‘Boomerang’ of corruption has come to haunt PN

 

ADUN SPEAKS | The natives of Australia are fully aware that when they throw their traditional weapon boomerang at a prey or an enemy, they make sure the weapon will not hit them when it comes back to them.

The “boomerang” metaphor fits the predicament faced by the top leadership of Bersatu.

Of late, three Bersatu leaders have been arrested for corruption, money laundering, abuse of power and others.

Of course, the latest to be arrested and charged is none other than Muhyiddin Yassin, the president of Bersatu.

The MACC has cast its net wide, others in Perikatan Nasional might be charged and arrested, including the “never do wrong”, and “sanctimonious” PAS leaders.

The “green wave” propelled by the PN coalition in the last general election was predicated on the use of the corruption weapon against the Umno leadership.

This “boomerang” was the principal reason that Umno lost Malay support, especially in the north and east of the country.

As the state elections are fast approaching, the PN leadership are so sure that such a weapon could be used in these elections to make further inroads in the Malay heartland.

But the unexpected happened. History is full of turns and twists - something that the PN coalition did not anticipate.

Even if there were allegations floated about PN leaders, there was no concrete proof that they had indeed indulged in the nefarious acts of corruption.

They just thought that the unity government was just going for a big bluff without evidence.

But then, the government of Anwar Ibrahim, despite its oscillations on some matters, was dead serious about stopping corruption in its tracks.

It was just a matter of time before the MACC was emboldened to swing into action to make their arrests.

Muhyiddin’s arrest

The third arrest was the biggest, it was none other than the netting of Muhyiddin who was charged and let out on RM2 million bail.

Muhyiddin and his ardent supporters can claim that they are being punished by Anwar’s government for political reasons.

Evidence might be there.

In the name of assisting bumiputera businesspersons to recover from the Covid-19 pandemic, millions if not billions were channelled to bumiputera companies.

Whether or not they were the actual beneficiaries remains to be seen.

But however, millions if not billions of taxpayers’ money was siphoned off through the middle persons to politicians in Bersatu.

These illicit funds were heavily used in the last general election to gain political support for Bersatu and PAS.

Despite the use of corruption money to buy political support by PN, the leaders had the temerity to accuse Umno leaders of corruption.

It was on the matter of corruption and the bad publicity provided by the PN that robbed Umno of its crucial Malay support.

What was thrown at Umno, the “boomerang”, has now come in a full circle to hit and haunt the PN leaders.

Muhyiddin, after being charged, said the recent arrests will only further embolden the PN leaders to go for the political kill, meaning that whatever Malay support the present government has will vanish in thin air.

I think that the “green wave” has been checkmated to some extent by the arrests of Bersatu leaders.

It is still there.

Anwar might be described as a populist prime minister without an effective political strategy, but in the nabbing of some of the Bersatu leaders, he has demonstrated effectiveness to show that he means business.

Anwar might have demonstrated that only when the top leadership is clean, then only it is possible to move effectively against the scourge of corruption. - Mkini

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P RAMASAMY is the Perai assemblyperson and Penang deputy chief minister II.

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