UMNO, at least some sections within it, are so desperate that the party is willing to blackmail Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob into calling for an early 15th General Elections (GE15).
In recent UMNO meetings, the party has imposed certain conditions on the Government to fulfill. These are getting a royal pardon for a convict, former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and sacking Attorney-General Tan Sri Idrus Harun and Chief Justice Tun Tengku Maimun Tuan Mat.
On top of these is a demand that Ismail should call for an early GE15. If not, threats have been made that Ismail might be sacked from UMNO as a member and position holder.
Whether these conditions imposed on the Government and Ismail, in particular, are true or not cannot be verified for their authenticity. But given the fact of the desperation of certain sections within UMNO, the laying of these conditions are not impossible.
The possibility of these conditions being raised, even if they were not formally presented to the Government, remains.
The question is how to seek a royal pardon for Najib when there remain other cases against him, mainly in the embezzlement of 1Malaysia Development Board (1MDB) funds.
There is the possibility of a royal pardon but the disposal of his other cases has to be awaited even before a proposal could be made to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
Former two-time prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad still harbours the thought that Najib might get a royal pardon in the end.
“The real reason”
The fervency of UMNO’s desperation is not merely related to freeing Najib from prison. The UMNO factions might be using Najib’s issue for political support, but the real reason lies somewhere else.
This real reason is related to the corruption cases pending against UMNO president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.
Zahid thinks that if the GE15 is held this year, the chances of Barisan Nasional (BN) winning national power is high given the weakness of the opposition, Pakatan Harapan (Pakatan). Thus, if UMNO leads BN to a victory, the corruption cases against him and others will be removed by virtue of political power; in other words, the control of the Government.
The person most to gain from an early GE15, therefore, is none other than Zahid. Zahid is vigorously pushing the agenda for an early GE15 to save his own neck.
Najib too might get a royal pardon for his conviction in the SRC International case whereas his other cases would be cast aside.
UMNO has never been desperate to the present extent, not even when the party was outlawed by the court some years back.
At that time, UMNO had strength in numbers in Parliament to turn its weakness into strength. I am not presently sure that UMNO’s desperation is equally matched by having strength in numbers; by this I mean its parliamentary strength.
Even if the party sacks Ismail from being a party member, it is not certain whether UMNO, by withdrawing its support to the Government, will enable the collapse of the Government.
Under the guise of a political crisis, Ismail might even revive the memorandum of understanding (MOU) with Pakatan to get the required political support. Pakatan, with a considerable number of MPs, can easily strengthen Ismail’s hand.
I am not saying that this is going to happen, but if UMNO pulls its members out from supporting Ismail’s Government, this scenario might be operative.
“Not all UMNO MPs with Zahid”
Zahid might think that all the UMNO MPs are with him, but he is wrong.
There are sections that are sympathetic to Ismail. They think that although he might not be aggressive, he is not tainted by corruption.
They also think that it is far better to have Ismail as the prime minister rather than leaders who are heavily tainted and smeared by corruption.
I think Zahid’s threats are just one big bluff.
While the vast majority of the Malaysian public is praising the chief justice for the bold decision in convicting Najib, Zahid wants her removal. I deduce that the acts of desperation in UMNO is the work of UMNO leaders who are heavily involved in corruption; an early GE15 is seen as a way out of the press mess.
However, it is not certain that BN will capture national power, not after the exposure of the 1MDB scandal, and the bigger scandal associated with the littoral combat ship (LCS) project.
Zahid, however, wants to wiggle out and escape the responsibility of being heavily involved in the combat ship fiasco.
In actual fact, desperation for an early GE15, together with the laying of other conditions, seem inextricably related to Zahid emerging “unscathed” from corruption and other scandals. – Aug 27, 2022.
Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
Main photo credit: The Edge Markets
