Crumbs for mosquitos and slow subjugation of PAS

 

YOURSAY | 'Bersatu is playing PAS between its fingers.'

Majority of PN parties agree to set up presidential, executive councils

Coward: I believe Gerakan and the Malaysian Indian People’s Party (MIPP) are acting purely in their own interests. At the very least, a PAS that is too strong and dominant is not good for them.

These are mosquito parties looking for crumbs within Perikatan Nasional. It may not yet be raining crumbs, but there is clearly potential for more to pick up.

I do not know what crumbs Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin may have promised them, but negotiations with PAS will now commence. This is an opportunity for these two parties to extract a little more.

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As they are not getting anything now, there is no downside, only upside.

If I were PAS, I would be telling myself this: with friends like Bersatu, who needs enemies?

Starting with the Perlis menteri besar episode, Bersatu has been plotting against PAS.

Now we understand why Muhyiddin’s wife, Noorainee Abdul Rahman, did not come out to ask him to stay (as PN chairperson, unlike when she advised him to continue on as Bersatu president in 2023), and why there are no voices in Bersatu calling for him to remain, nor any proposal for an alternative chairperson.

Let us wait for the final coup de grâce: the abolition of the PN chairperson post through a supermajority vote. Bersatu is humiliating PAS. It is attempting to subjugate PAS.

If PAS goes along with this, it risks becoming what DAP once was to Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, or what Umno has become to Bersatu, a partner that laid the foundation for the coalition, only to be sidelined and steadily bled of support.

MIPP and Gerakan are simply along for the ride. They will want to extract the most from this fight between Bersatu and PAS. Their first salvo is to side with Muhyiddin.

However, PAS is capable of offering them more. If PN survives, one of its two Malay pillars will crumble. Ironically, that may be PAS’ strongest bargaining pitch.

An uneasy truce would be worse than an open split. What crumbs can Gerakan and MIPP realistically expect? Even in the best case, they are literal crumbs.

In the worst case, the effort may not be worth it. What can PAS do next? This will be interesting to watch.

As a voter, I must ask: can I really entrust the country to PAS? It cannot even save itself from Bersatu’s simple and predictable manoeuvres.

Its responses so far suggest political naïveté. Bersatu is playing PAS between its fingers; first by firing its assemblypersons, making it easier for Bersatu to take over, and then through despotic shouting that there is no such thing as a “pre-council meeting”, even when the outcome was obvious.

PAS could have stated clearly that it would not agree to anything against its interests and that it would act to protect itself. It did not. If it cannot save itself, how can it save us?

Salvage Malaysia: It does not work. PAS is merely managing administrative functions while Bersatu continues to control the executive.

First, Muhyiddin suddenly resigned as PN chairperson on the pretext of allowing PAS to take over. Then came the proposal to abolish the PN chairperson post entirely, with Muhyiddin re-emerging as chief of the presidential council.

Gerakan and MIPP gladly went along. This is the same playbook used when former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad was removed as Bersatu chairperson.

Soon after, the Bersatu chairperson post itself was abolished. Same old, same old.

Anwar should thank PN for this silly move.

GP2025: Was the idea of a PN presidential council approved by the Bersatu supreme council? Or is it a unilateral decision by Bersatu president backed by his “source” and other close supporters dependent on him for jobs?

This source is hoping that in a presidential council, a chairperson can be elected by the majority. But it won’t work for PN because, apart from Bersatu and PAS, the other parties can’t even deliver one vote.

If they did, it makes sense to factor in their preference in the choice of the chairperson who likely will be the PM-designate.

If a precedent were set, then even a PN party without a constituency could become chairperson of the presidential council. That doesn’t make sense at all.

Right now, only PAS and Bersatu have any electoral standing to choose a PM, and the most practical means for that is a PN chairpersonship.

A presidential council will give undue power to parties without an electoral base.

Kawak: Gerakan and other non-Malay parties in PN function largely as window dressing, meant to project a multiracial image for the coalition.

Yes, they are given opportunities to contest in non-Malay-majority constituencies, but the end result is usually the same. They lose their deposits.

Type Cave Dweller Updates: Mosquitos are disease carriers in PN, PAS may fall sick.

Open minded 2281: Bersatu is using Gerakan and MIPP for their benefit.

Why PAS wants to be with these three non-performing parties is questionable. Might as well be independent.

VP Biden: Even their own partners don't want an Islamic party to lead. Thus, this checkmate.

A marriage of convenience from all angles. - Mkini