Muhyiddin’s political future in
doubt as a crisis rocks Bersatu...
A political mutiny is spreading in the opposition Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu), signalling serious troubles ahead for its embattled president, former premier Muhyiddin Yassin. Four Bersatu elected Members of Parliament have in recent weeks publicly declared their support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government, an unprecedented breaking of ranks in an opposition party already beset with tensions in its leadership.
At an emergency leadership meeting on Thursday night (Nov 9), Mr Muhyiddin reportedly blamed the crisis on unidentified quarters who were bent on weakening the party and alleged that financial inducements had been offered to the Bersatu parliamentary representatives to switch allegiances. Mr. Muhyiddin added that the party would be filing reports with the police and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) over the matter.
The developments at Bersatu, an ultra-nationalist ethnic Muslim- Malay political entity, are being closely watched because of the party’s oversized role in Malaysia’s political tumult in recent years despite its modest representation in Parliament.
The party and its chief ally, the right-wing Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) in the Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition, have been strong promoters of a brand of ethnic Malay religious populism, often referred to as the so-called “green wave” that has stoked unease among domestic and foreign observers of Malaysian politics.
How the Bersatu crisis plays out in the coming weeks will shape national politics for the rest of Mr Anwar’s mandate before he calls for fresh polls sometime in mid-2027. “Bersatu has always relied on PAS and now the crisis is showing that the party is a hollow (political) vessel,” said Mr Syed Azman Syed Ahmad Nawawi, who is the chief executive officer of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia.
Bersatu was founded by former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Mr Muhyiddin in 2016 after both politicians left the long-established United Malays National Organisation(UMNO) over deep differences with then-premier Najib Razak.
The party went on to play a crucial role in the historic victory by the multi-racial opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition in the general election two years later and subsequently assumed leadership roles in government.
Dr. Mahathir was premier for 22 months, before Mr Muhyiddin wrested control of the premiership by leading a group of Bersatu defectors to form a new coalition government with factions in UMNO and the right-wing Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS).
Mr Muhyiddin’s party currently has 27 elected MPs in the 222-member lower house and the party’s leadership has been reluctant to sack the rebelling MPs over fears that it could lead to more elected representatives opting to throw their support for the Anwar government. Already, the four Bersatu MPs have requested that they be seated along-side government backbenchers, showing that they intend to make a clean break with the opposition.
The latest splintering in the Bersatu ranks reflect the growing restlessness in the party that is bereft of any political funding after its accounts were frozen by the authorities over allegations of abuse of power when the party was in government and concerns over the future of the party’s leadership.
Bersatu insiders acknowledged that Mr Muhyiddin and his deputy, Hamzah Zainuddin, who currently leads the opposition backbenchers in Parliament, do not see eye-to-eye on many issues.Mr Hamzah, who is keen to take over the Bersatu leadership, does not have widespread support in the party.
Separately, the 76-year-old Muhyiddin is fighting corruption charges in court over the abuse of power when he was premier for 17 months beginning March 2020, casting serious doubts over whether he would be able to lead the party in the next general election.
For Mr Muhyiddin, it is not only about keeping his Bersatu party together. He is becoming increasingly politically isolated, noted political analysts. His relations with Dr Mahathir remained strained after both politicians fell out when Mr Muhyiddin staged a coup with UMNO and PAS to take over the premiership in 2021.
Meanwhile, the PAS leadership has warmed up to Dr Mahathir. The Islamic party, which controls the four state governments of Perlis, Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, has appointed the 97-year-old politician as its unofficial advisor. For Mr Anwar, who will mark his first year as premier on Nov 24, the troubles at Bersatu have only helped him consolidate power.
With the four Bersatu elected representatives now backing his coalition government, the Anwar administration currently enjoys a two-thirds majority in Parliament, potentially keeping concerns of a “green wave” at bay.
“The crisis (at Bersatu) should give Anwar and his government the breathing space to implement policies,” said Mr Syed Azman of the International Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies Malaysia. - CNA
Muhyiddin in trouble,but here’s why
Bersatu MPs’ support for PM Anwar
is a double-edged sword...
Not one, not two, but four lawmakers from Opposition Perikatan Nasional have publicly declared their support for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim. The political landscape started to shake on Oct 12 with Kuala Kangsar MP Iskandar Dzulkarnain Abdul Khalid, followed by Labuan MP Suhaili Abdul Rahman (Oct 30), and then Gua Musang MP Mohd Azizi Abu Naim (Nov 7).
The latest Member of Parliament who joined the bandwagon was Zahari Kechik, a lawmaker from Jeli constituency. Interestingly, all of them are members of the Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) party – triggering speculation that its leader, former backdoor Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, is losing control. And you can bet your last penny that this is just the beginning.
At the rate Bersatu MPs switch support, the party could disintegrate before the coming Christmas. With 31 MPs in the 222-seat parliament, the party has the same number of seats as Anwar’s People’s Justice Party (PKR). Bersatu, together with its ally Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS – Parti Islam Se-Malaysia), are the two biggest Malay-Muslim parties in Perikatan Nasional coalition.
