Mahathir was once called "recalcitrant" - he now shows it

There is immense unhappiness among many non-Pribumi Pakatan people. It all has to do with Mahathir's Pribumi taking in 7 UMNO deserters without consultation with non-Pribumi Pakatan parties like PKR and DAP.

It has been reported that many of the non-Pribumi Pakatan politicians and their supporters are up in arms after the considerable frogology of Pakatan's archfoe, UMNO.

But then that's the way Mahathir did, has done and now does things. He doesn't give a sh*t about the other Pakatan parties' opinions or approval.

Admittedly, he is compelled by his personal "time" and the knowledge that the other Pakatan parties would object, and that he wants Pribumi, the weakest party among Pakatan members, to be the strongest in order to dominate, as has been his wont.

So fCk PKR and DAP, Pribumi now has 22 seats in parliament. OK, more work to be done because alas for Mahathir, Anwar's PKR and those wretched people in DAP have 50 and 42 seats respectively. These won't do as he must ensure Pribumi is the biggest-strongest component like UMNO was in BN.

But will his latest go-it-alone rile the other parties to such an extent they will expel Pribumi from Pakatan?

It's been said that Mahathir has threatened to take Pribumi out of Pakatan into another coalition if the "others" object to his acceptance and continuous recruitment of UMNO "garbage".

Though there have been vociferous noises from the "others", there were mainly the "gurkhas". None of the leadership has spoken up, people like Lim Kit Siang, Anwar Ibrahim, Wan Azizah etc.

But instead we have Azmin Ali actually defending and approving Mahathir's treachery in accepting UMNO frogs, whilst worryingly, Amanah, which has 11 federal seats, said it's not worried or bothered about Pribumi taking in UMNO frogs.

This means Mahathir can probably rely on Amanah support of 11 MPs, while Azmin is likely to follow Mahathir should the Old Man break up with Pakatan. According to another blogger, Azmin commands a followship of a least 21 out of the 50 PKR has.

Pribumi 22 + Azmin 21 (or even more) + Amanah 11 make 54.

Then there's the East Malaysian parties. In Sarawak he's pally buddy with Peh Mor but on the minus side for Mahathir, the DAP, assuming it stays true to Anwar, has quite a strong following which may neutralise Sarawakian support for Mahathir. The PKR element there is unknown, as to whether Baru Bian will follow Azmin Ali or Anwar Ibrahim - perhaps some of my visitors can comment.

As for Sabah, I think Mahathir might have offended the locals in wanting to establish Pribumi there. But everything and anything goes when we are beneath the wind

The big unknowns are 18 PAS and what remains of UMNO. According to P Gunasegaran's article in Malaysiakini's Mahathir’s shifting stand shows he can't be trusted (extracts):

Mahathir acquiescing to defections despite earlier opposition, opens the door very wide for Bersatu Pribumi to accept virtually all of the other Umno MPs - some 40 odd, if you exclude those who are clearly unacceptable like Najib.

In addition to some 16 others in Sarawak and perhaps four independents in Sabah, there are some 60 more. This could swell Bersatu's Pribumi’s combined support to some 82 MPs.

Gunasegaram hypothesized the bizarre possibility of DAP following Mahathir and his Pribumi, but I reckon while that is not inconceivable seeing how precious the Lims considered their alliance with Mahathir, it's more unlikely as the people in DAP detest Azmin Ali who is more or less with Mahathir and likely to be his successor as PM.

But unless the LIMs come out to criticise Mahathir's move and show their resolution to break up with a recalcitrant Mahathir-Pribumi on the issue of accepting UMNO "garbage" (with the pretense of vetting those UMNO deserters), even Anwar Ibrahim will be depressed by the wavering stance of his close DAP ally. Any further delay will only encourage Mahathir and piss off DAP supporters.

As the ancient Chinese say, "We live in interesting times".