By Kaki Bedal
Quite a few sayings in English describe human folly, especially when it comes to achieve something, good or bad.
There is you ‘won’t live forever’ or ‘you only live once.’
Those generally refer to things you sometimes should or must do before you die.
We can only assume that is what the grand old man of Malaysian politics is trying to do which is be a third time Prime Minister, sort of what Muhammad Ali achieve when he triumphed three times to be the world’s heavyweight boxing champion.
People say also, speculatively, that he is trying to ensure his family’s future in the long term and that is only common sense, for any man, father or head of the family.
However, one suspects that in his last political act, on par with a Shakespearean drama, the objective is actually what everybody knows all along – making sure Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will not be Prime Minister, ever.
Or at least while he is still living and breathing at the ripe old age of 94.
Spectacularly, it must be said that the old man plays his card to perfection all this years, frustrating his political enemies in both government and opposition.
Perhaps some people with Barisan Nasional feel angry and surprise in equal measure when he joins Pakatan Harapan but one suspects some in the opposition turn government turn opposition themselves must be feeling the same now for only lasting 22 months in power.
After coming out with statements that Anwar ‘will succeed me,’ the old man resigned thus bringing down the DAP and PKR led government (PPBM too small to be the captain and commander in PH).
While his distaste for Datuk Seri Najib is as high as the mountain, his opposition to Anwar being PM must be as wide of the ocean as to scupper any chance for the former most famous Sg Buloh detainee to succeed him.
The one million dollar question is how many times must he experiences failure before Anwar realise the game our ‘Atok’ is playing?
It seems Anwar and the PH bloc members continue to dream the Putrajaya dream and to top it off, they continue to be good to the old man.
Guess the public and the watching world will continue to be fascinated by whatever move Anwar and the old man will take next.
One suspects too that PH is out of their depth in terms of administering and simply cannot be trusted to look after the people’s interest after failing to fulfill their election manifesto.
While the dominant party in PH will still get the most votes from a community, the others simply had lost the support of the voters because of the never ending leadership tussle and the way Perikatan Nasional has gone about ensuring people’s interest is protected in these challenging times.
In short, the electorate has learned a valuable lesson after seeing 22 months of PH bumbling governance.
You might ask why I did not mention the old man’s name.
It’s simple, I’m simply tired of his never ending political scheming together with Anwar and some others in PH.
Especially the habit of blaming others when something is wrong.
The electorate has wise up to PH by not supporting them and the coming Tasik Chini by election will testify to this once again.
Abraham Lincoln best describes the situation when he said : “You may fool all the people some of the time, you can even fool some of the people all of the time, but you cannot fool all of the people all the time.”
- The writer is an experienced analyst and media of nearly 30 years in the industry.
(The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of BACALAHMALAYSIA.MY)
