PH should address ‘elephant in the room’

THE elephant in the room in Malaysian politics right now is Pakatan Nasional.

There is intense talk that a new government is in the making and it involves almost all parties and MPs except from DAP, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and MPs loyal to the PKR president, and Datuk Seri Najib Razak and parliamentarians aligned to the former prime minister.

Such a plot to replace the Pakatan Harapan (PH) government is clearly present, but there are politicians who ignore the elephant in the room. Or perhaps, they are in denial.

They claimed that the PH government is stable and slammed reports on Pakatan Nasional, terming it “fake news”.

However, a day later, the same politicians admitted that Pakatan Nasional was a “clear and present danger” which will allow PAS and Barisan Nasional to replace PH.

By saying that the reports are fake news in the first place and then making a U-turn the next day, aren’t these politicians themselves peddling fake news?

Some of these critics – in their selective amnesia – have singled out The Star and Sin Chew Daily for even writing about Pakatan Nasional.

They ignore the fact that the journalists of these two media groups are just doing their job, which is to report what’s happening on the ground.

They ignore the fact that The Star and Sin Chew Daily are doing what other news organisations have been doing, and it is their duty to write about Pakatan Nasional. The same critics, however, are silent about other news organisations although they reported on the same issue.

They ignore the fact that some PH politicians admitted that there is a Pakatan Nasional plot to overthrow the ruling coalition.

These politicians also blame everybody – including Umno and PAS – for trying to bring PH down. They don’t blame the “enemies” they are sleeping with inside the blanket called PH.

How can Umno (39 MPs) and PAS (18 MPs) bring PH down when they only have 57 MPs, which is not enough to form a minority government?

If PH’s four parties – PKR (50 MPs), DAP (42 MPs), Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (26 MPs) and Amanah (11 MPs) – and its ally Parti Warisan Sabah (nine MPs) – do not have any of the 138 MPs dreaming of a Pakatan Nasional coalition government, then these politicians shouldn’t worry that the ruling coalition will fall.

If there is a “clear and present danger” that PH will fall, then these politicians should bring the matter up with its partners and sort out the unfaithful politicians who are thinking of sleeping with the enemy.

The “clear and present danger” threatening PH arises from the uncertainty of the issue relating to the Prime Minister’s transition of power.

No date has been set on when this would happen although there is a promise that Bersatu chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad will hand over the Prime Minister post to Anwar.

As Sin Chew Daily wrote in a comment piece to defend itself from the accusation of writing fake news, “The ‘clear and present danger’ comes from within Pakatan Harapan, not the commentators, media, PAS or Umno.”

Instead of throwing a tantrum at The Star and Sin Chew Daily, these politicians should call for a PH presidential council meeting and settle the date of transition once and for all.

But so far they have not. Probably, they are afraid that the elephant in the room will trample on them. - Star