23 April, genap dua bulan Azmin dan rakan-rakannya membuat keputusan keluar dari parti Anwar. Pengumuman keluar mungkin dibuat pada 24 Februari, tetapi sambil makan malam bersama Umno dan PAS di Sheraton itu, keputusannya pasti sudah dicapai.
Menariknya, rakan-rakan Azmin ini bukan cicak mengkarung dalam rangkaian Anwar. Seperti juga Azmin, si “pemegang diari merah” mantan timbalan perdana menteri, gerombolan yang mengikut beliau meninggalkan parti juga boleh tahan “Anwarist”.
Namun begitulah hakikatnya, bagaimana tiada kawan dan lawan yang kekal dalam politik. Seperti yang diulang sebut mendiang Karpal Singh. Apa yang kekal adalah prinsip. Itu pun kalau ada prinsip.
Bagi kebanyakan orang yang menyertai pergulatan politik, prinsip adalah barang kudapan cita-cita utama untuk memperoleh pengaruh dan kekuasaan. Pengaruh dan kekuasaan itu pula digunakan untuk mendapatkan duit. Dan duit itu pula digunakan untuk mendapatkan lebih banyak pengaruh dan kuasa. Inilah dia apa yang dipanggil “realpolitik”.
Realpolitik itulah yang menyebabkan kuasa tiba-tiba beralih kembali ke tangan-tangan kotor Umno dan rakan-rakannya; tanpa perlu menang sebarang pilihan raya. Tetapi takkanlah setakat itu saja hasilnya untuk seorang Azmin?
Dalam dua wawancara saya bersama beliau, Azmin tidak pernah menyatakan sebarang keinginan untuk menjadi perdana menteri. Kali pertama, Azmin bercerita panjang tentang kisah zaman remajanya menternak kambing dan ayam; sebelum sambung belajar ke Amerika, dan pulang ke tanah air untuk bekerja dengan Anwar. Kali kedua, wawancara setelah menjadi menteri besar Selangor. Pun tidak ada sebut mahu jadi PM. Walaupun saya tanya terus terang saja.
Meski tidak pernah menyebut dengan jelas, kita semua tahu Azmin akhirnya bukan saja tidak mahu Anwar menjadi perdana menteri. Tetapi menurutnya yang paling layak mengambil alih jawatan PM itu, adalah beliau sendiri. Sejak bertanding timbalan presiden parti pada 2010, sehinggalah bergerak mengguling Khalid Ibrahim, dan akhirnya menghalang Anwar daripada menjadi PM, itulah dia objektif utama.
Mungkin melampau kalau kita katakan Azmin melihat Muhyiddin Yassin sepertimana orang mendakwa Anwar melihat Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail – sebagai sekadar pemanas kerusi. Tetapi itulah hakikatnya. Kan?
Dilema Muhyiddin
Pengarah Pendidikan Politik DAP Liew Chin Tong menulis panjang hujung minggu lalu tentang dilema Muhyiddin, pasca krisis Covid-19. Kerajaan Muhyiddin sebenarnya ditopang dengan majoriti sekadar dua atau tiga kerusi. Ertinya di Parlimen, sebarang urusan dan usul kerajaan cenderung gagal dengan hanya kekurangan beberapa undi.
Dalam fabrik gabungan yang begitu demikian longgar; tanpa struktur parti, tanpa satu dasar bersama, tanpa titik temu yang sekata, Muhyiddin “dipegang telurnya” (maaf tiada bahasa yang lebih sesuai) oleh setiap seorang yang menyokongnya menjadi perdana menteri.
Kalau tidak puas hati, atau ada tuntutan yang tidak didengari, picit saja. Umno contohnya, beberapa hari lalu dengan selamba mengutus surat dengan senarai tuntutan untuk saki baki pimpinannya di Sabah, tanpa rasa segan silu. Muhyiddin akan harus melayan dan pastinya nanti memenuhi permintaan itu.
Ini belum dicampur masalah ekonomi dan peluang pekerjaan yang bakal merundung negara sebaik saja PKP berakhir, serta masalah sumber pendapatan negara akibat kejatuhan harga minyak dunia. Beban yang ditanggung Muhyiddin memang besar gedabak.
Tetapi kalau Azmin mahu jadi perdana menteri menggantikan Muhyiddin, maka Azmin harus bertanya dirinya sendiri sama ada beliau bersedia untuk memikulnya.
Jalan menuju kerusi PM
Untuk menjadi PM, Azmin yang kini ahli parti Bersatu pastinya akan perlu terlebih dulu naik menggantikan presiden parti itu, iaitu Muhyiddin. Maka jalan yang lebih mudah pastinya dengan menubuhkan parti sendiri. Parti itu pula mestilah membawa idea “muafakat agung”, idea perpaduan nasional yang secara ironinya kini diusung sebuah gabungan yang berpaut kepada sentimen Melayu-Islam dengan memomokkan DAP.
