Are they shepherds or butchers of our future?

A meeting held at former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad's home called by Bersatu president Muhyiddin Yassin on the afternoon of Feb 23, exposes a very disturbing reality about our country’s mainstream politics.

After six decades of social amalgamations and hard work in building and uniting a country, celebrating its multi-ethnicity and multiculturalism, a recent political event blatantly exposed the worst of our fears. One major political party was never honest to its partners.

The chasm dividing Malays and non-Malays in the politics of suspicion seems as wide as ever. Recall Muhyiddin who boasted that he was a Malay first and a Malaysian second. And he is the prime minister today. One cannot be blamed for being frightened of what the future may hold for some.

His recent declaration that he is a PM to all Malaysians can only be taken with lots of pinches of salt. His integrity rightly collapsed when he chose again to work with notorious kleptocrats and religious bigots from PAS. A recent exposé by the Sarawak Report about party president Hadi Awang paying Rewcastle Claire an out of court settlement lays bare PAS leaders for lying through their teeth.

Furthermore, when Muhyiddin traded support for his PM position by giving out coveted ministerial and government-linked company positions to PAS, his remaining righteousness and virtues, if he had any, evaporated into thin air.

Back to Feb 23, immediately after failing to convince Mahathir at Bersatu headquarters to commit to leaving the Pakatan Harapan Coalition, big guns, all Malays, probably mustered by Azmin and played along by Muhyiddin, ambushed Mahathir again at his house to try again to talk him into it. But Mahathir stood his ground. His refusal to accede subsequently forced the plotters, determined as they were, to make the now infamous 'Sheraton move'.

Now comes the worrisome part. Was that meeting aimed at resolving a national crisis or was it something with a racist and religious agenda? This piece is not about racism. But it sure questions the sincerity and the motivation of those who attended the showdown. Was the meeting attended by only one section of our society? If it was, why were the minority that represented 49.9 percent of the population not represented? Were they not relevant?

Were the non-Malay BN/GPS/Warisan leaders invited to that meeting? If not, we are left with two ways of looking at it. One, when it comes to sharing of power and deciding the collective future of our citizens, are non-Malay leaders considered irrelevant? Two, if it was about forming a government, why did they keep the agenda exclusively Malay?

Did Umno betray their non-Malay racial parties components? Did Bersatu also betray its non-Malay coalition leaders both in PKR and DAP? If so, what are they? Simply poster boys?

Three things come to mind. First, if the covert meeting was attended by racist and religious bigots with a sole supremacist agenda, what were Warisan chief Shafie Abdal and GPS chief Abang Johari Openg doing there? Don’t they represent a multiethnic and multi-religious electorate? Both have equal numbers of non-Malay elected representatives at state and federal levels. Were they betrayed as well? How did Sabah and Sarawak find common ground in political parties that are based on race or religion?

These two state chiefs who chose to attend this racial and religious clandestine showdown, did they also commit their non-Malay constituents in the coup? Okay, in the end, Warisan chose not to be part of that evil rebellion. We also know how MIC, MCA and Gerakan are treated by Umno and PAS, as irrelevant poster boys. But what about the non-Malay MPs in GPS? Are they supportive of their state leader lending his weight to a narrow racist and religious agenda?

Second, understandably, unlike PAS, Amanah was too honourable and virtuous to be invited for such a treacherous event. But we know now the motivation for this subversion had nothing to do with race or religion. They were purely motivated by greed for money and power. One uses race and the other uses religion. Benjamin Franklin said it well, “tricks and treachery are the practice of the fools, that don’t have brains enough to be honest”.

Thirdly, the covert meeting was probably about backstabbing Mahathir's chosen successor, PKR president Anwar Ibrahim. Openly playing "Brutus" and working on the whole game plan long before GE14, then PKR deputy president Azmin Ali (photo) is said to have rigorously "herded all the Judas" to commit this infidelity that afternoon. Azmin easily outwitted Muhyiddin to astutely pitch him against Mahathir to achieve with the flow of events, his lust of being closer to the coveted PM’s chair.

The recently revealed audio recording, believed to be the voice of Muhyiddin, if proven authentic, offers another felonious twist to the whole fiasco. Muhyiddin dangled ministerial and GLCs positions to lure Umno MPs to jump ship to Bersatu. Legal hawks say under The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Act 2009, such offerings and acceptance of gratification amounts to corruption and should be charged in court.

Umno, PAS and GPS leaders supposedly committed this offence when they agreed to trade Muhyiddin’s promise to gratify them with ministerial and appointments as GLC heads in return for support to make him the PM. If not for these collusions among the dishonourable MPs, Muhyiddin would not have become the PM. We also know at the material time he did not have the majority.

Other than being a party to a scheme to cheat the people who voted Pakatan Harapan into power, Muhyiddin had committed the same gratification offences. His first offence was when he allegedly became a party to a scam to "offer and receive" gratification arrangements before he came to power.

Muhyiddin’s second offence was when after taking his oath as PM, he used his public office to give out rewards in the form of ministerial and GLC positions in return for the support he had earlier received to become the PM.

Muhyiddin’s plot turned out exactly as he had proposed in the voice recording, meticulously to the script. He fulfilled his promise made to the plotters for helping make him PM. The consistency to which the whole drama played out without any apparent ambiguity is astonishing indeed.

For their racist and religious misdemeanours, even the MPs who allowed themselves to be used, we should let their voters decide their fate come GE15. Malaysians are generally smarter now.

But for the well-planned gratification crime Muhyiddin and Perikatan Nasional leaders committed, the people of Malaysia expect our authorities to act swiftly without fear or fervour. It is also suggested that the Bar Council and a team of lawyers spontaneously file a Public Interest Litigation against Muhyiddin and his PN Government.

Can we expect the attorney-general and the MACC Chief to act on this? Your guess is as good as mine. Will the non-Malay MPs distance themselves from being a party to any racial or religious designs, your guess is as good as mine. Finally, who do you think these PN leaders are? Shepherds of integrity or butchers of our future? Your guess is as good as mine as well.

---

SARAJUN HODA is a social activist with Aliran and former deputy chairperson of Bersih 2.0. - Mkini