Sunday, October 20, 2019

Pakatan’s great fables & fairy tales

Star Online:

Extracts of a letter (of exasperation?) by
Ivanpal Singh Grewal.

[Ivanpal Singh Grewal is an Advocate & Solicitor. He was formerly Political Secretary to the Minister of Plantation Industries & Commodities]


... This brings me to my point about Malaysia Baru. In the weeks after the change of government, NGOs that were critical of Barisan Nasional began to trumpet the renaissance of Malaysia’s socio-political landscape. Activists said they no longer needed to be active as the mission had been accomplished as Barisan had been [disposed].

Pakatan Harapan was expected to usher a kinder, gentler and progressive approach to governance.

Racist tendencies and ethnic demarcation were supposed to be a thing of the past. Malaysia would be governed based on the rule of law and in the interest of the many and not the few.




Repressive laws and oppressive policies were to be replaced with new laws that will elevate Malaysia's legal standing with a firm respect for human rights.

The pain I felt because of my party’s complete obliteration was assuaged by my belief that our best days, as a nation, were ahead of us.

However, fast forward 18 months, and Pakatan’s many promises have become great fables and fairy tales.

Leaving aside the broken promises and lacklustre budget – Pakatan seems to be completely disjunctive. The transition of power from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed to Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim has caused so much uncertainty, and it is debilitating.




For a nation used to certainty and stability, Malaysia is in uncharted waters, and it is not a good thing.

The constant racial baiting, even amongst Pakatan component parties, is a pity. It is nothing short of a modern-day Greek tragedy. The deteriorating state of race relations is affecting the confidence of investors, and Malaysia's economy is taking a hit.

DAP and PKR, with 92 seats amongst them, seem unable or unwilling to steer the country towards the path of consensus and unity.


The discomfiture of the Malay community, either real or imagined, is being amplified by those who seek to capitalise on it at the expense of the nation’s well-being.

For many Malaysians, this is our Malaysian dilemma because the more things change, the more they remain the same.


The reason for Ivanpal Singh Grewal's belief that 
the more things change, the more they remain the same has been the leadership of Mahathir and his Parti PRIBUMI (basically a splinter of UMNO and therefore just another UMNO).



Mahathir is reluctant to change to the kerbau of a so-called "New Malaysia", presumably as he feels comfortable and cosy in "old familiar" setting eg. SOSMA, bumiputera-ism, cronyism, Car No 3, eff-ing up Sing, his own IGP and various senior civil servants including AG, etc still under his dictatorial thumb, etc.

Many non-Malay gullible guppies defend him valiantly, pointing out his "new" readiness to consult, discuss and amend undesirable policies - I say bullshit (kerbau) to those feeble excuses as Mahathir only appears to do so under his grudging reality that he and his Parti PRIBUMI are still relatively weak in Pakatan. Thus he ber-sandiwara and gives in but just a wee bit to repetitive implorations (sickening pleas) from DAP to save the Rocket ministers from losing face, eg. khat - what about Lynas, Zakir Naik, etc?

In the meanwhile, Mahathir gathers increasing strength for his Parti PRIBUMI from UMNO frogs and also in the much talk-about secret alliance with some UMNO cabal and PAS eg. Hishamuddin, Hadi Awang, etc to (1) deny Anwar Ibrahim the next PM position and (2) to eff the DAP and Anwar's faction of PKR kaukau.



azmin & hisham with families together (after a long while) 

The second important brought out by Ivanpal Singh is the sickening DAP and PKR, with 92 seats amongst them, seem unable or unwilling to steer the country towards the path of consensus and unity. 

Ivanpal Singh has hit the sad frustrating nail on its head. DAP and PKR have different reasons though their common one is that the two parties together lack enough MPs to make 112, the magic figure providing majority rule. Even with Amanah's 11, the total would only be  103.

Thus Mahathir's Parti PRIBUMI with its original 13 became the kingmaker. Now the racist party has grown in strength with UMNO frogs which Mahathir had prior to GE14 vowed not to accept - to evade his own promise he calls upon those wannabe frogs to first resign from UMNO and subsequently join his PRIBUMI after a short 'holiday' as pseudo-virgins (as if they are not UMNO frogs).   

Never ever trust Mahathir's words.



Indeed this weakness of Pakatan is now looked upon with eager anticipation by UMNO-PAS. Malaysiakini reported (extracts):


Umno's Pontian MP Ahmad Maslan today speculated that there will be renewed efforts to form a new government coalition if PKR president Anwar Ibrahim fails to succeed Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad at the end of the latter's two-year tenure.


new coalition? see my post
Musuh PKR dalam selimut plot against Anwar for Mahathir


Ahmad, who was asked about competing for efforts to secure the support of Umno MPs with Umno's Sembrong MP Hishammuddin Hussein allegedly leading a group opposed to Anwar, initially downplayed the matter, stating that it did not arise.

However, he later said "something similar" could happen by May 2020 if the transition from Anwar to Mahathir was still unclear.

"To me, after the formation of 'Muafakat Nasional' (the Umno and PAS alliance), it is more to preparing for the general election, that is my personal view.

"But if it is not clear that there will be a transition of power by May 2020, there is a possibility that something similar could arise again," he told journalists at the Parliament lobby today.

Highlighting Anwar's statement in the Dewan Rakyat on Tuesday that internal Pakatan Harapan discussion had suggested that Mahathir should only stay for a maximum of two years, Ahmad said the prime minister should address this.

"If Anwar is not given (the position), I see there would be efforts again to form a new coalition that would form the government," he said.

Ahmad did not say which parties would be involved in this new coalition.

Now onto the separate problems of DAP and PKR's 92 seats:

Firstly, PKR is a party divided thanks to the ambition of the
Dökkálfar Chief Dwarf who at one stage, prior to his Sandakan exposure, had wet dreams of becoming PM after Mahathir.



That PKR deep schism still exists, even unto news of a Mahathir-Hishamuddin-Azmin conspiracy which alludes to a quid pro quo of a Hisham-cabal's support for Mahathir for a full 5-years PM tour against complete exoneration for Hisham's alleged sins [still not charged like Najib, Rosmah, Zahid, Ku Nan].

OTOH the DAP has lost its guli's since it came into rule. Enjoying power and the trappings of 'positions' it no longer desires to destabilise the new ship of coalition rule. It has became worse than MCA which it had criticised for 50 years as Raja boh-laam-phah.

And it's worse than MCA because it pretends not to be so, a Raja boh-laam-phah.

And that, my dear Ivanpal Singh Grewal, has been why the more things change, the more they remain the same - Amin.

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