Assuming Opposition Perikatan Nasional (National Alliance) could win enough seats in the next 16th General Election to form a government, which it can’t without a shift in Chinese votes, who will become their next prime minister? The precise question should be who is the most qualified leader capable of leading not only the coalition, but also the entire nation?
Bersatu or Malaysian United Indigenous Party insists its president Muhyiddin Yassin is the only leader who fits the bill. After all, Mr Muhyiddin had the experience as the 8th Prime Minister, never mind the traitor was the nation’s first “backdoor” prime minister. Crucially, he is the current Perikatan Nasional chairman. Therefore, his loyalists argue he is the ultimate “poster boy”.
However, Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) disagrees, and actually believes the coalition’s prime ministerial candidate should come from the Islamist party itself. That’s because PAS possesses 43 parliamentary seats compared to Bersatu’s 25 (after losing 6 MPs, who switched sides and pledged support for 10th Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim), not to mention PAS has stronger grassroots and machinery.
Gerakan, the mosquito component party of the National Alliance and the obedient lapdog of Bersatu, supports Muhyiddin as the next premier, of course. Its president – Dominic Lau – argues that eligibility to become prime minister does not depend on the number of parliamentary seats and the strength of grassroots machinery. But who cares what spineless Dominic says?
If it was solely based on seat numbers, then the 10th Prime Minister would have come from DAP (Democratic Action Party), the biggest party with 40 parliamentary seats in Anwar-led Pakatan Harapan coalition. Anwar’s own party – PKR (People’s Justice Party) – won only 31 seats in the Nov 2022 General Election. Unfortunately, the leader of DAP is a Chinese, not a Malay, hence Anwar became the PM.
In fact, without DAP’s 40 MPs, Anwar can’t become the premier even with the full support of rival-turned-ally Barisan Nasional. With 82 seats, Pakatan Harapan had to work together with Barisan Nasional (30 seats) to form the Unity Government after the 15th General Election produced a hung parliament, when there is no single party or a coalition that has 112 MPs to form a simple majority government.
Heck, without DAP’s 40 MPs, Anwar still can’t become the premier even if he could convince Barisan Nasional, Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) and Sabah Warisan to support him. Without DAP, Pakatan Harapan would have 42 MPs, and together with Barisan (30 MPs), GPS (23 MPs), GRS (6 MPs) and Warisan (3 MPs), they would have only 104 MPs.
The math is incredibly simple – the total seats from DAP (40 MPs) and Perikatan Nasional (74 MPs) were already 114. So, there was no way Anwar could find the magic number 112 in the 222-seat parliament to become prime minister. Therefore, the real kingmaker is DAP, not UMNO as the United Malays National Organization thought highly of itself. Pakatan could still form a government without Barisan.
In the same breath, it’s incredibly dumb of Perikatan Nasional to continue playing racial and religious cards. Consistently promoting Bersatu as a racist bigot party and PAS as a religious extremist party even after the election was over has spooked the Chinese voters. Did Bersatu president Muhyiddin and PAS president Hadi Awang realize that they can form a government with DAP?
Like it or not, Malaysia is one of the most racist countries in the world because only a Malay can become the prime minister. This explains why DAP has to play second fiddle – even third fiddle – despite being the largest political party in the government. Worse, a kingmaker with 40 seats is consistently being bullied, intimidated and threatened by a party with merely 26 seats (UMNO).
It’s the same racism that saw Malay leaders betraying, backstabbing and slaughtering each other for power because they knew ethnic Chinese, let alone ethnic Indian, can never become the prime minister. First, there were backstabbing and betrayal in Mahathir-led Pakatan Harapan government. That government collapsed in just 22 months.
Then, there were similar backstabbing and betrayal in Muhyiddin-led Perikatan Nasional backdoor regime. That illegitimate government collapsed in just 17 months. Subsequently, there were again backstabbing and betrayal in Ismail Sabri puppet government. That lame government collapsed in just 15 months. And now, even within the opposition, Bersatu and PAS are backstabbing each other.
Yes, Malay political parties can never unite because they are always power crazy. The only time they were united was when they were colonized by the White People (Orang Putih). When Bersatu, PAS and UMNO united and formed the biggest Malay-Muslim coalition called Perikatan Nasional through treachery, betrayal and backstabbing in the infamous “Sheraton Move” in March 2020, it did not last.
Hilariously, even till today, Bersatu – arguably the biggest traitor of all Malay political parties in the country – still hasn’t a clue that it will extinct soon as its so-called loyal partner PAS is equally power hungry. If Bersatu thinks PAS will forever play second fiddle and allows Muhyiddin to become the prime minister, then Bersatu top leadership is stupider than they look.
The burning question is why Vice-President Ahmad Faizal Azumu suddenly declared out of the blue that Muhyiddin is the sole nominee as PM because Perikatan Nasional’s leadership had collectively decided on Muhyiddin as its Parliamentary Leader, which was a lie because PAS spiritual leader Hashim Jasin had denied that, forcing Azumu to backpedal and said it is too early to decide?
