MP SPEAKS | It was panic stations for Umno/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers for the last three days.

They just did not believe that it was possible for Pakatan Harapan leaders to resolve their differences and for the Pakatan Harapan presidential council to conclude its meeting last Thursday night fruitfully and productively, with a midnight media conference and announcement of the new Pakatan Harapan structure, logo and leadership line-up.

Umno/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers never believed that a reconciliation between Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim was at all possible!

This was why, in the initial panic responses, Umno/BN leaders and propagandists forgot their false but carefully contrived “black ops” demonisation campaign of lies, fake news and concocted stories to picture DAP as the evil force dominating and running the Pakatan Harapan, with me as the “dictator of dictators” who had made the leaders of PKR, Amanah and Pribumi Bersatu, namely Mohamad Sabu, Azmin Ali, Rafizi Ramli, Nurul Izzah, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Anwar, Muhyiddin Yassin and Mahathir into my stooges and puppets, completely at my “beck and call” and obedient to my every directive and wish.

Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak was so shocked that he shot off an immediate statement demanding an explanation for the absence of the DAP leaders in the top three positions in the Pakatan Harapan, asking whether the DAP had been sidelined.

How can the DAP be sidelined when, according to the “black ops” propaganda campaign of the Umno/BN leaders, propagandists and cybertroopers for the past few years, the DAP was the mastermind of every action and step among the opposition parties – presumably including every action taken by PAS leaders when PAS was in Pakatan Rakyat before the PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang buried Pakatan Rakyat at the June 2015 PAS muktamar?

Harapan is based on consensus

It just never occurred to Umno/BN leaders that Pakatan Harapan is a different creature from Barisan Nasional, in that the former is a genuine coalition of equal parties based on consensus among them while the latter is a fake coalition, where Umno exercises political hegemony, deciding unilaterally the BN policies and directions.

The new Pakatan Harapan structure, logo and leadership line-up so unhinged the Umno/BN leaders that several Umno leaders went into hysteria.

Umno Rural and Regional Development Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob (photo), for instance, raised the spectre of a non-Malay from DAP becoming prime minister, uttering gibberish like:

“In the end, we Malays will be split into three if this happens, if they (the opposition) form the government. DAP will have the most seats, and constitutionally, they are entitled to decide who will be prime minister.

“If Lim Guan Eng wants to become prime minster, then he will be (if the opposition wins). If they don’t dare to put Guan Eng (as prime minister), they can put up a Malay, but it will be a Malay like the Selangor menteri besar, who cannot make decisions because everything is controlled by Teresa Kok, Hannah Yeoh and whomever.”

Foreign Minister Anifah Aman warned BN supporters to expect revenge if the opposition forms the next government.

Trying to salvage the runaway situation, Umno Youth leader and Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin invented a new “black ops” propaganda line, claiming that DAP, as “the party which holds the most parliamentary seats in the Dewan Rakyat, will decide on the Pakatan Harapan’s policies and manifestos”.

DAP is not sidelined

Let me assure them that the DAP is not sidelined in Pakatan Harapan, that no single political party can decide and dictate Harapan’s policies and manifestos, and that there will no revenge binge by Harapan when it forms the federal government in Putrajaya.

The initial Umno/BN shock reactions have now worn off and we can now see a new carefully-crafted propaganda strategy – to run down the Mahathir-Anwar reconciliation and to forecast that Pakatan Harapan is doomed to failure – when it is in fact the greatest challenge to Malaysians to elect a new federal government in Putrajaya to re-set national policies and directions.

But the palpable fear that the days of Umno/BN coalition in Putrajaya are numbered are evident from the reactions of Umno leaders, whether the prime minister, the deputy prime minister or in particular, the communications and multimedia minister.

Something is very wrong when Najib Abdul Razak had to go to Sembrong to ensure that his cousin, and whom Najib clearly prefers to be his successor as prime minister, Hishammuddin Hussein, could retain his parliamentary seat!

Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should realise by now that his infamous comparison of the Pakatan Harapan leadership line-up as “three captains with different route maps” makes no sense whatsoever upon serious reflection.

But it is Salleh's latest statement that “without PAS, Harapan’s Putrajaya hopes doomed” is most revealing of all – for Salleh is actually trying to assure the Umno/BN grassroots members that they should not abandon a sinking ship but continue to hope that Umno/BN can still be re-elected as the federal government in the 14th general election!

No wonder Najib and Umno have been working so hard to woo the support of the PAS leadership, and it can be said, without fear of contradiction, that never had a PAS president been so close to the Umno president as Hadi is with Najib – even closer than the relationship between the previous PAS president, Asri Musa, with Najib’s father, Abdul Razak Hussein, when PAS was in the BN from 1973 to 1978.

Salleh claimed that Pakatan Harapan’s dream of taking over Putrajaya in GE14 is dissipating without the support of PAS.

Salleh does not seem to know that Pakatan Harapan was formed without PAS since September 2015, but he is clearly worried about the re-ignition of new hopes among Malaysian voters that it is possible to effect political change in Putrajaya in GE14 as a result of the new Pakatan Harapan structure, logo and leadership line-up.

I believe Najib has not completely given up the option of holding GE14 this year, but the new Pakatan Harapan structure, logo and leadership line-up have upset Najib’s plans for the GE14, as Malaysian voters can hope again that it is possible to end the Umno/BN federal rule in the next general election.

Najib is now in the classic Hamlet role in Shakespeare’s plays – to be or not to be, to call or not to call the general election this year.

The window for Najib to decide whether to hold GE14 this year is closing in the next few weeks, in the midst of a new development, which is causing panic among Umno/BN leaders and propagandists because there is a new air in Malaysian politics – that Malaysian voters can again hope and work for political change in Putrajaya in GE14!

LIM KIT SIANG is DAP parliamentary leader and the MP for Gelang Patah.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.