Mahathir’s endgame was to rejoin or merge with UMNO

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A Dozen Of Sharks In A Small Pond – PM Muhyiddin Has To Constantly Watch His Back For Traitors

There’s good news and bad news. First, the bad news – Muhyiddin Yassin is now officially the 8th Prime Minister of Malaysia. The good news – he has disputable majority. No matter how you argue, Mr. Muhyiddin, arguably the 1st premier of a backdoor government, has taken over a very unstable government at a time when the global economy is at the mercy of Coronavirus.

He only commanded a razor-thin 114-majority in a 222-seat Parliament, if indeed he had that number in the first place. The simple fact that the March 9 Parliamentary Assembly meeting may be postponed is the strongest sign that the newly crowned Muhyiddin might have stolen and scammed his way to the throne. He dares not face a vote of confidence challenge proposed by a furious Mahathir.

Despite claiming that he has the support of 115 MPs, former PM Mahathir apparently failed to meet the Agong (King) to present his case. And the 94-year-old man said he feels most betrayed by Muhyiddin. His anger was so uncontrollable that he didn’t actually blame his former blue-eyed boy Azmin Ali, the former PKR deputy president who joined forces with Muhyiddin in the latest coup.





For that reason alone, Muhyiddin should definitely be worried as the vengeful Mahathir will certainly give him hell. But was Mahathir really that innocent himself? Long story short, it appeared that Mahathir had agreed, at least in principle, to an initial plan to betray fellow allies PKR, DAP and Amanah, but along the way he was betrayed by his own ambitious lieutenant Muhyiddin instead.

On Sunday (March 1), Mahathir revealed that he had urged his party president Muhyiddin Yassin to wait till after the criminal trials of UMNO leaders (obviously referring to Najib Razak, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Tengku Adnan) were resolved before considering cooperation with UMNO. “Muhyiddin said he was willing to accept UMNO en bloc. I said I could not agree,” – said Mahathir.

That statement alone confirms what we published in November 2019 that Mahathir will not step down until Najib is sent to prison. It also agrees with an article we published in December 2019 that Mahathir’s endgame was to rejoin or merge with UMNO after Najib is imprisoned. The reason is pretty simple – only by merging or joining UMNO can Bersatu becomes a dominant Malay political party.





Did you notice that throughout the 7-day crisis, the name of Mukhriz Mahathir was largely absent, until now? Yes, the initial plot hits a roadblock after UMNO got greedy and started making unrealistic demands, including the appointment of corrupt leaders like Zahid Hamidi and Tengku Adnan as senior ministers in the new government. Mahathir disagreed and abandoned the plan.

That was when Muhyiddin executed his plot within a plot. He took charge of the evil scheme and continued working with opposition UMNO Malay nationalist party and PAS Islamist party. Tricked by his own lieutenant, Mahathir felt betrayed because not only he could no longer be a prime minister, his son Mukhriz would be excluded and left in the wilderness.

If Mahathir was not part of the initial plot at all, he would have sounded the alarm the moment he learned about the plot and started rallying fellow allies of the Pakatan Harapan coalition and Sarawak-based GPS and Sabah-based Warisan to thwart the coup. Of course, as far as Mahathir is concerned, it’s always other people’s fault and not his after things went south.





But despite succeeded in grabbing the throne, Muhyiddin has plunged himself into a small pond filled with hungry sharks. Even within the Pakatan Harapan coalition, there were already at least four tigers which fought on a small hill – Mahathir, Anwar, Azmin and Muhyiddin. You don’t need a rocket scientist to tell that the situation in Perikatan Nasional will be worse.

Sharks like Azmin Ali, Zahid Hamidi, Hishammuddin Hussein, Khairy Jamaluddin, Hadi Awang and even Najib Razak (did someone mention Rosmah Mansor?), just to name a few, will constantly circle around Muhyiddin for blood. The newly installed premier knew very well that those ambitious warlords could do to him what he had done to Mahathir.

Muhyiddin has just demonstrated that in UMNO political theatre and culture (all of them were cut from the same cloth, mind you), there’s no such thing as principle or dignity or redline that cannot be crossed. It’s all about the greed and lust for power. If the price is right, they won’t think twice about selling their wives or daughters. Mahathir should be proud that his previous 22-year-rule has produced such talents.





Now that the new government is dominated by almost 100% ethnic Malays only, Muhyiddin government cannot blame the minorities, especially the Chinese, for whatever problems they will face at a later stage. Even PAS Islamist party talks about the economy and so-called “healing the nation”, whatever that means, and not about Hudud Law or Islamic supremacy as they used to trumpet.

Muhyiddin’s survival is at the mercy of UMNO. In fact, the so-called Malay-only government will crumble like a house of cards if any of the components pulls out. Not only will Muhyiddin do everything in his power to ensure crooks like Zahid Hamidi and Tengku Adnan walk away scot free from their existing criminal charges, he has to reward them with senior ministerial posts – including deputy prime minister.

Indirectly, Muhyiddin is also under Sarawak-based GPS’ threat to honour the state’s rights under Malaysian Agreement 1963 as well as the demand to pay the Sarawak sales tax on petroleum products. The GPS (Gabungan Parti Sarawak) revealed that it switched its support from Mahathir to Muhyiddin because the former premier had been “indecisive” – suggesting that GPS could switch sides anytime again.





Eventually, Muhyiddin has to merge his Bersatu party (if he still can claim ownership of the party founded by Mahathir) with UMNO and traitor Azmin Ali’s faction to create a dominant party. Minus six MPs aligned to Mahathir’s camp, Muhyiddin’s Bersatu is a small party (19 MPs) in comparison to UMNO (39 MPs), PAS (18 MPs) and Azmin’s gang of traitors (11 MPs).

The ideal configuration is to enlarge UMNO like it was during its glory period where it possessed in excess of 80 MPs and dominated more than 90% of the Cabinet portfolios. But a reunion back to UMNO itself is a tricky business as everyone would be fighting tooth and nail for positions. Besides, the bargaining power is always stronger as a leader of a party because they can easily defect, bringing together all the MPs.

To make matters worse for Muhyiddin, he has only 3 years before the 15th General Election to prove that his government is better than his predecessor Najib’s and Mahathir’s Pakatan Harapan. Therefore, he has to quickly instil confidence that his government is legitimate and stable. He cannot forever run away from facing a confidence vote in the House of Representative.





In the same breath, it’s absolutely possible that Mahathir could be persuaded to return home to Bersatu. The old man could be offered a Minister Mentor position with a powerful advisory role to feed his ego, and stop him from creating havocs outside as the Opposition. That can be done under the pretext of Malay unity and dignity. For that to work, at least Najib Razak or Zahid Hamidi has to be sacrificed.