Seperti biasa, analisis pasaran dilakukan terlebih dulu dengan mengajukan idea ini melalui pertubuhan seperti Pemuda Negara yang menampilkan wajah pegawai-pegawai Azmin dan logo bulan bintang seperti yang turut tertera di laman Wikipedia Perikatan Nasional.
Apa yang sedikit lucu ialah bagaimana idea ini cuba dibungkus dengan menggunakan Dato’ Onn sebagai jenama besar, justeru mencetuskan cakap-cakap dalam kalangan wartawan tentang bagaimana Azmin akan menubuhkan Parti Negara, sepertimana Dato’ Onn juga.
Dato’ Onn tidak berakhir menjadi perdana menteri. Beliau hanya pernah menjadi menteri besar Johor atas lantikan Sultan, sepertimana arwah bapanya yang merupakan MB Johor pertama, serta dua adik beradiknya yang turut dilantik sebagai MB ketika demokrasi masih belum wujud di Tanah Melayu.
Dato’ Onn akhirnya menubuhkan Parti Negara pada 1953, sebuah parti politik yang prinsipnya bertentangan langsung dengan Parti Malaya Merdeka yang ditubuhkannya sebelum itu. Atas tiket Parti Negara inilah Dato’ Onn akhirnya berjaya menjadi Ahli Parlimen setelah menang dalam pilihan raya 1959, jauh di kerusi Kuala Terengganu Selatan. Malah ada juga yang menyebut Dato’ Onn akhirnya menyertai PAS sebelum meninggal dunia tiga tahun kemudian. Parti Negara turut hilang bersama Dato’ Onn.
Justeru bagi Azmin, pilihan di tangan tidak begitu banyak. Ruang di depan semakin sempit. Beliau pastinya tahu Umno tidak akan begitu mudah memberi laluan, begitu juga PAS yang tidak kalah berdendam. Bersatu apatah lagi. Maka ke mana Azmin Ali akan pergi? – Roketkini.com
Amanat Duta Khas
Kerajaang Tebuk Atap...
" Kita menyokong UMNO bukan kerana nama dia UMNO. Kita menyokong UMNO kerana dia memperjuangkan Melayu, dasar partinya Melayu walaupun tidak sokong hudud.
Kita menentang PH bukan kerana namanya PH, kita menentang PH kerana partinya berbilang kaum dan PH menangkap pemimpin Melayu Islam yang rasuah. Oleh kerana PH mengekalkan dasar menentang rasuah, oleh itu kita menentangnya.
Oleh kerana kita melawan puak2 ini, maka perjuangan kita adalah jihad. Ucapan kita adalah jihad. Rampasan kuasa ikut atap juga adalah jihad. Khianat mandat rakyat juga adalah jihad. Jadi duta khas adalah jihad. Jika kita mati di dalam keadaan kita jadi menteri dalam kerajaan tebuk atap ini, mati kita adalah syahid" . - From: Rusila,f/bk
The Ketuanan Melayu Agenda...
May 9th will mark two years since Pakatan Harapan (PH), against all odds, swept to victory. A party that did not expect to lose was swept from power by a coalition that didn’t think it could win. What giddy days they were! To say we were jubilant would be an understatement. The excited crowds outside the gates of Istana Negara waiting for Dr Mahathir Mohamad to be sworn in as prime minister will forever be etched in the memories of those who were there.
It made all the years of effort – including risking arrests to attend those Bersih rallies, training as election monitors and campaign workers, and going out of our way to vote – worth the while. Together, we took back the government from the hands of unscrupulous, immoral and corrupt politicians.
For one moment in time, we were united by a shared hope that at last Malaysia would be able to embrace its destiny as a united, prosperous and democratic nation. Not since Merdeka had there been such a national outpouring of pride, hope and excitement. But it was not to be; our brief tryst with spring ended as abruptly as it began.
Many factors, no doubt, contributed to the fall of the PH government; certainly, the bitter rivalry between Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim dominated much of the news. Ultimately, however, it was the race factor more than anything else that proved destructive.
Ketuanan Melayu ideologues from across the political spectrum – PPBM, UMNO, PKR and PAS – felt deeply threatened by the prospect of having to share power, even minimally, with the non-Malays. Unsurprisingly, the DAP which surged to new heights following GE14 quickly became the “Great Satan,” the embodiment of an existential threat to the Malays. If the whole concept of power-sharing was to be aborted, the DAP had to be discredited and removed from government.
It is no secret that since May 1969, we’ve always had a multiracial government in name only; absolute power remained in the hands of UMNO which ruled primarily on behalf of one community. MCA, MIC and Gerakan were never more than bit players, they simply to lend credence to the lie that multiracial politics and national unity were alive and well. It allowed UMNO, masquerading as Barisan Nasional, to rule as a multiracial government while pursuing an essentially race-based agenda.
GE14 upended that construct. The bitter, very personal battle between Mahathir and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak divided Ketuanan Melayu ideologues along with much of the Malay polity. So bitter was the feud with Najib that Mahathir, the architect of the Ketuanan Melayu agenda, was even willing to find common cause with the DAP and his other bitter rival (Anwar) to bring down Najib.