Clearly, Faizal Azumu was ordered by his boss Muhyiddin to test the water. Mr Muhyiddin, who retained the Bersatu president’s post uncontested earlier this month in a desperate formula that saw his former secretary-general Hamzah Zainudin taking over from Azumu as his deputy to prevent internal power struggles, is fast losing influence since the failure to form a government post-15th Election.
Behind the scene, Muhyiddin Yassin and Hadi Awang no longer see eye-to-eye since the former backdoor PM arrogantly rejected a royal proposal from former King Sultan Abdullah to form a Unity Government in Nov 2022. What initially thought to be a poker game had turned into a tactical mistake when the monarch did not blink, but rather welcomed the stunning cooperation between Pakatan and Barisan.
Adding salt to injury, Muhyiddin has been charged for corruption and money laundering in the RM600 billion Covid scandal during his short 17-month regime. His backdoor regime was being mocked and ridiculed as an era of SOP U-turns, policy flip-flops, double standards, incompetence, hypocrisy, corruption, Coronavirus mishandling, economic mismanagement and of course – illegitimacy.
But the biggest problem was his son-in-law Muhammad Adlan Berhan’s key role in the RM1.2 billion NIIS (National Integrated Immigration System) scandal. The MACC had begun investigating the case years ago and basically has established the money trails which could easily implicate Muhyiddin if his son-in-law talks under interrogation. So, in order to keep Adlan’s silence, he was told to flee and hide.
With Muhyiddin’s reputation as tainted and dirty as crooked Najib Razak, you don’t need a rocket scientist to tell PAS president Hadi Awang to avoid Bersatu with a 10-foot pole. Having tasted blood and power, the Islamist party is desperate to return to power. And it is blaming Muhyiddin for blowing the chance to be part of the unity government.
More importantly, Bersatu has no more money to give PAS after its account has been frozen. The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) found sufficient evidence from 10 contractors who had paid more than RM300 million in so-called donations into Bersatu’s accounts. Without money, power, grassroots and machinery, exactly why should PAS kowtow to Bersatu?
It was because Muhyiddin might end up in prison that Perikatan Nasional appointed Hamzah Zainuddin as Opposition Leader. Therefore, Hamzah should be the poster boy, not Muhyiddin. But Mr Hadi has another surprise plan. Seen as PAS’ prime minister candidate, fast-rising star Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar is the Islamist party’s choice to lead the country.
Mr Samsuri holds a PhD in aeroengine ignition and combustion from Leeds University in Britain and was a lecturer at Universiti Putra Malaysia before becoming political secretary to PAS president Hadi Awang in 2008. A non-cleric in an Islamist party, Dr Sam, as he is popularly known, is one of the Islamist party’s three vice-presidents. After winning Kemaman parliamentary seat, he became PAS de-facto PM candidate.
Unlike ustaz donning kopiahs (Muslim headgear) and jubahs (traditional Arab garb) to look like Arab religious teachers, the 54-year-old Dr Sam is typically clad in suit and tie. He gives an impression of a politician who is both intellectual and spiritual, different from many other PAS leaders seen as religious extremists or racist bigots. He is the secret recipe to appeal to both Malays as well as the non-Malays across the country.
Yet, the hostility and distrust between the religious ustaz faction and technocrat faction like Ahmad Samsuri continues to split PAS itself. The Chief Minister was condemned for vacationing in New Zealand with his wife, while the state of Terengganu was flooded in Dec 2022. The state also spooked non-Malays when Terengganu Mufti claims that Muslims are permitted to enter places of worship of other religions to preach Islam.
When a 42-year-old Malay man became the first person in Terengganu to be caned publicly for khalwat, it sparked concern whether Dr Sam or the religious ustaz who call the shot in the state. On August 4, 2024, it became clear Samsuri is just Hadi’s puppet when Terengganu announced that the state government had decided to ban women from singing at an upcoming event at the Guan Yin temple in Kuala Terengganu.
But if Samsuri is more interested in running Terengganu than taking a more challenging role – regardless whether his hands were tied or he is simply incompetent – who else in PAS has the quality of a prime minister? Abdul Hadi Awang might kick the bucket anytime soon, while PAS’ Kedah Chief Minister Sanusi Md Nor was too controversial, leaving other hardline Islamist too extreme.
As the biggest political party in the country, it’s hard to see how PAS will surrender the prime minister post to Muhyiddin. The writing was already on the wall about the greediness of the Islamist party when it rules all the states – Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu – without sparing any for ally Bersatu. Chances are it will snatch more parliamentary seats from Bersatu to contest in the 16th General Election.
Bersatu is at the mercy of PAS for grassroots, machinery, and seat allocation. It has nothing to offer to PAS. The only reason Bersatu’s remaining 25 MPs are still with the party is because of anti-hopping law and the “hope” that Muhyiddin could return as prime minister again. But based on PAS’ refusal to recognize Muhyiddin as the poster boy, Bersatu may extinct after next election – just like the extinction of dinosaurs 66 million years ago. - financetwitter
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.
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