JAN 31 DEADLINE PLAYS HAVOC ON ANWAR - RUNNING OUT OF BULLETS, HIS REGIME RUSHES TO CHARGE DAIM'S WIFE - AS 'ROYALS' CHOICE' ZAFRUL SUDDENLY APPEARS ON LIST OF PM-CANDIDATES - BUT NAIMAH IS NO ROSMAH - ACT OF POLITICAL COWARDICE, REVENGE OR JUST PURE PANIC SET TO BACKFIRE ON ANWAR
Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!
KUALA LUMPUR (Politics Now!) - Embattled Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim has intensified a corruption fishing expedition to haul up his greatest foes - ex-premier Mahathir Mohamad and ex-finance minister Daim Zainuddin - ahead of the change of King on Jan 31, which many believe will herald his political collapse.
However, both veteran players are seen as too savvy and experienced to take the bait aimed to make them show their hand - with Mahathir instead firing a body shot at Anwar with a challenge to call for snap elections.
"Of course, Anwar would never dare dissolve Parliament now. For sure he will lose and his PKR party may even be decimated because they are so unpopular with the Malays now," an analyst told Politics Now!
"Even the non-Malays are unhappy with the prices and costs of living going up and up. Taxes are being slapped onto so many goods, while subsidies are reduced or removed. Water and electricity bills are getting bigger but the ringgit is getting smaller. Hence, the political circus - rushing to drag Daim's wife and Mahathir's sons to court, basically weaponizing the MACC."
"But Naimah is not Rosmah, it won't create any extra hatred for Daim but might bring some sympathy instead," he added, referring to the flamboyant, big-spending and rather bossy wife of jailed ex-premier Najib Razak who is facing corruption charges of her own.
BUT NAIMAH IS NO ROSMAH - USING THE SAME TACTIC WON'T WORK
On Tuesday morning (Jan 23), Naimah Khalid the elderly and usually rather quiet wife of the former finance minister was charged for failing to declare her assets to the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC). She pleaded not guilty to the charge which carries a maximum of five years jail and RM100,000 fine upon conviction.
"Today a team of MACC officers suddenly arrived at the hospital where my husband is being warded, demanding to record my statement, having already taken my statement earlier on Jan 10," Daim's wife had said late on Monday.
"This was despite the fact I assured them that I would give them my statement as soon as my husband's medical procedure is over on Tuesday. I was then told that I was to be charged on Tuesday at 9am which is tomorrow under section 36(2) MACC 2009 for purportedly failing to comply with a notice asking to disclose information on assets. I will be in court tomorrow. I will fight this charge."
SNAP ELECTIONS CLOSER THAN MOST THINK
The obviously high-profile way in which Anwar and the MACC have gone after Daim, Mahathir and their families have raised eyebrows - raising suspicion that Anwar was trying to inflict maximum embarrassment and humiliation to serve his own political ends. And this has angered the powerful Malay elite.
Mahathir himself has minced no words, throwing the gauntlet at the man he has long scorned as a political coward and charlatan.
"This man has become prime minister by default, not because he was elected,” Mahathir told reporters on Monday.
"I challenge Anwar to call for a GE today whether he dares or not to see what the people would say.”
Indeed, snap polls is not a distant impossibility although the next general election is due only in 2027 and Anwar on the surface has the support of 152 out of the country's 222 Members of Parliament. But as with democracies in many other countries, the loyalty of the MPs is not fixed and they are able to switch allegiance when there is a serious fallout.
Hence the repeated attempts by Anwar regime to implement a Fixed-Term Parliament Act that would allow them to stay in power till 2027, with DAP's Teresa Kok the latest government MP to make an impassioned plea for an FTPA on the grounds it "might be key to resolving overseas voters’ woes".
However, the idea and prospect of a 'dictatorial' government has irked and alarmed most Malaysians, who responded with better alternative suggestions - and these include beefing up the existing Anti-Hopping Act instead or to make sure a no-confidence vote against the PM can be easily tabled in Parliament so as to avoid any need to go to the King for royal intervention as such confidence motions are usually blocked by a Speaker loyal to Anwar.
SUPPRESSING POLITICAL FOES INSTEAD OF SOLVING PROBLEMS
Indeed, the political situation in Malaysia is far from stable or rosy. Most Malaysians are disappointed at how Anwar has U-turned on promises - transforming from a reformist into the very type of despot he had always railed at during the decades he spent in the Opposition.
“It is more than a year into the Madani government’s administration, and people’s lives are becoming more difficult,” said former premier Muhyiddin Yassin on Facebook today.
“Until now, I do not see the prime minister being capable of providing a comprehensive solution to the increasingly acute problems faced by the people.
“He seems more focused on suppressing his political enemies than working on solving these issues.”
UNPRECEDENTED DAMAGE TO RINGGIT, ECONOMY WARRANTS LEADERSHIP CHANGE
Muhyiddin, who heads the PN-Pas main opposition bloc, was referring to the sharp plunge in the ringgit's value, plummeting to 26-year lows under Anwar's watch, while prices and costs of living have skyrocketed - and are set for a another major leap up from March onwards when the knock-on effects from electricity and water tariff hikes, as well as the removal of several key subsidies, hit the country especially the ordinary people full in the face.
Hence, many savvy observers believe the unpopular Anwar, whose approval rating plunged to less than 50% since sweeping to power in late 2022, will be unceremoniously 'bundled off' soon.
The massive and long-lasting damage inflicted by his regime to the ringgit, the unsuccessful tweaks to the ailing economy and rising struggles of the populace are enough to warrant some form of royal intervention - if indeed the Palace is called upon to decide who really has the majority support to lead the country if a stubborn Anwar refuses to resign as both PM and Finance Minister or to dissolve Parliament and his Speaker also refuses to allow a confidence motion to tabled.
ROYALS' CHOICE?
Already there is talk that international trade and investment minister Tengku Zafrul is the choice of the royals to replace Anwar. He joins four other PM candidates rumored to be on the list to be presented to the Palace for consideration - Umno's Hishammuddin Hussein and Ismail Sabri, Bersatu's Muhyiddin and Pas' Samsuri Mokhtar.
Zafrul, who is also from Umno, is a former finance minister and has royal lineage. Umno is the Malay party that has ruled Malaysia since independence from British colonialists in 1957, falling only in the 2018 general election when Mahathir aided by Daim led the Pakatan Rakyat coalition to a shock victory. Anwar was then been in jail for sodomy, his second conviction, as same-sex intercourse between men is illegal in Malaysia.
Last week, Zafrul's name was floated by influential former health minister Khairy Jamaluddin as a possible PM candidate for the future. The sudden addition of Zafrul to the rumored shortlist of four and the closeness to the much-watched January 31 deadline, when the Sultan of Johor takes over as King from the Sultan of Pahang, was not lost on those who watch Malaysia's hyperactive political scene.
Neither it appears was it lost on Anwar.
"Anwar's paranoia will keep increasing as he runs out of bullets but the more he rushes and panics, the more he falls into his opponents' trap. The moment he makes another 'fatal' mistake will be when they pounce but seriously, as it is now, the ringgit and rising prices and falling standards of living are sufficient to demand a leadership change. There is no need to expect Malaysians to suffer and wait 5 years, otherwise there will be nothing left to salvage or save," the analyst told Politics Now!
Written by Stan Lee, Politics Now!
Politics Now!
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