With a long history of being untrustworthy, it would be naive – even stupid – for Pakatan Harapan coalition to believe that the United Malays National Organization (UMNO) has turned over a new leaf. Let’s put it this way – it would be more believable that the pig can fly than the Malay nationalist party is no longer corrupt. After all, a leopard never changes its spots.

 

The only reason why Pakatan Harapan, led by the People’s Justice Party (PKR) president Anwar Ibrahim, and Barisan Nasional, dominated by UMNO and led by its president Zahid Hamidi, had decided to work together in forming a Unity Government was because the November 2022 General Election produced a hung Parliament. As both coalitions shared a common enemy, it didn’t take long to strike a deal.

 

That common enemy is Bersatu or Malaysian United Indigenous Party. Its power-hungry president, Muhyiddin Yassin, was directly responsible for the collapse of the democratically elected Pakatan Harapan government when the traitor pulled out the party’s support in Feb 2020. As a result, Anwar’s plan to take over from then-PM Mahathir Mohamad (who knew about the plot) was torpedoed.

UMNO, who had been in power since independence in 1957 but lost everything for the first time in the May 2018 General Election, was merely capitalizing on Muhyiddin’s greed and treachery to return to power through the back door. But the so-called Malay-Muslim regime comprising UMNO, Bersatu and PAS Islamist party was worse than the previous Pakatan Harapan government.

 

A series of endless backstabbing and betrayal by Bersatu saw UMNO, led by factions of Zahid and disgraced ex-PM Najib Razak, withdrew support for Muhyiddin and forced him to resign after just 17-month – effectively becoming the shortest serving prime minister in Malaysia’s history (even shorter than Mahathir’s 22 months as premier of Pakatan Harapan government).

 

The bad blood was not difficult to understand. UMNO president Zahid and crooked Najib felt cheated when PM Muhyiddin refused to interfere to drop all their corruption charges. This explains why Anwar, after becoming the 10th Prime Minister, knew very well not to repeat Muhyiddin’s mistakes – Zahid was promptly acquitted and Najib’s jail term received a 50% discount (and 75% discount on fine).

In fact, it’s not an exaggeration to suggest that a secret deal was struck between Anwar, Zahid and Najib before even then-King Sultan Abdullah of Pahang proposed a royal unity government. And the deal was to “forgive” Zahid and Najib’s past corruptions in exchange for support to enable Anwar, after 25-year struggle for the Iron Throne, becomes the 10th Prime Minister on Nov 24, 2022.

 

Hence, had Pakatan Harapan won at least 112 parliamentary seats in the 15th General Election, Anwar does not need to work with Barisan Nasional. Likewise, had Barisan Nasional won enough seats to form the federal government on its own, Zahid would have become the prime minister, not Anwar. Unfortunately, none of them had the numbers, leading to a marriage of convenience.

 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim could only close both eyes as UMNO, despite having won only 26 seats in Parliament, is the kingmaker in the new political landscape. The UMNO-led Barisan Nasional has 30 MPs, without which neither Pakatan Harapan (82 seats) nor Opposition Perikatan Nasional (73 seats) can form a government. Actually, there’s another kingmaker – Sarawak GPS.

Pakatan has another trump card which Perikatan doesn’t – the permutation with GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) and GRS (Gabungan Rakyat Sabah) along with former ally Warisan. In short, Pakatan Harapan can work with either Barisan Nasional or the Borneo states to form a government with a simple majority in the 222-seat Parliament. However, GPS plays second fiddle to Barisan.

 

Because GPS obediently follows Barisan Nasional coalition, UMNO keeps abusing its kingmaker status to extract concessions (which PM Anwar gladly obliged to cling to power) that it does not deserve, including getting the second biggest bloc of ministries, strategic Cabinet portfolios, deputy prime minister, hundreds of political appointees and of course Zahid’s acquittal and a royal pardon for incarcerated Najib.

 

Worse, the game plan also includes demonizing the Democratic Action Party (DAP) to project UMNO as the dominant Malay party which continues to bully, discriminate, suppress and oppress the minority ethnic Chinese (as it used to do during the previous 60 years as the ruling government before its stunning defeat in the May 2018 election) even though both are now part of the unity government.

Despite having the most seats – 40 MPs – within the Unity Government, DAP only obtained four ministries in the initial Anwar’s Cabinet of 28 portfolios, whereas UMNO was given six and Anwar’s PKR got the lion’s share of eight. That’s a ratio of 1:10 for DAP, but 1:4 for UMNO and even lesser for PKR (31 MPs) in terms of number of ministries to Member of Parliaments.

 

Under the pretext of winning back Malay voters who had defected to Perikatan Nasional due to their disgust and anger over UMNO’s six decades of corruption, cronyism, nepotism, arrogance and incompetence, the party leaders continue to play the race and religion card. And like the old and obsolete gimmick, ethnic Chinese has again become the punching bag.