The stunning change in political alliances has not only led to disciplinary actions within Bersatu, but saw PAS Islamist party scrambled to assure that none of its MPs would pull a similar stunt. Bersatu’s disciplinary board has since suspended Iskandar for four years and Suhaili for six years. Despite its strong 43 MPs, PAS would be significantly weakened if Bersatu collapsed.
As usual, money talks and bullshit walks. Using the same boring excuse, all the Bersatu defectors said that they had to pledge support for the Anwar administration in order to access development funds from the government to ease the burden faced by their constituents. However, they insisted they were still loyal to Bersatu and had no intention of joining parties in the Anwar-led unity government.
If it’s true that the Bersatu MPs could not survive and had to surrender in less than a year since they won their seats, it only goes to show how fragile and unreliable the party members are. Compared to the Democratic Action Party (DAP), the former opposition party which had been denied allocations for decades since it was founded in 1965, Bersatu is indeed pathetic and disgraceful.
Crucially, Bersatu leaders’ inability to persevere as opposition exposes its vulnerability. Bersatu secretary-general and opposition de-facto leader Hamzah Zainudin has claimed that a businessman had tried to bribe the party’s MPs with positions at GLCs (government-linked companies) as well as Cabinet posts – even offering to settle their personal debts – in exchange for support for Anwar.
Hamzah and the opposition parties should stop whining, crying and bitching over spilt milk. They should have made it a law to fairly distribute allocations to all MPs regardless of allegiance or alliance when Muhyiddin became the country’s first backdoor prime minister. The Opposition cannot expect Anwar government to be fair now when it had refused to give equal allocations when it was the government.
What goes around comes around. It seems “karma” is not done with the most treacherous party in the country. After seizing power in the infamous “Sheraton Move”, whereby Bersatu president Muhyiddin had plotted with enemies – UMNO and PAS – to topple democratically elected Pakatan Harapan government in March 2020, Muhyiddin was himself betrayed by a faction of UMNO leaders.
He served for only 17 months, becoming the shortest serving premier since Malaysian independence in 1957 after losing parliamentary support. The traitor thought he could return as prime minister again after the November 2022 General Election. But his arrogance in snubbing the King’s proposal to form a Unity Government has reduced Perikatan Nasional to the opposition camp.
During his short premiership, he had bribed rival Pakatan Harapan MPs with positions and projects just to cling to power with a razor-thin 114-majority. Even after his strategic error in rejecting the King’s offer, Muhyiddin and Hamzah continued to topple Anwar government by working with an UMNO mole – Hishammuddin Hussein – along with 10 MPs through SD (statutory declarations).
However, drunk with power and arrogance, none of the top brains in the opposition realized that the tactic of forming yet another backdoor regime using SD was obsolete after the new anti-hopping law took effect on 5 October 2022. Hishammuddin and his gang cannot declare support for Muhyiddin as prime minister and jump ship without losing their parliamentary seats.
While anti-hopping law prevents lawmakers from jumping ship unless it is through en-bloc defection, a lawmaker who resigns is free to join another political party and still be able to contest without any penalty. This is due to a loophole – either deliberately or ignorantly designed. Meaning Hishammuddin (above) can re-contest again after switching support and loyalty.
Apparently, the anti-hopping provisions have “removed” Clause (6) of Article 48, which disqualifies a person from being a member of Dewan Rakyat (Lower House) for a period of 5 years if they resign their membership of the House of Representatives. Essentially, with the deletion of this restriction, it enables an MP who resigns to seek re-election at any time.
So, why hasn’t Hishammuddin resigned? Because there’s no guarantee those who resigned and re-contest will win again their respective seats. For example, MCA president Wee Ka Siong won his Ayer Hitam seat due to UMNO-Malay votes, as did Wee Jeck Seng (Tanjung Piai) and Saravanan (Tapah). Even Hishammuddin isn’t sure he can retain Sembrong seat if he were to contest under Perikatan Nasional banner.
Worse, after the recent six state elections and Johor’s twin by-elections, Perikatan Nasional realized that the “green wave” was only strong in the northern part, gradually losing its steam when reached Selangor before stopping in Negeri Sembilan – and rejected in the southern state of Johor. This is why Hishammuddin refuses to trigger by-elections as he will definitely lose.
The only way to keep his seat without going through a by-election is if he is sacked from his party. But Zahid Hamidi, the president of the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), was smart enough to paralyse Hishammuddin by suspending him for six years. In the same breath, the four Bersatu MPs who “defect” have cleverly declared their support for PM Anwar while insisting that they remained loyal to their party.
Bersatu was facing the same problem like UMNO when their MPs went rogue. The parties can at most suspend their disloyal lawmakers as the anti-hopping law does not apply to an MP who is sacked. But the rogue MPs can still make tonnes of annoying drama to provoke the party leadership to sack them, like asking for a seating change in the Dewan Rakyat (Lower House).
