The strange case of Harapan++

“To cast in it with Hyde was to die a thousand interests and aspirations.” 

― Robert Louis Stevenson, The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde

Liew Chin Tong’s article about the strange case of Muhyiddin Yasin does no favours for the DAP, nor does it inspire much confidence in Harapan.

I found it queer that Chin Tong, who is a DAP strategist, had an almost naive view of his relationship with the current prime minister and one of the main architects of Harapan’s downfall.

Of course, Muhyiddin was amiable and a political operative filled with crushed dreams after a long servitude to the old maverick. And of course, he would foist the three flags at the opportune moment because he is a political operative with a history of service to the old maverick.

If anything, Chin Tong’s article is a blueprint of how everything went wrong with Harapan and of how political operatives were pulling the wool over the eyes of their respective bases, while engaging in the kind of behaviour that they always accused the former BN of doing.

I mean, not only was the Harapan regime reneging on its manifesto promise, but they were also enabling forces within the alliance to plot and scheme all the while and demonise critics who were sounding the alarm bells. Remember the time when dissension within Harapan was deemed "fake news"?

Honestly, some folks from Harapan told me that Azmin Ali was operating out in the open, which didn’t surprise me, but what is galling is the way how the DAP and the pro-Anwar Ibrahim faction were sitting idly by while Harapan burnt.

I have no idea why MCA’s Ti Lian Ker got his underwear in a twist about what Chin Tong (below) wrote, but I am happy to note that MCA has learnt nothing from all of this and continue to stick the foot in the mouth at every turn.

If you are a Harapan supporter, you can safely conclude that nothing most political operatives say about the internal politics of Harapan is worth believing. So when Anwar skips a presser with Dr Mahathir Mohamad while Lim Guan Eng and Mat Sabu look as if they are attending a wake, you should understand that the good ship Harapan is heading into a storm.

Anwar claims that this was not a Harapan press conference but rather a press conference where individuals aired their views,  but when you have the leaders of your alliance sitting with Dr M, it just looks as if we are in for another round of the kind politics that brought us to this sorry state.

Having said that, it was good for Anwar to ditch the presser. It is about time he demonstrated some cajones and assumed a leadership role in Harapan beyond just being a handmaid to Bersatu. I have no idea why the Harapan leadership is continuing with their dalliance with Mahathir.

Mahathir's Bersatu has already demonstrated that a majority of the leadership does not want to have anything to do with Harapan. What exactly is the point of anyone in Harapan – and this includes Mahathir and his remaining allies in Bersatu – carrying on a kind of “understanding” with Bersatu?

Has Bersatu and any other Malay power structures in Harapan come out and laid waste to the propaganda of Umno and PAS, using every weapon in their arsenal when Harapan was in power? 

Did they bring legal challenges against Umno and PAS for lying about the government? Have they used the state security apparatus – as they have in other cases – to prosecute the lies and propaganda-makers of the Umno/PAS union?

No, they have not. What they did is bend over backwards and claiming to want to carry out the bumiputera agenda without apology.

If anything, as Chin Tong admitted in his article, the DAP never failed Muhyiddin any time he asked for a favour, yet Harapan and the DAP got stabbed in the back, for a Malay/Muslim unity government. 

If the DAP was so slavish to Muhyiddin, can you imagine how they were to the old maverick?

If Mahathir had just committed to the Harapan reforms - and did not plot and scheme as if he was a young politician with a future instead of an alleged kleptocrat and avowed strongman who was given a shot to change his record - he would have been remembered as the father of a New Malaysia, instead of a traitor who rode roughshod over those who voted Harapan.

Even now, Mahathir and his allies – what’s left of them – could commit to Harapan and Anwar, but they choose not to. Instead, they desperately cling on to the hope that Muhyiddin will fail and the rats will return to the ship.

Anwar believes that Perikatan Nasional (PN) will not last until GE15. However, what is the alternative? A cobbled-together Harapan alliance where everyone is paying homage to the old maverick and the traitors who switched camps? Another round of who will be PM, all the while denying that there is anything wrong with Harapan?

Anwar (above) says this is not about personalities, but rather the reform agenda. Fair enough, but the way I see it, for better or worse, Anwar is the reform agenda. If he is prime minister and the agenda fails, then it is on him. There will be no more excuses as to why the agenda failed.

Look at how ridiculous the situation has become. The old maverick pinned a sex charge on Anwar and this ruined his (Anwar’s) political standing among the conservative Malay voters. Meanwhile, Azmin, who was allegedly involved in a sex video, is closer to the seat of power than any of the other hacks in PN.

Azmin survived the scandal because of the alleged patronage of the old maverick and connivance of the important players in the Harapan state. And yet Azmin gets to play the race and religion card with the full support of the establishment. 

The Malay political establishment, time and again, demonstrates that it has different rules for Anwar. Azmin is a prime example. His sex scandal, his naked ambition and his treachery are rewarded by the establishment.

The old maverick still goes on about how Anwar does not have Malay support and that Bersatu is needed to get the Malay vote. Keep in mind that non-Malays supported Mahathir for decades. Even the old maverick acknowledged that the non-Malays supported him when the Malay establishment was against him. 

In a way, you could make the argument that more Malays knew and rejected what Mahathir was, compared with the majority of non-Malays who propped him up for decades and who he is relying on now to do the same. 

Of course, Anwar having the support of the non-Malays is a bad thing.

Harapan should understand that Mahathir needs Harapan and not the other way round.

Harapan and Anwar should start acting as such.

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S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. A retired barrister-at-law, he is one of the founding members of Persatuan Patriot Kebangsaan. - Mkini