Thursday 20 December 2018

WHAT A BIG MESS IN MALAYSIAN POLITICS RIGHT NOW!

When the Pakatan Harapan (Pact of Hope) won the federal government in Malaysia's 14th general elections on 9 May 2018, members and supporters of the four-party pack (Amanah, DAP, PKR and Pribumi) were ecstatic and looked forward to the much awaited reforms which would save Malaysia from the effects of two or more decades of alleged kleptocracy under Barisan Nasional rule, including the supposed dire effects on Malaysia's economy due to the 1MDB issue.

The Barisan Nasional (National Front) coalition of 13 parties (UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP and other in Sabah and Sarawak) broke up, with the Sarawak and Sabah members of the coalition leaving, followed by PPP and Gerakan, leaving a rump of three members - UMNO with 76 seats, MIC with 2 seats and MCA with 1 seat, with another opposition party PAS with 18 seats.

Recently, Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir said he was open to some UMNO members of parliament first resigning from UMNO to become independents, after which they can apply to join his party Pribumi and will be duly considered for suitability.

They can also choose to join other Pakatan Harapan components parties which will accept them.


(Graphic - source Sin Chew Daily)

Lim Kit Siang, DAP advisor and a prominent leading member from the party's founding also welcome former UMNO members to join the Pakatan Harapan. 

By their defection, apart from strengthening Pakatan's reach into the crucial predominantly ethnic Malay heartlands in rural and semi-rural areas, it is also believed the Pakatan Harapan hopes to gain a two-thirds majority in parliament, thus allowing it to amend Malaysia's constitution and also that it would be able to gain a majority in the still Barisan Nasional dominated Senate, which right now can refuse to approve bills passed by the Pakatan Harapan dominated parliament.

A shocker came on 18th December 2018 when PKR President, Anwar Ibrahim's daughter Nurul Izzah announced her resignation as PKR vice-president, as Penang PKR head and relinquished her various roles in the federal government, to focus her duties as PKR member of parliament for Permatang Pauh.

Heck! News and speculation over this has gone regional, if not international.


Nurul did not give clear reasons for her shock resignation from leading PKR party positions, though her tweets and postings on social media, speculation has it that it has to do with her unhappiness with the direction PKR and more broadly, Pakatan Harapan is going in. 

The next day (19th December 2018), various media were abuzz with reports that Nurul, Rafizi Ramil, her fellow prominent PKR party comrade and former PKR member of parliament for Pandan and tad-a-a--a-a-a-a - Khairi Jamaluddin, UMNO member of parliament for Rembau were photographed having lunch together at the Alexis Bistro in Bangsar Shopping Centre in Kuala Lumpur.

This led to speculation that the threesome were discussing the formation of a new political party but Rafizi has denied that.

So Malaysians are left guessing what the trio from both sides of the political divide were up to apart from having lunch together.

Meanwhile, earlier on 18 December 2018, UMNO president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamid, who is facing a number of graft charges in court, stepped aside and handed over his duties to UMNO deputy-president Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan.

However, not all members and leaders of the respective Pakatan Harapan component parties welcome this move and especially leading DAP politicians have spoken up against it.

For instance, today - 20th December 2018, The Star reported that Ramkarpal Singh, DAP member of parliament for Bukit Gelugor, Penang, warned that the Pakatan Harapan government is falling apart, due to the issue of possible acceptance of up to 40 UMNO members of parliament who cross over.

Pakatan government is failing, DAP MP warns

Published 3 hours ago on 20 December 2018

By Justin Ong

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 ― Public meetings of PKR and Umno leaders are distracting attention from Pakatan Harapan's possible absorption of nearly 40 lawmakers from the Malay nationalist party, Ramkarpal Singh asserted today.

The Bukit Gelugor MP urged both the public and the ruling coalition not to let themselves be drawn by the public meetings involving Nurul Izzah Anwar, Rafizi Ramli and Khairy Jamaluddin, calling these "wayang" that pulled focus away from impending disaster.

"Well, let me remind you, what's going on is dire. What's going on is a new PH government failing," he said in a statement today.

Ramkarpal said he was being plied with questions on rumours that PH parties were contemplating the entry of Umno lawmakers who have left or will leave the party as well as the ruling coalition's stewardship of the country.

The Malay nationalist party has lost 17 federal lawmakers since the general election and some, such as former minister Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed and former Puteri Umno chief Datuk Mas Ermieyati Samsudin, have since found their way into PH component PPBM.

The issue has split the ruling coalition in two, with DAP and PKR resistant to the idea, PPBM open to accepting the former Umno leaders, and Amanah saying it would consider this.

Ramkarpal stressed today that taking in the Umno representatives would be to betray the will of voters from the general election, asserting that he was recently asked by a constituent why the coalition was even thinking of taking in the defectors.

"He was absolutely right. Why? Because we are no different from Umno if we can consider accepting the very people we voted out, all of whom so far are from Umno, into PH.

"It is like saying to the Rakyat, 'Thank you for your vote but to hell with you. I have my own plans,'" he said.

