KUALA LUMPUR (Politics Now!) - Is there anything to be proud of when an Opposition MP is forced onto the ropes, relentlessly pummelled and pressured until he has no choice but to declare support to yet another 'God's gift' to the country - Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim?
If so, dark days are in store for Malaysia as Anwar's version of a civil and democratic government starts to turn into a nightmare of bullying, hypocrisy and sycophancy - far worse than any autocracy the country has ever experienced.
On Thursday, the country's ever-active political landscape was shocked to hear that Iskandar Dzulkarnain, the Bersatu MP for Kuala Kangsar, had succumbed to a rather shady strategy of Anwar's unity government to withhold funds from opposition lawmakers to carry out their work in their constituencies unless they "negotiated" with the government.
"This is like a de-facto defection," a political pundit told Politics Now!
"It's hard to tell yet whether this will spark a trail of other Bersatu MPs to follow suit but the main purpose will be to help Anwar stay in power - just like Ismail Sabri's controversial MOU with Pakatan Harapan. It is also very interesting to note that Iskandar is the former political secretary to Bersatu No.2 Ahmad Faizal Azumu."
DE-FACTO DEFECTION, WHO WILL BE THE NEXT AFTER AZUMU'S POL-SEC
Pundits also said Dzulkarnain's move not only reflected on the poor ethos of Anwar's regime, contradicting the good governance stance promised by his 'Madani; government - but has unwittingly revealed that Anwar was just as weak as Ismail Sabri, the shortest-serving PM in Malaysia's history.
"It raises the speculation - will Anwar be even shorter-lived as PM than Ismail Sabri? After all, the MoU couldn't save Ismail Sabri either. As they say, what goes around comes around, karma!" said the pundit.
With Dzulkarnain the first, all eyes are on who will be next?
“I believe that the country’s economy needs to be improved for the sake of the nation’s prosperity and the well-being of the people. Therefore, I support the prime minister in any of his efforts to strengthen the nation’s economy,” the Bersatu MP had said in a statement.
Dzulkarnian won the Kuala Kangsar parliamentary seat with 14,380 votes at the last general election (GE15), beating Umno's Maslin Sham Razman (10,814 votes), Pakatan Harapan’s Ahmad Termizi Ramli (10,356 votes) and Gerakan Tanah Air’s Dr Yusmalia Yusof (204 votes).
"Negotiate or No Allocations!" screamed the headlines when Anwar had dropped his bombshell in September. "I will never approve it if there is no negotiation," the NST had reported Anwar as telling Parliament on Sept 19, 2023.
Essentially, Anwar not only flipped-flopped on a commitment made in March to give "equal" funding to both sides of the aisle - but more sinisterly, many had predicted it was a move to cling onto the PM's post and to ensure his unity government would not be toppled before the next general election that must be called by 2027.
Infamously, Anwar did not mince words, telling the PN-PAS-led opposition bloc they must "emulate" his coalition's "strong spirit when negotiating with former prime minister Ismail Sabri" before winning the 15th general election late last year.
According to Anwar, a series of negotiations were struck with Ismail in September 2021, which resulted in the country's first-ever MoU between PM and Opposition to provide equal allocation distribution for all MPs in both blocs.
"You have to negotiate and reach an agreement (with the government). Your allocations won't be approved till then," Anwar had hollered in Parliament. - Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!
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