Politics is not just about compromise

 

From Terence Netto

Politics, as Bismarck observed, is the art of compromise.

As the German iron chancellor and master of Machiavellian courtcraft averred, politics is not just about wheeling and dealing, it is also about dissimulation.

The facts trickling out about the Bersatu/PAS/Umno controversy over whether Ismail Sabri Yaakob had agreed to appoint as deputy prime minister a candidate from Bersatu once Ismail was safely ensconced as prime minister is about compromise and dissimulation.

For sure, there was much wheeling and dealing that went on behind the scenes that led to the Sheraton Move in February 2020.

It brought Muhyiddin Yassin to the prime minister’s post as head of the Perikatan Nasional coalition that partnered Umno to become the new federal government, replacing the upended Pakatan Harapan incumbent.

When Muhyiddin had to be jettisoned as prime minister because of Umno’s withdrawal of support for him in August 2021, Ismail of Umno could only take over after striking a deal.

The contents of that deal we know now from the details trickling into the public domain.

Considerable dissimulation had marked the conduct of the pact’s principals, Muhyiddin and Ismail, since the time it was signed and in all the time it had lain in secret until now.

This pretense was helped by expedient concealment on the part of the deal’s midwives, Takiyuddin Hassan of PAS and Annuar Musa of Umno.

The individuals who would be embarrassed by having been blindsided by the deal’s principals and its compradors are PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang and assorted Umno bigwigs like Shahril Hamdan and Puad Zarkashi.

The latter were not so much deceived as beguiled by the “You didn’t ask, we didn’t tell” charade that can justifiably be deployed by the deal’s overseers.

If anything, some admiration, albeit grudging, may accrue to Ismail and Muhyiddin at the way they unwound the web of others’ designs to safeguard their own interests in the shifting fortunes at play.

Can Muhyiddin do anything to threaten Ismail should the latter not appoint a Bersatu candidate to the DPM post, or even be angry if Zuraida Kamaruddin, who quit Bersatu, is not replaced with a Bersatu MP in Ismail’s Cabinet?

Recall the futile ire of Gordon Brown, Tony Blair’s deputy in the Labour Party in Britain, at Blair ignoring the tacit understanding they had forged when Brown agreed to allow Blair to take precedence for the Labour chief’s post after the death of incumbent John Smith.

The deal avoided a divisive fight for Labour’s leadership and put a hitherto fractious party on track for victory over the Conservatives in the 1997 national polls.

Sure, the deal between Ismail and Muhyiddin was documented and inked while the Blair-Brown understanding was a gentleman’s agreement over dinner at a London restaurant.

Brown’s sourness after Blair ignored it to go for a third term as prime minister of Britain turned out to be a damp squib.

These days, in politics, your word is not your bond even if it’s in fine print.

Chalk it up to “Events, my dear fellow, events” which was what another British prime minister Harold Macmillan told reporters when asked why statesmen could not impose their writ on shifting circumstance. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.