Who would partner Umno to form next govt?

 

“If we make an assumption too early, we do not know what will happen in the election later.”

- Caretaker prime minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob

Who would cooperate with Umno to form the next government? The usual suspects, of course, that is if they muster the electoral power to form another flimflam coalition.

All will be forgotten in a haze of attempting to present Malay religious and racial unity.

But of course, if the usual suspects are not available, then it would really get interesting.

Mariam Mokhtar in a recent piece asked “Will the Malays unite and change the government?”

Well, it seems to me and maybe to you too, that the Malays are open to a change of government.

What they have shown very little interest in is changing the system even when they voted for Pakatan Harapan.

The Malay establishment always feared this election.

The election, where a fractured Malay voting polity would be so divided that non-Malay electoral power would be needed to form the government – in the worst-case scenario - or that an unstable Malay coalition would disrupt the gravy train, which jeopardises the feudalistic foundation of political power in this country.

This, of course, has changed. This election will determine if Umno can ever get back to that sweet spot where they were in charge of everything, or if will they have to make alliances with other corrupt leaders to maintain racial supremacy or horror of horrors, make nice with the "opposition", especially the DAP.

At least in the peninsular, who cooperates with Umno determines the kind of hodgepodge government we get. Do we get an unstable multiracial coalition or do we get an unstable Malay uber alles coalition?

There’s a reason why PKR political operatives are busy going around telling everyone that there are no secret deals with Umno for a post-election hook-up, and the reason is that Anwar Ibrahim has made it credible that such a proposition could be a reality because of his previous ill-fated political plays.

Meanwhile, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke said anything is possible in this political landscape and Anwar slightly differed from him but this idea is already out there and who knows what could happen.

Umno, of course, used this to demonstrate how politically masculine the DAP realised Umno is, and PAS, of course, went into religious and racial conniptions.

This idea has always been fodder for Umno political operatives, some of whom claimed in 2021 that Loke met up with Umno leaders for a pow-wow. A charge Loke denies in a very queer way.

Pressed if Umno Ketereh MP Annuar Musa had lied about the allegation, the Seremban MP declined to comment further. “I have never said anything to Umno leaders,” he repeated.

Look, the Malay uber alles government and political parties have demonstrated that they cannot run the show.

I am sure it gives ketuanan types a warm fuzzy feeling that the Malays will always be the centre of attention in this country but, if you cannot run this country it means bupkis.

Umno has degenerated to a point where a competent minister like Khairy Jamaluddin cannot balance out the horse manure coming out from every other minister in the government.

Even a loose cannon like former tourism and de facto law minister Nazri Abdul Aziz had moments of lucidity but even he has opted out of the game, which should tell us something about the dynamic of Umno.

Remember in 2018 when the ever-entertaining Nazri, who was then tourism and culture minister, got MCA and Gerakan’s knickers in a twist?

This was when he took his shots at both after bad-mouthing billionaire and philanthropist Robert Kuok and claimed that DAP represented the Chinese community and not these two parties, which just goes to show you that even Umno admits to being drawn to political masculinity.

Cooperation after election

The geriatric cartels within Umno want young blood if only to sustain the system in place, which is vital for the bureaucratic structures that Umno took decades to subvert and corrupt.

This is why all these old geezers making noises about fresh faces are needed to entice voters but they always fall back on old faces to remind people who they are.

Right now, young political activists, who are non-partisan in the sense that they rationally collate and analyse information, are busy sending me various configurations and permutations of possible models of post-election political unity.

They are gaming the hell out of this election and I understand their motivations.

Any sort of cooperation, of course, would have to happen after the dust settles in the next general election - contentious as it may be - as many strategists in Umno and the DAP have said in their various vague statements.

And, of course, any form of cooperation would be defined by how PKR positions itself as the only viable contender for the crown of Putrajaya.

There are many in Harapan who believe that any sort of cooperation with Umno is untenable and what they wish to see is Umno continuing to implode and Harapan achieving some sort of landslide in the upcoming GE, which could mean that the coalition (with its allies) are in a position to dictate terms or secure enough seats to reject any cooperation with Umno.

If this happens great because who wants to hook up with PAS?

But really who can tell with Malaysian politics? Before the Sheraton Move, Harapan political operatives were gaslighting voters that everything was going swell in Harapan.

In fact, a reporter who wrote otherwise was vilified on social media, to the extent of getting rape threats.

If you look closely at the rhetoric coming from Harapan, the main objection is working with kleptocrats.

I know, it is a strange assertion to make, since, for decades, the opposition has demonised Umno as being totally corrupt and supporters of Umno as endorsing corruption, but there you go.

Part of this is because as PSM chairperson Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj says, there is no nuance in the political discourse in this country.

Social media of course defines the discourse with political operatives defining context and there is no nuance there.

I welcome the aftermath of the next GE especially if there is no clear winner because it would force disparate political power groups to attempt to form a government and nobody will be secure in their positions.

The Sheraton Move was an attempt to define what a Malay uber alles government could do, and what they have proved is that unity based on race and religion is not feasible, especially when it comes to the urban/rural dichotomy.

Keep in mind folks, the mother of all parties only begins after the last vote is counted. - Mkini

---

S THAYAPARAN is Commander (Rtd) of the Royal Malaysian Navy. Fīat jūstitia ruat cælum - “Let justice be done though the heavens fall.”

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