The Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, knows his days as Prime Minister may be numbered and he has produced his counter stroke – snap 15th General Election in Malaysia if the PN-BN-PBS alliance win the Sabah state general election.
UMNO has been pressing for snap general election in Malaysia for it believes that with the Muafakat Nasional which it has formed with PAS, it was in a good position not only to recapture power in Malaysia and restore an UMNO Prime Minister but to win big even with a more than two-thirds parliamentary majority.
But the UMNO leadership has been reluctant to topple Muhyiddin as Prime Minister as there are UMNO Ministers and Deputy Ministers in the Perikatan Nasional government – of which UMNO Ministers and Deputy Ministers are a part but not UMNO itself.
The internal bickerings and numerous contradictions in the Perikatan Nasional government as well as between Perikatan Nasional and Muafakat Nasional have produced the weakest Prime Minister in the nation’s history, with the nation not only losing its political will to fight kleptocracy but swiftly become a kakistocracy with the worst elements in society occupying important positions in the government.
This is why Muhyiddin dares not take any disciplinary action against mediocre and errant Cabinet Ministers and Malaysia and the world are presented the sorry spectacle of the Prime Minister frequently preaching the need for Malaysians to comply with the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) if Malaysia is to be on top of the Covid 19 epidemic, but impotent and unable to take action against members of the administration who violate Covid-19 SOPs, including quarantine SOPs.
The Prime Minister could not even discipline deputy ministers who reacted disgracefully and unprofessionally to the plucky 18-year-old girl from Pitas, Sabah, Veveonah Mosibin, who spent 24 hours on a tree top to gain better Internet connectivity to sit for an online examination and whose Youtube netted over 820,000 views.
Muhyiddin says there will be snap elections in Malaysia if the PN-BN-PBS alliance win the Sabah state general election – but where is the alliance?
Muhyiddin has named Hajiji Noor as the next Chief Minister of Sabah but UMNO and PBS do not agree. Sabah UMNO wants Bung Mohtar Radin as the next Sabah Chief Minister while the PBS is keeping its candidate as the Sabah Chief Minister close to its chest.
PN, BN and PBS have different beds and different dreams. They are not only clashing on the chief ministerial candidate, they are also fighting on seat allocation and endorsing independents contesting against their own allies and accusing each other of betrayal. In the PN, BN and PBS political wilderness, nobody knows who is friend and who is foe.
Is Muhyiddin producing his counter-stroke to get support from his so-called allies in Sabah general election for Hajiji Noor to be the sole candidate to be the next Sabah Chief Minister – the offer of a snap election for the whole Malaysia?
Muhyiddin wants a “signal” from the Sabah state election that the people support PN and want Muhyiddin to continue as Prime Minister – but Muhyiddin should be realistic enough to know that if UMNO wins big in a snap general election in Malaysia, UMNO will want an UMNO leader as Prime Minister and Muhyiddin will become the biggest casualty.
But Muhyiddin is so desperate that he has become the only Prime Minister who is campaigning so hard in the Sabah state election, even to the extent of flouting election laws causing electoral watchdog Bersih 2.0 to urge the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) to probe breach of electoral laws by inducement of voters when handing over mock cheques amounting to more than RM60 million to representatives of fishermen and farmers at an event in Beaufort, Sabah.
The Sabah state election has national significance.
If it is possible to produce a political feat in the 14th general election on May 9, 2018 to defeat the seemingly invincible Barisan Nasional and topple the premiership of Najib Razak, it is not impossible to restore the mandate for democratic reforms and institutional change in the 14th General Elections as the mandate was snatched away by an illegitimate and backdoor “Sheraton Move” conspiracy after 22 months when the mandate was for five years.
What is needed is a signal from the Sabah State General Election – for Warisan Plus to win with sufficient seats not only to form the new State Government, but with a more than two-thirds majority to end the political culture in Sabah and later in Malaysia.
Sabah is known as Land below the Wind – and I call on Sabahans to start a wind of change in Malaysia on Sept. 26, by ensuring that Warisan Plus not only wins but win with a two-thirds majority, as a forerunner to the restoration of the mandate of integrity, justice and progress in national governance in the Malaysian 15th General Election.
(Speech by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang at a Sabah general election ceramah in Taman Sentosa, Sandakan on Friday, 18 September 2020 at 7.30 pm)