Mahiaddin Md Yasin

COMMENT | In a recent event, Lim Kit Siang said this: "In fact, I would go so far as to say that Muhyiddin and his cabinet acted in utter disregard of the Rukun Negara on 'Loyalty to king and country'." – which really means that while Perikatan Nasional (PN) is a government, it is not one supported by the mandate of the people, nor it is legitimate based on the C1onstitution.

Indeed, in the peninsula, we have all these satellite parties like the MCA and MIC revolving around the Muhyiddin regime, unsupported by any popular will and acting as fig leaves for unscrutinised policies and sustaining the “social contract”.

The PN regime had to try twice before it got its “emergency” and when it did, its most recent ordinance was to bypass parliamentary scrutiny to expand the budget as it sees fit.

Indeed it is so fearful of the youth vote, or any voting for that matter, that the state is currently investigating various pressure groups demanding that Undi18 not be delayed.

When PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang claimed that youths are not “mature” enough to vote and it is a “Western” concept, Lim Guan Eng rightly pointed out the hypocrisy of such a statement. However, what is important to understand is that fascistic thinking is the norm for a government fearful of elections. Even Umno, when it was in power, had the mandate from the rakyat.

Parliament is currently “suspended” even though there is no credible reason not to reconvene. So what we have is a collection of “cabinet ministers” from various parties that were not elected into government – the coalition that won – retaining power only through the suspension of legitimate democratic norms and cannibalising each other to retain power.

We are constantly told not to question the legitimacy of the government and doing so could be considered seditious. Meanwhile, the Constitution is put on hold and various PN potentates wage war while the people are given handouts and promised more "goodies" if they remain silent.

What this emergency gave PN was an opportunity to reshape government policy without any kind of oversight from the political apparatus – establishment or opposition – and the means through the state security apparatus and weak prime minister to carry out such agendas.

And don't forget about all those plum positions in GLCs given to political hacks or the various positions in government given to allies of the current prime minister or even the various political operatives who have jumped ship under a cloud of “investigations”. 

What we have here is a government formed of political operatives whose only allegiance is not “race and religion” which is the justification, but rather, loyalty to a prime minister from a tiny party borne out of treachery.

The dwarf party Bersatu has not only managed to entice Umno political operatives but now, with an unsupervised hand in the kitty, will no doubt inspire more Umno cretins to support PN, thus reducing Umno to a collection of squabbling brats – which they always were – but without the “unity” the crown of Putrajaya gave them.

If you ever wondered what a Malay uber alles government looks like, it is this. The current prime minister, when he declared the "emergency", calmly explained that this was not meant to seize power but rather because it was necessary to combat the pandemic. Now, of course, he travels the country attempting to shore up support while his nemesis Umno spectacularly implodes.

All pretext has been dropped and we have someone like Bersatu’s Wan Saiful Wan Jan coyly implying that the PN supporting faction within Umno would bring down the battled Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi. Again, this has nothing to do with the will of the rakyat, even those who support Umno, but rather the will of political operatives loyal to Muhyiddin.

Shahidan Kassim and Khairy Jamaluddin wanting Umno to hold elections as a means of resolving the crisis – what crisis? – is again bypassing the will of the rakyat who voted for Umno, instead of holding an Umno election which both have claimed and publically reported is rife with “money politics”.

Shahidan said: “For me, it is better for the election to be conducted in accordance with the constitution. I do not agree that it is early.” This is laughable, considering the fact that he wants to be part of a government that does not give a damn about the Constitution of the country.

This again points to the elitism and hubris of someone like Shahidan, who has no problem relying on the constitution of his party to resolve a democratic issue that should be decided by the people of Malaysia.

Echoing calls for party polls, Khairy said: “Do not postpone elections until after GE15. It needs to be held this year. Umno must head into GE15 with strong leadership that has a clear plan and can win the support of the people. Do the right thing, supreme council. You know we cannot continue like this.” This is bizarre because the Umno supreme council already made its call and obviously it is one with which Khairy is not comfortable.

So what Khairy wants is an election where he gets a supreme council, or so he hopes, which would make them do the right thing, whatever that is. In other words, he wants an election to determine an outcome for him, but of course, he does not extend the same right to the people of Malaysia. 

Meanwhile, Tajuddin Abdul Rahman said this of Khairy pressing for an election within the party: "I would like to warn KJ (Khairy Jamaluddin) that we are not stupid. We know who you are and what you are doing.” Yes, thanks Sherlock, everyone knows what Khairy is doing and everyone knows why Zahid is doing what he is doing. And everyone knows what you are doing. The problem here is that the rakyat cannot do anything about it because the PN regime does not want to hold elections. 

If all these people are really interested in what the rakyat "want'', they would demand that elections be held and demonstrate their allegiance upfront to the current prime minister, instead of attempting a “coup” with an Umno election as a fig leaf. Umno and Bersatu both fear settling their difference in the electoral arena.