With Muhyiddin dropped, what now Mahathir?

Isn’t it ironic that the good, the bad and the nasty that Mahathir Mohamad groomed as a check-and-balance to Najib has now been replaced with the nastier?

COMMENT

By J D Lovrenciear

The highly speculated Cabinet reshuffle has finally taken place and been made known. Looking at the line-up it is not a re-shuffle. It is a checkmate. Question is, against who and why?

Former Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad must be forewarned. Your signature political recipe of the past has finally cooked you too. You have been checkmated by the Najib Administration with the removal of his deputy Muhiyuddin Yassin and several others. Former Law Minister Zaid Ibrahim can keep harping outside the ring, but who cares?

Next, making Zahid Hamidi his deputy prime minister against a widely held belief that Najib’s cousin would be the preferred choice, drives home a hard message to anyone still plotting to stand by Mahathir’s agenda to remove Najib Razak as prime minister.

Remember, Zahid is someone who will not hesitate to punch someone he does not like squarely in the face. Remember the incident of his daughter’s potential suitor? Even his reported remarks in the blurred face of Muhyiddin on the latter’s public spat over 1Malaysia Development Berhad is a good enough cue.

Isn’t it ironic that the good, the bad and the nasty that Mahathir groomed as a check-and-balance to Najib has now been replaced with the nastier?

Henceforth, it is a straight road ahead for the pro-Najib camp. Sorry guys and girls who still want to holler from the narrowing gulley of the Opposition race track. Sounds horrible, but Najib has proven that it is either his way or no way. And that is also the price to pay for thinking and saying that it would have been more dangerous to have former Opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim a free man to contest in the next general election.

While we may remain glued to the political scene playing out to the hilt for now, we must also connect the dots to the sphere of global politics.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) is extremely critical for the US to carve another lease for its economic strength to shoulder its political position in this part of the world where an imminent Moscow-Beijing-New Delhi union must be weakened at all costs.

Hence Cuba and Kuala Lumpur will enjoy great immunity and support from the Barack Obama Administration. They already have, with the upgrading of Malaysia’s human rights abuses from Tier 3 to Tier 2 as Najib merely cashes in while the season is high. Sorry Tun, you are cooked meat.

So, which side of the fence do we sit on? Will your moral compass take over or will realigning to a safer and more ‘realistic’ disposition be your mantra for survival?

What we are witnessing in all probability is only the beginning of more perilous times not just for Malaysia but South-east Asia.

If you have driven up to the narrowest point of south Thailand you probably will go away scratching your head wondering what a dual-carriage highway is doing in this out-of-nowhere spot. Well, the truth is if China bulldozes with its half-way completed plans of opening up the Isthmus of Kra where Singapore could well end up favourably as port managers, you know it is a done deal for an open war by the US. They will need Malaysia more than ever before. So, the Najib Administration is cashing in early, folks.

Gosh, what a nightmare!

J D Lovrenciear is an FMT reader.