Malay disunity – as Mahathir himself later claimed – allowed the non-Malays to win a record number of seats in parliament. It still left the Malays in an unassailable position given their majority in parliament, the civil service, the armed forces and police and in almost every other area of national life, but it did bring a more balanced representation to parliament at least.
While many considered it a positive development, Ketuanan Melayu ideologues, long accustomed to seeing politics as a zero-sum game, saw the outcome of GE14 as a disastrous setback. To them the very idea of power-sharing was unacceptable, a direct challenge to the Ketuanan Melayu agenda and all it stood for.
Consequently, while both Malay and non-Malay progressives and reformists celebrated, Ketuanan Melayu ideologues fumed. The former talked about democracy, transparency and accountability; Ketuanan Melayu ideologues complained about the loss of face, the threat to race, religion and culture. Reformists wanted to press ahead quickly with “reformasi”; Ketuanan Melayu ideologues wanted to hold on to the essentially authoritarian political structures that they had put in place since 1969.
Reformists wanted a fair distribution of wealth; Ketuanan Melayu elites wanted to maintain the system of crony capitalism that allowed them to exploit the wealth of the nation at will. Progressives yearned for a more open, tolerant and inclusive culture; Ketuanan Melayu ideologues would have none of it.
The rejection of power-sharing was clearly evident in Malay political discourse post-GE14. Incendiary statements like “Malaysia is for Malays”, non-Muslims ought not to be given senior positions in government, Malay rights and culture were being undermined, the position of the Malay rulers was being challenged, non-Malays were disrespecting the Malays, were aggressively thrown into the narrative.
At the same time, non-existent threats from Communists, Christians and Tamil Tigers were deliberately played up to give the impression that the nation was facing a dire and imminent threat to its very existence. Reality didn’t matter; the objective was to manufacture a crisis of confidence in the PH government.
The underlying message was clear: the Malay community alone had the exclusive, God-ordained right to rule Malaysia. “Immigrant” communities – the pendatang – could remain for so long as they did not challenge Malay rule or even aspire to be equal partners in the governance of the nation.
It was not a novel idea. In his seminal treatise The Malay Dilemma written almost 50 years ago, Mahathir opined that “Malays are the rightful owners of Malaya, and that if citizenship is conferred on races other than the Malays, it is because the Malays consent to this. This consent is conditional.”
Such a view was, fundamentally, a complete repudiation of the Merdeka agreement which envisaged shared citizenship and joint responsibility for the governance of the nation within a secular, democratic and constitutional framework.
Ketuanan Melayu ideologues had long complained, albeit erroneously, that the British had done the Malays a great disservice when it forced them to accept non-Malay citizenship and participation in the political process in exchange for independence. When they saw an opportunity to correct what was in their mind a historic injustice, they jumped at it.
As pressure grew for Anwar to take over from Mahathir (as per the PH succession plan), Ketuanan Melayu ideologues – united by their common disdain for sharing power with non-Malays – were galvanised into action. To them Anwar was unacceptable because, as Mahathir himself complained, he was not sufficiently committed to the Ketuanan Melayu agenda. His leadership of a multiracial coalition, his constant calls for unity, tolerance and inclusiveness was a bridge too far for the right-wing members of his own community.
Mahathir himself had, of course, been plotting and planning for months to create a more Malay-centric government both to advance his Ketuanan Melayu agenda as well as to stymie Anwar (whom he personally loathed). His plan was to entice UMNO and PAS parliamentarians (sans some of their leaders) to join his own stable of parliamentarians to form a new Malay unity government. What he didn’t count on was that Muhyiddin, who did not share his scruples about tainted UMNO leaders, would beat him to it.
Whatever it is, the end result was a seismic political shift no less significant than May 13th. The ‘Sheraton Move’ effectively nullified the results of GE14, disenfranchised the non-Malay vote, curtailed power-sharing with non-Malays and re-established absolute Malay hegemony.
The Malaysian spring, along with the reformasi agenda, is now over. Will a harsh winter follow? - Dennis Ignatius
Nilah Rohingya yg walaun dok sanjong...
Kalu UMNO bela 'lembu dlm kondo'..
mai Rohingya, depa bela kambing dlm flat...
Ni Melayu Islam di Kawthaung Island, South of Myanmar...
Katanya esok EXCO Perak dan Timbalan Menteri Kesihatan akan didakwa di Mahkamah Gerik esok kerana melanggar PKP... Tahniah lah Polis Perak..Sebab sebelum ni ada laporan kata, yang pihak Polis kata mereka ni duduk dalam jarak selamat.Diharap dipenjaralah walaupun sehari sebagai satu teladan kepada Rakyat..jangan hanya denda..sebabnya itu bukanlah satu teladan yang baik..Rakyat bukan hanya didenda, ada dipenjara, ada diikat jamin dan dinafikan ikat jamin..Lepas tu jangan lupa anak Presiden UMNO dgn suaminya pulak...- f/bk
Menteri Afrika Selatan didenda pasa langgar PKP...
