What is PN's next move?

What is PN's next move?




TheRealNehruism
Writer. Seeker. Teacher

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Recently, PN Youth announced that it will be holding a rally on 16th September, without applying for a police permit, in conjunction with Malaysia Day, to protest against Ahmad Zahid Hamidi's DNAA.

On another front, PAS’s Abdul Hadi Awang, who is being investigated for sedition over comments on the pardons board, has announced that if found guilty, he would rather go to jail than pay a fine for his remarks.

In a separate development, PN has also announced that that it intends to make an official grouping of the four state governments under its control, with former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad set to be their unofficial adviser.

All of these developments gives us a glimpse of what Perikatan Nasional intends to do, now that the results of the August 12 elections and the Pulai and Simpang Jeram by-elections are out.

In all the above-mentioned elections, it is clear that the mandate of the Malays belongs to PN.

In GE 15, the Malays gave their mandate to PN, and in the August 12 elections as well as the Simpang Jeram and Pulai elections, they have chosen to reinforce the mandate that they have given to PN.

After receiving such a strong mandate from the Malays, PN will now be obliged to to do something with the mandate that has been given to it.

It is PN that had asked for a stronger mandate from the Malays in the first place, so now that it has gotten it, obviously, it can’t just do nothing.

The question however is what is it going to do?


We know PN's ultimate goal is to gain control of Putrajaya.


What we don't know is how it intends to achieve this goal.

We don’t know, because officially, speaking, PN has no path forward.


Malaysia's next general election is not due until 2027.

In the meantime, PN can’t table a vote of no confidence against Anwar Ibrahim, because Anwar Ibrahim’s unity government still possess almost 2/3rd of the votes in the Dewan Rakyat.

PN could try to entice some of the component parties that make up the unity government to leave the unity government and join its side, but it doesn’t seem like any party in the unity government is ready to do just that.

Even Muda, the smallest component party of the unity government which recently split from the unity government, looks more interested to start a “third force” than join forces with PN.

Given that PN lacks an official path forward, its only other option is to shift the political landscape psychologically or spiritually.

As the saying goes, “To dispose a soul to action we must upset its equilibrium.”

Currently, the equilibrium that tilts the mandate to govern in favour of the unity government, is the perception that the unity government represents the reform oriented, democratic, constitution upholding, compassionate, just and multicultural side of Malaysia.

If PN can demonstrate that the unity government does not embody these qualities, it could upset the equilibrium.

PN doesn’t need to win over the unity government’s supporters to upset the equilibrium, mind you, it just needs to make the supporters of the unity government lose faith in the unity government.

Zahid’s DNAA is already chipping at the faith that the unity government’s supporter have towards the unity government. PN youth is already attempting to exploit that weakness by holding a rally to protest Zahid’s DNAA without a police permit this Malaysia Day.

If the unity government suppresses their rally, its democratic credentials will be called into question. However, if it allows the rally to proceed, it will undermine the unity government's reformist credentials.

There is no strong reason for PN to make Mahathir their advisor in the state governments under its control. Mahathir is not even a part of PN.
PN is probably just appointing Mahathir as its advisor, to give Mahathir a platform to lambast the unity government and prod Anwar Ibrahim to take action against him.

If Anwar doesn’t take action against Mahathir, it will raise the question why, because Mahathir has already publicly stated that he doesn't intend to conform to the authorities’ move to bar discussions about race, religion and royalty.

If he does take action however, he is literally going to have to come down on a man that is nearly 100 years old.

As an icing on the cake, Hadi Awang, who is no spring chicken himself, and who is probably suffering from a grave illness, has also thrown down the gauntlet to indicate that he would rather go to jail than accept the authority of the unity government.

Even the most hardcore unity government supporter is going find it difficult to see the unity government as the side that is for compassion and goodness, when it throws two old and feeble men in jail.

If PN manages to erode the faith that the unity government's supporter have in unity government, how will this cause a change in government?

This is something that we cannot yet predict.

All we can say is that if enough of its supporters lose faith in the unity government, PN will have an excuse to topple the unity government, but how it will go about doing it is something that only time will tell.

Maybe it will cause some of the parties in the unity government to switch side and cause the unity government to lose its majority in the Dewan Rakyat.

Maybe something like a Sheraton Move will repeat itself. .

Maybe something else might happen.

The only thing that we can say for certain, is that if PN manages to alter the will of the people, unless we turn into a dictatorship, the will of the people will somehow manifest itself.