The Mahathir Gambit Is Merely To Stay Out Of Jail

Mahathir wants the Forex RCI to look like it is political persecution, which is why he purposely held a press conference to announce the Pakatan Harapan lineup if and when they come to power after PRU14. The impression Mahathir wants to create is Najib is using the Bank Negara forex scandal as the excuse to put him in jail. Hence Najib is trying to put Mahathir in jail not because he stole US$10 billion of Bank Negara’s money but because he is going to help Anwar to become Prime Minister. Thus he kills two birds with one stone. He stops Anwar from testifying against him plus he plays the victim of political persecution.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

If you try to ‘read’ Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s latest move purely in isolation it would appear like a normal run-of-the-mill political exercise. However, when it comes to Mahathir, there is nothing normal or run-of-the-mill in his moves. Every time Mahathir turns right he really wants to go left.

Those who know Mahathir very well have said many times before: you have to judge Mahathir not by what he says but by what he does not say — and, of course, by what he does. Only then will you not fall victim to his shenanigans. Mahathir can hug you and anoint you as his successor one day and then sack you the next day as someone immoral and unfit to become Prime Minister.

So what is Mahathir up to with his latest move of announcing the Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup? And we must note that, strange as it may seem, it is Mahathir who is doing all the announcing even though he is not even a Member of Parliament and is self-appointed and has never been elected the party leader.

Simple. Mahathir wants to make it appear like he is the Prime Minister-in-waiting so that if the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) reveals that he has committed a crime in the US$10 billion disaster that Bank Negara suffered, and the government decides to take criminal action against him, he will scream that they are taking action against him not because he has committed a crime but because of political persecution.

Mahathir wants to create the impression he is in charge of Pakatan Harapan so that he can say they are going after him because of that rather than because of Bank Negara’s US$10 billion that disappeared into thin air

Mahathir knows this so-called Pakatan Harapan leadership lineup can never happen. First of all, Pakatan Harapan must win at least 112 parliament seats to march into Putrajaya. However, 112 seats is too risky so they need to aim for at least 125 to be safe. And currently they are struggling to win even 85, let alone 125. What they are hoping for is that many of the Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament from Sabah and Sarawak will defect to Pakatan Harapan, giving them that additional 40 seats or so they require.

So, in short, Pakatan Harapan is not going to win the seats in the general election. They are hoping to win those seats via defections, which Rafizi Ramli himself confirmed. And it cannot be just a handful of defections but at least 40 or so, which comes to about 20% of the Members of Parliament, not an easy feat. But then Pakatan Harapan is always one for day-dreaming — like when they guaranteed Malaysians 30 Barisan Nasional Members of Parliament were going to defect on 16th September 2008 but never happened.

Anyway, most in Pakatan Harapan know that expecting to form the next government though 40 defections is a bit too far-fetched. And without the defections there is no way Pakatan Harapan is going to form the next federal government.

So it does not matter if Mahathir wants to announce that he is the Chairman of Pakatan Harapan or that he is the Prime Minister-in-waiting or that he will be the temporary seventh Prime Minister while they wait for Anwar to be released from jail to take over as the eighth Prime Minister. All that is not going to happen and is just window-dressing to con the Malays to vote for Pakatan Harapan.

And what the hell is ketua umum anyway? That system comes from Indonesia and means party president. And that post is elected and not self-appointed. So you have party president and then you have ketua umum, which is also party president, but self-appointed. What con-game are they trying to play here?

Mahathir promises he will help Anwar get out of jail hoping that this will stop Anwar from testifying at the RCI investigating the US$10 billion of Bank Negara’s money that disappeared

The job of securing Anwar’s release will be under the new Prime Minister. And the avenue will be a pardon from His Majesty the Agong. Why should the Agong pardon Anwar when in the first place Anwar has not asked to be pardoned? Asking for a pardon must first start with expression of regret and remorse and Anwar is not regretful or remorseful. In fact, he is the opposite to regretful and remorseful. He is stubborn and defiant by insisting he did no wrong and is the victim of a sham trial.

The conditions under which Anwar is not asking for a pardon but still expects one to be given anyway means he is never going to get that pardon. And that means he is never going to be the eighth Prime Minister. So Mahathir is talking nonsense and Pakatan Harapan knows that. Mahathir is pretending he is warming the seat for Anwar and pretending that as soon as Pakatan Harapan takes over he will make sure that efforts are made to get Anwar released from jail so that he can become the eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia.

Mahathir knows he is not going to be the seventh Prime Minister and neither is Anwar going to become the eighth Prime Minister. The person who is going to become the seventh Prime Minister will be the person who DAP says is going to become the seventh Prime Minister — and that goes for his deputy as well. DAP is going to win around 50 parliament seats and since that means they won the most number of seats they get to decide who becomes Prime Minister, just like they decided who got to become the Perak Menteri Besar back in 2008.

Anwar wants His Majesty the Agong to grant him a pardon without applying for one

The fact that Mahathir first announced that there will be a temporary Prime Minister and then did a U-turn and retracted his statement shows that DAP does not agree to this. There is no such thing as temporary Prime Minister. And the party with just one parliament seat does not make that decision.

DAP knows Mahathir is just shooting blanks. He acts like he is charge and that he makes all the decisions when the party that holds the most seats in Parliament, and not the party that has just one seat, is in charge and makes all the decisions. But DAP has no problem if Mahathir wants to make-believe that he calls the shots. As long as Mahathir will continue attacking Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, Umno and Barisan Nasional, he can act however he likes and do whatever turns him on, especially if that can attract the Malays votes.

Mahathir is scared shit about what the RCI is going to announce. He knows that he is not going to be let off so easily like in the Perwaja and PKFZ cases where all he had to do was to say he forgot and they closed the files on those cases. This time they are not only going all out for him but they will try to get back all that wealth he stole as well. And we are talking about tens of billions.

So Mahathir has to build up this illusion that he is the Prime Minister-in-waiting, he is going to decide who gets to become both the seventh and eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia, and he is going to ensure that Anwar Ibrahim gets released from jail not long after Pakatan Harapan takes over the government.

Mahathir wants the Forex RCI to look like it is political persecution, which is why he purposely held a press conference to announce the Pakatan Harapan lineup if and when they come to power after PRU14. The impression Mahathir wants to create is Najib is using the Bank Negara forex scandal as the excuse to put him in jail.

Hence Najib is trying to put Mahathir in jail not because he stole US$10 billion of Bank Negara’s money but because he is going to help Anwar to become Prime Minister. Thus he kills two birds with one stone. He stops Anwar from testifying against him plus he plays the victim of political persecution.