Election fears, hopes and plot to topple PM

 

Is there a plot to topple Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob? Who is surprised if there is one?

After all, didn’t we see two plots in two years which saw two prime ministers being forced to step down over that short span of time?

Funnily enough, Bersatu has denied orchestrating a political coup to oust Ismail Sabri as alleged by former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak.

Is there a need for such a denial really? Surely, this will not be the last of such allegations.

Bersatu information chief Wan Saiful Wan Jan asked if Najib was attempting to distract the country's attention away from a court verdict on his appeal in the SRC International case.

"Najib said Bersatu was plotting to topple the prime minister. I deny it. This is slander," Wan Saiful said in a statement.

Well, perhaps Najib reserved the right to talk down a wounded Bersatu following Umno/BN’s landslide win in the Malacca polls.

It is also interesting that some quarters in Umno are persuading Ismail Sabri to dissolve Parliament to pave the way for fresh elections across the country.

This had come at the time a date is finally fixed for the long-awaited Sarawak polls and after the splendid BN win in Malacca.

BN supporters celebrate victory at the polls in Malacca

But things are not the same in a national scenario where political demographics in different parts of the country; say, the east coast and the northern states of the peninsula or in Sabah and Sarawak; are not similar.

Furthermore, Umno is divided - between what netizens dubbed the court cluster and the minister cluster which had snubbed calls by party president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to ditch the Perikatan Nasional (PN) alliance.

Clear signal

In Malacca, the voters who came out to vote along straight party lines were largely BN party helpers, supporters and their families. The PN and Pakatan Harapan alliances did not seem to get that kind of boost from their own supporters.

Independent aspirants and parties that do not have the ground support; particularly newbies like Parti Bumiputera Perkasa Malaysia (Putra) and Parti Perikatan India Muslim Nasional (Iman), were washed out.

And those who could make a difference - the fence-sitters - had opted to stay away.

This explains the results favouring the BN although, should all the votes against the BN be tallied, it could be seen that a major part of the voters had actually rejected the coalition.

Voters also gave a clear signal that candidates who had switched political insignias have no chance of getting strong electorate support.

Ostensibly, both the PN and Harapan blocs, which reputedly harbour many defectors, failed to score big. It’s a matter worth pondering by the PKR, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) and Parti Amanah.

As for the DAP, although the party lost in four of eight seats it contested under the Harapan banner, the ones it won recorded incredibly hefty majorities.

The next general election must be held by mid-2023.

And Ismail Sabri, an Umno vice-president, would have read the writing on the wall - for himself and the other Umno hotshots in the cabinet who had defied their party boss - so he is not likely to concede to any request to go for an early election.

Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi (centre)

Adding to this, holding an election when new variants of the coronavirus are emerging would unnecessarily put lives and livelihood at risk.

To recap, the Sabah state election in September last year was one of the main causes of a huge surge in Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases just after the polls were concluded.

Although the Health Ministry strives to arrest the menacing coronavirus with the knowledge and experience gained in terms of manpower, facilities and equipment since the start of the pandemic in early 2020, there is still concern that the new variants would make it nasty for the crowds at the voting booths.

So, where is the urgency to hold an early election?

Low voter turnout

Notwithstanding these hopes and fears, Sarawak eagerly waits to find out: who will run the state before Christmas comes around?

Now that the Sabah and Malacca state polls have been put on the back burner - with the winners gloating in their victories and the defeated groaning over their losses - the Land of the Hornbills faces its decision day on Dec 18 after elections were suspended over two Emergency periods.

In Sarawak, a positive sign for the electoral game would be a turnout in excess of 70 percent; indicating a supportive attitude on the urgency to vote in the long-delayed election.

Furthermore, the state’s current number of fully vaccinated adults would contribute to a smoother election. Also, booster doses have been administered to high-risk groups.

As can be seen, the situation calling for the elections in Sarawak is so unlike the conditions in Sabah and Malacca, where the polls were carried out to only resolve internal political issues and have no bearing at all to any virus spread or emergency.

The two state polls were just about who’s got the better-powered machinery and influence to lord over the rakyat; who, really, has got no inkling at all on why the politicians were squabbling over matters they could easily take to the discussion table to settle.

Thus, it was not surprising that many voters chose to stay away.

If, like in Sabah and Malacca, the electors in Sarawak are tired of candidates that are put in place because their party feels they can win rather than be able to do the best job of serving the rakyat, then they, the voters here too, might choose to just stay at home.

My gut feeling is that this will likely happen, but also because people are jaded and disillusioned with current politics and the same crop of politicians who just refuse to acknowledge that their political shelf-life has long expired.

This is also why there will be no end of talks either to topple the prime minister or force his hand to expedite the national election. - Mkini

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FRANCIS PAUL SIAH is the author of ‘Hijack in Malaysia: The Fall of Pakatan Harapan’. Obtain autographed copies from sirsiah@gmail.com.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of MMKtT.