COMMENT | Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad is our friend and ally. So are PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and Warisan leader Shafie Apdal. Together we have worked hard to gain the people’s trust for Pakatan Harapan in the 14th general election of 2018. Unity won the day.
However, we are now in a very difficult moment in our political struggle. Each of our decision will now have huge consequences for Malaysia.
Since the fall of the government as a result of the Sheraton coup, the DAP national leadership is patiently, cautiously and painstakingly walking each step with our allies in Harapan Plus.
Our twin objectives are to hold together the coalition and to reclaim the people’s mandate that had been stolen by traitors among our ranks with the help of Umno.
Mahathir an ally
It was the Sheraton coup plotters who forced Mahathir to accept a coalition government between his party Bersatu and the Umno-PAS pact. He refused and resigned on Feb 24. He declined to cooperate with leaders such as former premier Najib Abdul Razak who were charged in court for plundering and robbing the nation.
On the morning of Feb 29, Harapan realigned with Mahathir to re-nominate him as Harapan's prime ministerial candidate. In the evening of the same day, he chaired a Harapan presidential council meeting with Anwar's presence at Yayasan Al-Bukhary in Kuala Lumpur.
On March 1, as Muhyiddin Yassin was sworn in as PM, all Harapan MPs, including Anwar, gathered to support Mahathir to reclaim our mandate.
We need both Mahathir and Anwar to work together as a team. Portraying Mahathir as the opponent is the wrong basis to start with. The real enemies are Muhyiddin, Najib, former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali and gang in Perikatan Nasional.
Warisan linchpin
The attempted “shopping spree” to buy over politicians by Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin in Sabah with the aim of causing the collapse of the Warisan-led Sabah government should also tell us who the enemies are.
If anyone from Harapan treats Hamzah – one of the plotters of the Sheraton coup – as a potential ally, he or she is making a fatal mistake.
Shafie and his party Warisan are actually the linchpins in our effort to reclaim the mandate.
DAP, PKR and Amanah collectively have 91 seats in Parliament. This number is not sufficient in our battle against Muhyiddin’s hastily cobbled coalition which has no moral baseline and ready to sink to bottomless pit in its attempt to stay in office.
Warisan and the Bersatu faction aligned with Mahathir serve as the “bridge” to 112 seats, the simple majority needed to form a government. With them, the 91 seats are extended to 109, and possibly more. The moment the 109 is firmly consolidated, the parliamentary route to reclaim our mandate would be firmly in place.
Warisan’s linchpin role has caused Hamzah’s wrath. I am thankful and glad that the Warisan-led Sabah government is intact, and we are expressing our solidarity with our colleagues in Warisan and Sabah’s Harapan.
Snap election possible
The best way to reclaim the mandate is to get back the support of responsible MPs who put the nation above any other self-interest. Yet we are prepared for any possibility of a general election, especially when we know that the current administration is very shaky and facing internal squabbles.
If there is a snap election in the months to come, Harapan needs to work with Mahathir, Anwar and Warisan to fight PN.
In the 2008 and 2013 general elections, Harapan won 80 out 165 seats in the peninsula. In 2013 and 2018, our aim was to win 100 seats in the peninsula so that we would have enough to form the federal government. With 80 seats, we failed in 2013. In 2018, Harapan finally won 98 seats in the peninsula.
Muhyiddin is allegedly very confident of a general election victory. I don’t think it would be that easy. Of peninsula’s 165 seats, if voter turnout is above 80 percent across the board, I am confident that Harapan will win at least 85 seats.
With a substantial swing in our favour in Sabah and Sarawak as a result of antipathy against the PN coalition, especially the roles played by PAS and Umno, I expect substantial gains in the Borneo states. Sabah and Sarawak will be the game-changer if there is a snap election.
DAP supports Anwar
The now widely available audio of the Harapan presidential council meeting on Feb 21 has proven that DAP and Amanah leaders championed the Mahathir-Anwar collaboration based on the Jan 7, 2018 deal. This means it is Anwar who will take over as prime minister after Mahathir, and no one else.
On Feb 25, DAP and Amanah decided to support Anwar, and instructed all their MPs to support the PKR president when they met Yang di-Pertuan Agong on Feb 26.
In the last 20 years, DAP and Amanah (many of the latter were in PAS before) have been supporting Anwar through thick and thin, and never deserted him.
The Anwar-Mahathir pact in 2017-18 was in fact sealed with full support from DAP and Amanah despite Azmin’s vehement opposition. The Harapan leadership knew that only a Mahathir premiership would provide room and space for Anwar to return to the top after prison, as Muhyiddin and Azmin were both aspiring to be PM.
As pointed out by DAP Organising Secretary Anthony Loke yesterday, two options were decided at the Harapan presidential council on May 30.
Option one – Anwar as PM and former Kedah MB Mukhriz Mahathir as deputy prime minister – which was fully exhausted as it was deemed unable to provide the bridge to 112 and beyond.
Option two – Mahathir as PM and Anwar as his deputy.
After numerous meetings, it was later decided that for option 2, Mahathir would stay for six months before handing over the post to Anwar.
We are of the view that the surest way for Anwar to be prime minister is through the collaboration with Mahathir and Warisan. Through the Mahathir-Anwar combo and with the support from DAP, Amanah, Warisan and Mahathir’s faction of Bersatu, Anwar will be prime minister six months after the grand coalition reclaims power.
A strong coalition with Anwar, Mahathir, Shafie, PKR, DAP and Amanah will have the strength and quality to reclaim the mandate and to build a long-lasting government in which both the forces of Mahathir and Anwar would still support the coalition even if their leader is not the prime minister.
Even if there’s a snap election, a united Harapan Plus coalition has the capacity, capability and the people’s support to defeat the Muhyiddin-Najib coalition.
Lest we forget, Hamzah is neither a friend nor an ally. He belongs to the dark side.
Editor's note: This article was first published here.
LIEW CHIN TONG is a senator and ex-deputy defence minister.
The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.