Some including PH component leaders have expressed concern that Umno lawmakers were seeking to join PH via PPBM to escape possible prosecution for corrupt practices they may have indulged in while Barisan Nasional had been in power.

Senior BN figures such as former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former minister Datuk Seri Tengku Adnan Mansor, and former Sabah chief minister Tan Sri Musa Aman, among others, have all been charged with corruption.

PPBM president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin previously gave his assurance that entry into his party would not prevent these lawmakers from being prosecuted if they were previously corrupt.

There are only 37 Umno MPs left now, down from the 54 after the May 9 polls.


In a more detailed opinion piece in the English language section of Sin Chew Daily on 18th December 2018, the daily speculates:-

Now, who's breaking up PH?

By LIM SUE GOAN

Sin Chew Daily
The mass exodus in Umno has spawned the conspiracy theory of an imminent ouster of PM Mahathir.

I have tried to figure out why Umno has been divided into three different sects and why Mahathir's ouster to pave the way for Anwar Ibrahim to take over when the parliament sitting resumes next March has been implicated.

A group of Umno leaders have been meeting over their court cases and possible dissolution of Umno. Those against Mahathir argue that the PM is not someone you can negotiate and they are therefore more inclined to support Anwar's early ascension to power because they believe Anwar will keep Umno and help them with their cases.

As for those without court cases or are unhappy with Anwar, they are more likely to continue supporting Mahathir as PM because they don't trust Anwar.

The meeting of these Umno leaders ended with no conclusion, and soon afterward we have all kinds of rumors.

It has been reported that Umno president Ahmad Zahid is more towards supporting Anwar, and may have instructed Padang Rengas MP Mohamed Nazri to talk divisional leaders into supporting the PKR president. and to form a coalition government with PKR and DAP.

The move has nevertheless backfired among the grassroots.

Larut MP Hamzah Zainudin is strongly against Anwar. He claims that 36 BN reps have signed a letter in support of Mahathir.

It is also said that Hishammuddin called a secret meeting last week that included among others Hamzah and PKR's deputy president Azmin Ali, who was accused of trying to stop Anwar from becoming PM during the recent party elections.

If Pakatan Harapan remains disunited, it will not be able to focus on dealing with Umno, allowing the latter to take advantage of the chaos to gain a backdoor access to federal administration.
PH will become BN 2.0 if these people were to be allowed to join the coalition and have their court cases forgiven. This will deal a lethal blow to the country's judiciary.

Why are PH component parties still willing to accept worthless Umno politicians? Very simple: they want to strengthen themselves by absorbing Umno MPs and Malay votes will go to them if Umno is eventually dissolved.

Doing so will also ensure that PH secures a two-thirds majority advantage in Dewan Rakyat so that the Constitution can be amended and their political agendas fulfilled.

Also, bills tabled by the PH government will no longer risk rejection in Dewan Negara following the side-changing of Umno senators.

If these Umno reps are not allowed to join PH, they may eventually defect to PAS, making the Islamic party all the harder to fight in future.

That said, ship-jumping will have very severe impact on the country, as the acceptance of political frogs will invariably trigger renewed political tug-of-war within PH in addition to betraying the public mandate.

Can Lim Kit Siang sit alongside Abdul Rahim Thamby Chik, who has applied to join PPBM and who he said was the culprit for his son Guan Eng's imprisonment for helping an underage Malay girl? Will Anwar pardon someone who in 2011 wickedly 
distributed his fake sex video clip?

We can judge from their recent public comments that indeed some PH leaders' stand has already softened. They are more willing now to accept these frogs on the grounds of political interest.

As a matter of fact, the PH leadership's position has swung away from that of ordinary citizens who are frustrated that corrupt Umno leaders can be whitewashed and allowed to join PH. This has contravened the coalition's pledge of battling corruption and upholding clean governance.

Unfortunately, the PH leadership appears to have turned a deaf ear to the rakyat's views dutifully reflected by the elected reps from DAP and PKR.

If Umno eventually goes bust and the opposition is significantly weakened, who are there to oversee the government?

Lest we forget, BN was so powerful in the past and could deliberately amend the Constitution because we had a weak opposition.

PH leaders are humans and are thus susceptible to temptation. The country's reforms will never materialize in the absence of a healthy checks and balances mechanism.

New Malaysia must reject immoral political deals. The new government must draw a line between itself and treacherous politicians.

Some PH leaders seem to have lost their directions as they are engrossed with the game of engaging Umno reps, putting behind their priority of revitalizing the country's economy.

PH will have nowhere to go but down if it steers off course and forgoes its principles.


All this politischeiss is happening when the Pakatan Harapan government should be focussing its efforts and energies on addressing Malaysia's economic and other issues affecting the Malaysian people, instead of politicking amongst themselves.

Then again, who knows what Mahathir has up his sleeve for Malaysia, should Pakatan Harapan manage to gain a two-thirds majority in parliament with the help of its former rivals and be able to amend the constitution.

We can only stay tuned and watch what results from all these political wheelings and dealings.

Malaysian politics is a more than world-class reality soap opera (reality show and soap opera) which can beat the BBC's Yes Prime Minister TV series hands down.

Yours truly

POLITISCHEISS


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