June Double Jeopardy: A crescendo for BN, contingency plans for PKR

With the price hike of RON95 postponed to a slightly later date, it is clear that the 13th General Election will be held this year. And after that the price will skyrocket. That is the view of the opposition leaders and sad to say, the man on the street as well.

While some pundits favour July as the election month, some opt for later in the year after the presentation of the Budget scheduled for early October.

Whatever it is, one thing is for sure: BN's first step is to destroy Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim and his PKR party. To this end, they have put into motion 'The June Double Jeopardy' move, named as such because BN plans to execute 2 moves in June:-

1. have PKR de-registered on 9th June; and

2. have Anwar convicted on 30th June.

It is a given that in any war, it is best to win without going into battle proper. And if one wants to win without fighting, it is imperative first of all to get rid of one's enemies so that one need not ride to the battlefield.

To get rid of one's enemies, covert and overt measures are used.

In ancient China, one such move would be to sneak into the enemy camp and poison the enemy's food or water supply even before the first arrow has been shot.

In modern-day Malaysia, the equivalent would be to get the Opposition knocked out even before the battle has even begun, which is to get the opposition party de-registered so that none of its candidates can stand in the elections.

As the party that has to brace itself for the main impact of the BN attack, PKR is the Central Flank in the battlefield with PAS and DAP making up the Right Flank and Left Flank respectively. With the Central Flank destroyed, it would be easy for BN to move in to wipe-out the right and left flanks.

Therefore, it is of paramount importance to the Opposition that the Central Flank must hold

For BN, a crescendo soon: For PKR, contingency plans

Malaysia Chronicle spoke Lee Boon Chye, PKR MP for Gopeng who stressed that if PKR is de-registered on 9th June, it would be the joke of the century.

The PKR constitution states very clearly that disciplinary matters cannot be challenged in any court of law because it is the party's Supreme Council that has been empowered to make the final decision.

"If PKR is de-registered due to the sacking of a party member, then this is a decision that is politically motivated as there is no basis for such an action," Boon Chye told Malaysia Chronicle.

"Secondly, a person who is not even a party member cannot be sacked from the party in the first place."

He slammed the Registrar of Societies for not taking the trouble to write to PKR and obtain a clarification on whether the purportedly sacked member had any locus standi to complain in the first place.

To add to the farce, he added, the person named in RoS's show-cause letter to PKR was not even a party member.

But ridiculous or not, politics in Malaysia is veering into a very ugly world of might-is-right, where the truth is turned upside so that lies can flourish and prevail.

Indeed, Anwar's sodomy charges, the Datuk T sex video, the assassination attempt on him and the kidnap threat against his grand-daughter are some of highlights that have marked Malaysian politics in the two years since Najib Razak became prime minister, rather than any groundbreaking policy.

Najib has himself infamously declared that BN will defend Putrajaya at all costs. As such, Pakatan especially PKR had better brace for all manner of attacks from BN.

According to PKR MP for Kuantan Fuziah Salleh, party leaders have discussed contingency plans and prepared themselves mentally to fight back. However, she declined to reveal what some of those fall-back maneuvers could be.

"BN wants to stop Anwar from reaching out to the rakyat. They have refused to approve his application for permits to speak at ceramahs. But we are a very resourceful party in terms of ideas, even though we may not have that much resources in terms of finance. Somehow we have always managed to come up with alternatives," Fuziah toldMalaysia Chronicle.

"BN will keep striking at the nerve centre of our party, which is Anwar. I think he can take it, but obviously, it must be very tough for him," added Fuziah.

As Fuziah put it, BN hopes to paralyse the whole of Pakatan by shutting down PKR.

In Chinese kung-fu movies, the martial arts exponents always try to strike at the nerve centre of the opponent and when this is done, the opponent is rendered motionless.

"June will be the month to watch. We expect the current spate of BN-induced insanity to peak next month before their leaders pull back a bit and play good-guys again. That's when the PM will dissolve Parliament and announce the election dates," PKR vice president Tian Chua told Malaysia Chronicle.

- Malaysia Chronicle