THE call on preventing the court cluster from making a comeback by urging the voters to deny a win for Barisan Nasional (BN) in the upcoming Johor state election could backfire BIG time.
In a way it has already backfired when one of the members of the minister cluster, Tan Sri Annuar Musa, responded to the call as an insult to the voters. Any criticism of Umno or BN, which will put it at a disadvantage in winning the state election will galvanise both the minister and court clusters to act as one — defend Umno/BN.
After all, both clusters are members of Umno/BN and it would be politically incorrect for them to agree with the call to deny a win for Umno/BN simply because it is their party/coalition.
This is also the reason why when Kedah MB Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Noor, who is also Pas Election Director, said on Feb 12 that political stability could be achieved if Umno and BN were stopped from leading the country. Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob responded the very next day by brushing off Sanusi's claim.
"Umno is in the government now, and I am a prime minister from Umno. This matter is supported by other parties. The government that we have now is stable. For the first time in history, a memorandum of understanding was signed between the government and the opposition. Hence the (instability) issue does not arise," he said.
Here we can already discern the two views on stability. One, stability can be achieved via a state/general election to get a new, stable mandate which s what Johor Umno did by dissolving the state assembly.
This should be the norm in ordinary time but we are living in an extraordinary time when we are still bedevilled with the threat of Covid-19 and the latest Omicron variant, and the possibility of the worst floods happening due to climate change. Also, there is no clear-cut guarantee that election can produce stable government.
The other view is stability can be achieved if the current government with a tenuous majority is allowed to run its full course until the next election via some form of understanding with the opposition not to "disturb" the stability of the government.
Former Johor MB, Datuk Seri Khaled Nordin said the state election had nothing to do with the court cluster because "we acknowledge there are some people on trial. But we agree that their issues should be left to the justice system."
So the Johor state election should be fought on the basis of which party/coalition is able to come out with a plan of action and programmes that will benefit the rakyat most in this difficult time, and to devise a strategy of winning the hearts and minds of the voters to accept them by mobilising party workers, activists and sympathisers towards this end.
It is also important to ensure party machinery is functioning smoothly in the context of achieving this end and also to creatively work within the SOPs set by the Health Ministry, the National Security Council and the Election Commission.
Appealing to the voters in this manner would be better than asking them not to vote for a certain party, as this could be construed negatively as usurping the right of the voters.
The court cluster may seem strong or influential but they are not, otherwise Datuk Seri Najib Razak would have been made an economic adviser to the government following his success in leading Umno/BN to a convincing victory in Melaka.
The minister cluster would have realised too if Umno wins BIG due to it working cohesively with the court cluster, this is just the first stage in its battle with the latter.
A second battle will ensue, which will affect the political survival of the minister cluster if they are not careful. This is because it is the president of Umno who will decide its candidates for GE15.
And the president of Umno is presently a member of the court cluster whose term has already expired and is being extended because of Covid-19 that had prevented Umno from organising its annual general meeting (AGM) to elect a new president.
This would provide a leverage for Ismail Sabri, who is a vice-president of Umno with no final say on deciding Umno candidates for GE15, not to succumb to the pressure of the court cluster to hold GE15 soon following the anticipated BIG win of Umno in Johor, unless an Umno AGM is held first.
If Umno can find it too convenient to hold a state election in Johor to get a new, stable mandate despite the threat of the Omicron, it should also find it very convenient to hold an AGM before GE15 in order for Umno to get a new, stable mandate for its president and the prime minister to be the same person.
These are all internal politics of Umno in which a politician from another party should not openly comment, for it will just make the whole Umno grassroots hate the said politician.
But it is all right to remind voters once in a while, even during campaigning, not to vote for a leader regardless from which party who swindles the rakyat or who is clueless on why big sum of monies belonging to the rakyat lands in his bank account and then blames a third party for all these shenanigans.
It is also perfectly all right to respond to the court cluster if for no reason, they start to attack you first by making baseless criticisms.
In the war of words between Bersatu President, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, and the leader of the Umno court cluster, Najib, the common theme that came out was each was accusing the other of being a traitor. And the common word that made them a traitor, according to both, is betrayal.
Reduced to its simplicity, the gist of Muhyiddin's characterisation of Najib as a traitor is the use of RM42 million from SRC International Sdn Bhd, which was deposited into his personal accounts for his personal benefit.
"All this is not including the RM4 billion the Retirement Fund Incorporated (KWAP) lent to SRC which till today has gone missing. In the end, the government has to pay this loan since Najib was the one who approved it when he was prime minister."
This is the essence of Muhyiddin's characterisation of Najib as a kleptocratic traitor for embezzling billions of ringgit from strategic development firm 1MDB, thus betraying the trust of the rakyat who had expected him as the prime minister who served the rakyat, instead of swindling them.
The essence of Najib's characterisation of Muhyiddin as a traitor is based on his betrayal of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad by plotting to bring down PH with the 'Sheraton Move' and rose from his home minister's post to become the country's eighth prime minister.
But, this is stretching things too far when betraying an individual is equated with betraying the country. After all, by supporting Muhyiddin as the prime minister, Najib was also in cahoots with Muhyiddin in betraying Dr Mahathir.
The fact is there is nothing traitorous in Muhyiddin bringing out Bersatu, which he led, from PH. It is not against the law and no court in the world will punish him for this, as it reflects a political strategy to withdraw from a political coalition whose aims and aspirations were no longer shared by Bersatu.
In a democracy, any coalition is a pact among political parties with any member of the pact having the right to withdraw at anytime if the member concerned felt the pact has deviated from its original aim and purpose.
Jamari Mohtar is the Editor of Let's Talk!, an e-newsletter on current affairs