“But you can't make people listen. They have to come around in their own time, wondering what happened and why the world blew up around them. It can't last.” - Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

COMMENT | Perikatan Nasional (PN) chairperson Muhyiddin Yassin’s claim that it was something “unusual” for an Umno hack to ask the party faithful to support DAP, is the kind of duplicitous, sanctimonious horse manure that Malay uber alles types engage in with a straight face.

Coming from a former ally who knows first-hand how DAP bent over for former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his minions from Bersatu (the party that Muhyiddin treacherously leads now) is galling, since it comes from a traitor of the brief Pakatan Harapan government, who had offered an olive branch to Harapan (and DAP) when he realised that Umno was planning something most foul against his regime.

Muhyiddin likes to play the honest leader card but the reality is he is a prime minister who declared a faux emergency just to remain in power. Leading up to the “emergency”, the PN government attempted to soothe the frayed nerves of the public by claiming that this was not really an emergency but rather something else that was like an emergency.

Former columnist Syahredzan Johan, who is now Bangi MP, astutely pointed out in 2020 that even the royal institution was concerned about the possible abuse of political power in the first attempt at an emergency:

“The word membatasi was the only one to be highlighted in red in the statement. The other words were printed in black. This statement is significant as it suggests that the rulers were of the view that there could be elements of abuse of power in an emergency and that the Agong's role is to ensure that executive powers are not abused.”

The fact that PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang, Muhyiddin and the rest of PN are more than willing to...