Yesterday’s Vote Of No Confidence Against Mahathir Abandoned Last Minute

I have said this before and I will say it again. No one is going to become Prime Minister unless Bukit Aman allows it. It was Bukit Aman who sent Anwar to jail in 1998. It was Bukit Aman who ousted Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2009. It was Bukit Aman who ousted Najib in 2018. And it will be Bukit Aman who decides if Anwar will be the next Prime Minister and when that will be.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

It was supposed to be a shock-and-awe exercise. Yesterday, Anwar Ibrahim’s ‘hitman’ was supposed to stand up in Parliament just after the opening of Parliament and call for a vote of confidence against Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

However, Anwar could not get the majority he needed. Sabah and Sarawak were not with him. PAS was not with him. Umno was not with him. Only DAP, Amanah and part of PKR were. So, Anwar was unable get the 112 votes that would be required to pull off the coup, let alone the 130 votes that he originally thought he could get.

is is the trouble with Anwar. He always counts his chickens before they hatch and ends up believing his own lies. Anwar really needs to do a reality check from time to time.

The planned vote of no confidence against Mahathir was aborted at the eleventh hour

In September 1998, he counted his chickens and thought he had the majority in the Umno Supreme Council to be able to kick Mahathir out and take over as Umno President and subsequently as Malaysia’s Fifth Prime Minister. Anwar ended up with only three votes and the rest, of course, is history.

In September 2008, Anwar again counted his chickens and thought he had enough seats to oust Barisan Nasional and for Pakatan Rakyat take over the Federal Government on 16th September 2008. And, yet gain, Anwar fell far short and the ’16 September’ exercise flopped.

Then came the ‘Kajang Move’ in 2014 that was supposed to keep Anwar out of jail and elevate him to the post of Selangor Menteri Besar. Anwar not only failed to become the Selangor Menteri Besar but he ended up in jail for the third time in his life.

Anwar Ibrahim the three-time loser who thinks being PM is his birth-right

That is Anwar Ibrahim, a three-time loser, who thinks he is God’s gift to Malaysia and that the post of Eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia is his birth-right and Allah’s Grand Design for the country.

Anwar chickened out yesterday. Bukit Aman knew that yesterday was D-Day for the vote of no confidence against Mahathir and the security forces was on stand-by, expecting trouble on the streets.

Bukit Aman is not ruling out the possibility that Anwar might try again later this month if he can swing Sabah and Sarawak to support his vote of no confidence. But as far as Umno and PAS are concerned, it is no go.

Clare Rewcastle Brown has restarted her attacks on Sarawak’s Taib Mahmud

Meanwhile, Sarawak Report has relaunched the attacks on Sarawak Governor Tun Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud to ‘persuade’ him to support Anwar’s vote of no confidence. Sarawak represents 31 parliament seats and are very crucial for the vote of confidence to succeed.

But then Taib’s party controls only 13 of the 57 Sabah and Sarawak seats with another nine seats each for PKR and DAP. So, there are still 26 others who Sarawak Report will need to blackmail.

A coup via a vote of no confidence is not that easy to pull off. If it were then it would have been done back in 1987. The closest they came to a coup via a vote of no confidence was on 16th September 2008. But it failed then, as it failed yesterday.

Mahathir knows he is now safe and Anwar is no longer a threat

The problem Anwar is now facing is that he has shown his hand and it has proved futile. Hence Mahathir now knows he is safe and that Anwar is no threat. Azmin Ali’s trip to Kelantan to promise them their oil royalty payment, after promising Terengganu the same, means the RM2.5 billion year to those two states has closed them to Anwar for good.

From here on it is going to be downhill all the way for Anwar. “Anwar Ibrahim the Eighth Prime Minister of Malaysia” is a pipe-dream, angan-angan Mat Jenin, as the Malays would say.

I have said this before and I will say it again. No one is going to become Prime Minister unless Bukit Aman allows it. It was Bukit Aman who sent Anwar to jail in 1998. It was Bukit Aman who ousted Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi in 2009. It was Bukit Aman who ousted Najib in 2018. And it will be Bukit Aman who decides if Anwar will be the next Prime Minister and when that will be.