COMMENT | Azmin Ali treachery will go down in history as the most vicious attack on the will of the rakyat. His treachery is enabled by the old maverick and the incompetence of Anwar Ibrahim. Azmin should have been sacked months ago but instead, Anwar played the traditional game of Malay politics which he should have known has never served him well.

When I argued that Azmin Ali should be sacked, political operatives loyal to Azmin were livid. I raised two important points –

(1) If Azmin was demonstrating solidarity with his party when it came to issues affecting his party, it would not make a difference if he had a sub rosa agenda against Anwar Ibrahim. This is politics, after all. However, Azmin’s continued reliance on outsiders to ferment trouble and consolidate support is the existential threat facing PKR at this moment.

(2) The fact that Anwar continues to genuflect before the prime minister, someone who has shown tremendous public support for Azmin and contempt for the Pakatan Harapan reform agenda, is demonstrative of how weak the Harapan political establishment is. I have no idea how Azmin loyalists can make the case that what they are doing is to save the country when the assortment of religious fanatics, racial provocateurs and corrupt officials who they are aligned with have demonstrated utter contempt for Harapan and those attempting to save this country.

Maria Chin claims that "If reorganising the coalition is necessary, it must only be done by consensus. Harapan’s spirit of shared prosperity and realising democratic reforms must be maintained.” What does this even mean? If reforms are not carried out she should be speaking about it instead of collaborating with power structures within PKR. If Maria were sincerely interested in reform, she would stay away from schisms within PKR and speak up on important issues as an independent voice. Maria claims that she is opposed to the idea of backdoor governments but Azmin has claimed that his move is not a backdoor move, instead it is in keeping with democratic processes. This is the kind of duplicity in word and deed that political operatives are rightly despised for.

After all, Azmin said this - "But I and the non-Malay leaders (who are aligned to Azmin in PKR), we work as a team and they are credible leaders. I have to make sure they have a role to play in the new coalition and, Alhamdulillah, we managed to secure many agreements and they will be announced in the near future,", which is gross because now we now that the non-Malay supporters of Azmin were doing all of this for positions in the new Malay hegemon.

They betrayed the base for positions that they believe were denied to them by the power brokers in Harapan. So what do they do? They betray their party, the base and the numerous activists that stuck out their necks for them in the hope of securing position and prestige in the new Malay coalition. A coalition that includes Abdul Hadi Awang who has said that non-Malays must be pak turut. Yeah, I can see how these non-Malays work well with Azmin.

Harapan partisans always warn of the possible return of Umno/PAS and here we have Azmin forming a coalition with the very people who espouse ideas which are anathema to the reformasi that Azmin believes he is capable of enabling. This all boils down to racial politics and the fact is Azmin has been a better player than his “leader” Anwar.

The fact is, before the great compromise that resulted in the crowning of Dr Mahathir Mohamad, politicians aligned with Mahathir, but in opposition to the Najib regime, were still attacking the DAP as a racist party bent on destroying the “social contract” of this country. How any non-Malay leader feels comfortably in Azmin’s camp is beyond me. For a long time, Malay power structures have been chafing at having to work with the DAP and to a lesser extent PKR. If anything the old maverick has been fanning the flames when it comes to dissatisfaction with working with non-Malay partners.

Compromise is something he is loathed to do. Azmin meanwhile is a perfect fit when it comes to Mahathir's politics, not least of which is his willingness to betray Anwar all the while trumpeting the reformasi cause which ironically is supposed to be a rejection of Mahathirism. Racial politics of the kind Azmin practices fits in neatly with the agenda of Bersatu.

This is why the Perak menteri besar gets a pass with his “lone battle against the DAP’ remark and the old maverick spins it as something else. Just in case folks have forgotten what he said, it is actually the basis of mainstream Malay politics - "I am fighting alone with the DAP clans. I want to defend the Malay land and to fight for our religion. I am doing this slowly," he said. "Thankfully, some friends in Umno don't scold me. They are good with me,"  If you are Bersatu it's good to have friends like Umno, PAS and of course friends in PKR, led by a weak leader and supported by non-Malay partners who are deluded into thinking that they have not morphed into running dogs they accused the MCA of being.

For instance, now political operatives like the Entrepreneur Development Minister Mohd Redzuan Md Yusof who argued that the Malays have conceded too much to racists, will be more confident in his Malay über alles agenda, working in concert with someone like Azmin who argues that Harapan must be unapologetic in its Malay agenda - "We must do so without feeling apologetic or fearful of the criticism of others."

The reality is that Azmin made this play with the backing of the old maverick. When the presidential council was having its transition meeting, all this was set in motion. Anwar, as usual, was lured into a trap and he continues believing that democratic practices and gentleman agreement apply to these cretins. It does not. While Anwar continues to make missteps after missteps, his enemies continue to make strides while spitting in the faces of Harapan supporters. I hope non-Malay supporters of Azmin are happy with their new positions.