four Points Sheraton Hotel in Sandakan, Sabah, had reportedly moved – quietly – into the office and residence of the Deputy Prime Minister. For proclaiming himself as the second most powerful man, he was grilled by UMNO for his failure to get a consensus from all state governments before announcing the new rules to reopen businesses post-lockdown.
It’s unthinkable to imagine the PKR traitor would shamelessly follow Muhyiddin into UMNO, where he is unwanted. Azmin is considered as an outsider, what more with his gay sex scandal. The last thing UMNO wants in the party is a homosexual or bisexual or whatever you want to call him, not after they have repeatedly mocked and insulted opposition Anwar Ibrahim as a homosexual.
Well, Muhyiddin can’t babysit Azmin forever. The gay minister can form a new party or join an existing party like Gerakan, provided the party does not mind being tainted with a leader with a peculiar hobby. His party can then become UMNO-friendly. Still, without a strong base, the neither-here-nor-there Gerakan or a new party of Azmin cannot add value in the next general election.
Even if Azmin’s new party is allowed to play along, he definitely can’t be the de-facto deputy PM. Heck, it’s not even certain if he can retain his Senior Minister post, let alone the powerful and lucrative Ministry of International Trade and Industry. Like it or not, he will be demoted. And there’s no guarantee that the 10 PKR defectors whom be brought along to join Bersatu will not leave him.
Perhaps Mr. Nice Guy Anwar Ibrahim, who proclaimed himself as the world’s most patient and confident man, will accept Azmin Ali back to PKR party. However, whether DAP can accept the traitor or not is another issue. If Bersatu cannot survive without a merger with UMNO, chances are Azmin’s party (if he decides to go solo) will be crushed and slaughtered like a pig too.
FINANCE TWITTER
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.