Yes, House Speaker Johari Abdul reveals that he has received a written notice from the four Bersatu MPs of their naughty desire to be seated among the MPs of Unity Government. Not only they were insulting their party leadership with a half-baked pledge of loyalty, but have shown the “middle finger” to Muhyiddin and Hamzah to fire them after their obvious act of defection.
The best part is the anti-hopping law is silent about how MPs could lose their seats based on their preference of the seating arrangement in the August House. Muhyiddin and de-facto leader Hamzah were incredibly humiliated. The Speaker said the four Bersatu MPs specifically told him that they were no longer “comfortable” sitting with the rest of their party colleagues in the Opposition bloc.
If Bersatu sacks all of them, the unity government gets four free seats. But if the opposition party refuses to sack the traitors, or just suspend them, it will still lose four seats and worse – emboldens other MPs to follow suit. Alternatively, it can consider a confidence and supply agreement (CSA) to support the Anwar government, which it has been demonized, in exchange for equal allocations.
Even if a CSA deal can be made, it will create a new crisis between Bersatu and PAS. Either way, PM Anwar has strengthened his parliamentary support to 151 – beyond the 148 super-majority seats. It would certainly be comical if the disgraced Muhyiddin and Hamzah shamelessly claim they have 31 seats in the parliament despite the majority of them moved to the unity government bloc.
The Unity Government should not celebrate prematurely though. The four Bersatu defectors could be “Trojan horse”, who can still switch their alliance back to their party. The tactic of switching support without switching parties is a double-edged sword. UMNO moles like Hishammuddin Hussein – and even moles within Anwar’s PKR party – may use the same “loophole” to topple the prime minister.
If the defections were orchestrated by Bersatu strategists to test the water, and PM Anwar foolishly swallows the hook, line and sinker by “legitimizing” the four Bersatu MPs support for him, a vote of confidence in parliament could see 10 UMNO MPs along with Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) and Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) suddenly crossing over to Perikatan Nasional in “Sheraton Move 2.0”.
The recent appointment of Mahathir Mohamad as adviser to Perikatan Nasional might be the secret weapon to persuade Sarawak-based GPS to switch support to Perikatan Nasional from Pakatan Harapan, leading to the collapse of Anwar government. The PM should close all loopholes in the anti-hopping law. He does not need the dubious support from the four Bersatu MPs.
If only Bersatu had amended its constitution to make MPs automatically lose their membership via resignation for expressing support for another party or has acted to the detriment of the party, like how DAP and Amanah did, it would not have lost four MPs today. Therefore, it has no one to blame but itself. It arrogantly thought everyone would scramble to join the party, and never thought its own MPs would quit in betrayal. - FT
Apa macam YB Dr.Mastura???
No ifs no buts.He is guilty...
The courts have decided - Syed Saddiq is guilty. I think it is too much for a RM1.12 mil CBT and money laundering of Bersatu Youth Fund. I think it is a ridiculous verdict. And I am sure he cannot pay the RM10 million fine - so add another 6 years in jail. This is not even corruption but a mistake for keeping donated money for use at an election. Listen to what Imraz has to say on the matter. There is much truth in what he says.
Is this political persecution? Did PMX call the AG and tell the AG to go for Syed Saddiq to the max? I do not think so. But, even if PMX did not like him politically, we have to be fair as humans. At the very least, PMX should call the AG for an explanation of the verdict, and from now on, ensure that the same verdict will be implemented in all future judgements. In truth, we did not fight for over three decades for the courts to pass this kind of verdict. And we do not want a government that will sit idly by when this kind of verdict is passed by the courts.
Why compare him with Zahid Hamidi? Saddiq is guilty. Why laud his decision to step down as president of Muda? Saddiq is guilty. Why call him a fallen hero? He is guilty. There is still the appeal process...but he is guilty. Any which way you want to look at it, Saddiq is guilty. Is being corrupt a rite of passage for all politicians in Malaysia? Or was going to prison a rite of passage for politicians all over the world? I am a bit confused here...corruption or prison?
He says he is sorry. What I want to know is why did he do it. If he knew it was wrong, if he knew that was corruption and money laundering...why did he do it? And is he really going to be spending seven years in jail? Is there a pardon waiting for him next month? Next year? What will now happen to Muda? What happens to me and the many others, who believed in his ability to lead and make change happen in Malaysia?
If he knew he had to be whiter than white to be president of Muda - why was he not whiter than white? Those are the thoughts that I, me and mine have been debating, discussing and discoursing with, from late last night. I want to try and find clarity by putting them here and sharing it with you guys.
We all have questions we want answered and thoughts we want to vent but let us be clear on one thing. One swallow does not a summer make. One football game does not make a season. This guilty verdict on Syed Saddiq does not in any way change my mind that Syed Saddiq will be one of the individuals who will make a difference...a positive difference...to the future that Malaysia and Malaysians need. Enough said. - Hussein Abdul Hamid
cheers.
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