 

From politicising and sensationalizing issues like socks bearing the word Allah and the proposal to nominate new villages as a UNESCO world heritage site, and from fantasizing logo on shoe sole with the world Allah to alcoholic beverage company’s sponsorship for vernacular Chinese school, UMNO leaders desperately use hatred, racism and extremism to win over lost Malay votes.

Most recently, the lifting of a ban on a comic book authored by former DAP member Hew Kuan Yau, also known as “Superman Hew”, saw UMNO racists scrambled to again attack the Chinese community, arguing that the book about Chinese President Xi Jinping’s Belt and Road initiative (BRI) to develop infrastructure and trade links across the world threatens the nation’s stability.

 

Hilariously, despite claiming that the comic book was a threat to national security, governing partner UMNO shamelessly suck up to Beijing. Not only UMNO president and deputy PM Zahid Hamidi spent a whopping 11 days in communist China, his official visit in May also saw him urging Malaysians to pursue higher education in China to gain knowledge in various fields, especially technology.

 

If indeed Chinese BRI is such a threat, where was UMNO Youth leader Akmal Salleh – the chief instigator – when his boss was vigorously promoting the communist country to Malay Muslim students? Should not UMNO village champions boycott the US$10 billion 665-kilometre-long ECRL (East Coast Rail Link), which is currently being built by Chinese contractor – China Communications Construction Company?

Clearly, the Malay nationalist party, whose popularity among the community that it claims to represent has plunged to only 27% after the Nov 2022 national polls, is trying to get the best of both worlds. While Zahid announced that Barisan Nasional will cooperate with Pakatan Harapan in the next 16th General Election, some UMNO warlords are trying very hard to undermine and destroy Anwar administration.

 

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke also hopes that the cooperation between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan will extend beyond the 16th General Election. It’s not a mystery why both Zahid and Anthony were on the same page. UMNO needs Chinese votes, which DAP has captured up to 95%, whilst DAP needs UMNO-Malay votes – even as little as 30%.

 

Having cornered almost all the Chinese votes, the Democratic Action Party can only grow with more Malay support. However, UMNO hopes to leverage on DAP’s Chinese votes to not only defend its pathetic 26 parliamentary seats, but also to re-capture seats stolen by Bersatu, a splinter party from UMNO. Power-hungry Muhyiddin was himself UMNO deputy president before being sacked by Najib in July 2015.

Both UMNO and DAP are using each other, pretending everything is rosy. But cracks are beginning to emerge due to excessive politics of hatred played by UMNO. As revealed by DAP vice-president Theresa Kok, the multi-racial party was told to keep a low profile in order not to spook the Malays in the recent Sungai Bakap by-election. Yet, UMNO had failed to convince its own supporters to help PKR.

 

Yes, PM Anwar was humiliated after his own party was defeated by PAS Islamist party with a wider margin of votes because the partnership between UMNO and DAP in the ruling coalition has not been fully acceptable by UMNO grassroots, and at the same time DAP grassroots and Chinese voters refused to come out to vote due to distrust in UMNO and dissatisfaction with Anwar’s policies.

 

Interestingly, Zahid said UMNO will not cooperate with PAS as long as Abdul Hadi Awang remains the Islamist party’s president, the same way Hadi said PAS won’t work with UMNO under Zahid’s leadership. This means UMNO, which is split into various factions with different ulterior motives, could still work with PAS and abandons Pakatan Harapan after the next national election.

While Zahid is happy with his reward now – corruption charges dropped and elevated as deputy prime minister – the same cannot be said about Najib’s faction, who wanted the crook to return to the driving seat so that the UMNO gravy trains could enrich them once again. Another third faction is working tirelessly to sow disunity among party members as they wanted to join Perikatan Nasional.

 

Regardless who leads UMNO, the endgame is the same – to reassert its single-party dominance. It had done so by breaking away from Perikatan Nasional, and chances are it will similarly break away from Pakatan Harapan. At worst, it will tag along like a parasite if it fails to win more than the current 30 seats. At best, it will demand the prime minister post if wins a few more seats.

 

Even before the next 16th election, UMNO has begun creating trouble with allies in Pakatan Harapan when it bulldozed to contest the Mahkota state seat in the upcoming by-election on September 24, 2024. The constituency in Johor was won by UMNO in the state election in March 2022, but it won 40 seats in the 56-seat assembly after just over half of Johor’s eligible voters cast their ballots.

However, most non-Malays did not return to vote in the 2022 Johor state election due to the rise of Covid Omicron variant. Mahkota was snatched by Pakatan Harapan in the 2018 Johor state election with 84.83% turnout, as compared to only 57.34% turnout in 2022. So, the burning question is this – will Pakatan be reduced to contesting their existing seats based on the principle of incumbency in the next Johor state election, even though it won Johor in 2018?

 

Would it not be stupid to allow – even help – UMNO contests and wins 40 seats in Johor, only for it to betray Pakatan Harapan by forming a new federal government with Bersatu and PAS later? There’s no permanent enemy in politics, only permanent interests. If Perikatan Nasional could offer prime minister to UMNO, it would gladly abandon Pakatan Harapan.

 

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August 17th, 2024 by financetwitter

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