PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang is absolutely correct to appraise Harapan as a “kakistocracy”, that is, a government made up of the worst people. He said this on Friday at the opening of the PAS muktamar in Kuantan.
It’s true that the very worst of political apparatchiks – the Yang Berhormat frogs – have already hopped over to Pribumi and unethically taking their Umno parliament and DUN seats with them.
Umno has been cleansed of its worst opportunists and profiteers who are all migrated to Pribumi where the gravy train now runs. Only its decent and loyal members have remained in Umno.
Comprising the ‘worst of the worst’, the kakistrocratic administration today is putrefying from within. Led by a 94-year-old, Harapan memang nyawa-nyawa ikan. Fish rots from its head.
PAS deputy president Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man does not see how the Faustian pact that is Harapan can last much longer. He fully expects the kakistocracy in Putrajaya to kick the bucket — see coverage of this year’s annual congress (article ‘PAS nampak umur PH tak panjang’ linked in Malaysiakini tweet above).
The party No.2 also told Utusan that it’s possible Mahathir might dissolve parliament early to pave the way for fresh polls — see ‘Tak mustahil Tun M bubarkan Parlimen lebih awal – Tuan Ibrahim’ (18 June 2019). He is among several prominent Malay opposition leaders to have floated the idea of a snap election.
PAS top cleric Ustaz Nik Muhammad Zawawi Salleh is more proactive and has just declared it mandatory to bring down the Harapan government — read report ‘Ulama PAS: “Wajib” jatuhkan kerajaan Pakatan Harapan’ linked in Malay Mail (BM) tweet below. Zawawi is the newly elected Dewan Ulama chief of the party.
But all PAS and Umno have to do, really, is give Harapan a little nudge to cause the edifice to collapse upon itself. Harapan, never built on a solid foundation to begin with, is already rotting on the inside.
For one, the sniper fire between Anwar Ibrahim and Azmin Ali’s factions is fast devolving into open warfare. PKR looks set to become the first Harapan coalition component to implode.
Regime change: Kick out the kakistocrats
In all fairness, the chief executive of the ruling party should rightly hail from PKR – the most multiracial entity with the highest number of MPs. That person is the PKR president … is Anwar.
However Mahathir’s cat-and-mouse game – toying over the shifting commitment to a handover of power – cannot go on for much longer. His frustrating evasion of a fixed date for relinquishing the premiership is plain sadistic.
And unless Anwar is a masochist, he will soon have had enough with being played like a mouse by the old sadist.
BELOW: Unlike the malignant Mahathir, Hadi Awang is more benign and a copycat of the Japanese lucky charm in his hand wave gesture
Pribumi, the wannabe primus inter pares (first among equals), is a false claimant to the Harapan throne. On election night 9 March 2018, Mahathir’s party technically held a mere 12 seats — see The Star table showing GE14 results overview below.
It has since expanded to 26 seats. Of these, the MPs who won on an original Pribumi ticket are only a round dozen whereas the subsequent add-on 14 MPs are party hoppers with unseemly baggage.
The growth spurt by Pribumi was through dirty and despicable means yet the Dapsters are more than happy to bow and scrape before their Beloved Tun.
Umno+PAS = Brothers in Arms
Meanwhile, describing the relationship between their respective parties, Hadi said recently: “Saya anggap Umno dan PAS ini macam paha kanan dan paha kiri. Cubit yang kanan, kiri sakit; cubit kiri, kanan sakit. Kadang-kadang bergilir-gilir, tumpang-menumpang”.
PAS and Umno have already got a Green Belt game plan.
Simply by eliminating three-cornered fights, an Umno and PAS combo going one-on-one against Harapan would already have gained at least 20 more (or even up to 30) parliament seats based on the GE14 calculus.
The parliament electoral map devised below shows a hypothetical scenario of what is achievable through Umno-PAS jointly taking on their opponent in a straight fight.
BELOW: On paper, Umno and PAS’s combined support would have gotten the two parties the green-shaded parliament constituencies in GE14 if both had avoided splitting the Malay vote
• Perlis, Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang are the Malay heartland firmly in the hands of PAS and Umno
• Penang, Selangor and KL unfortunately remain Harapan fixed deposits
• Perak and Kedah would revert to Umno-PAS once the two Malay-Muslim parties pulled together their resources
• The rest of the peninsula – Malacca, Negeri Sembilan and Johor – are toss ups.
Malay unity has strengthened and is further daily strengthening whereas the DAP cannot get any stronger as it has already maxed out at 95 percent of the Chinese vote. It makes little difference anymore if, in GE15, the DAP succeeded in obtaining up to even 99 percent Chinese support.
Don’t forget: Three-quarters of the Malay electorate are staunchly in favour of PAS and Umno.
More importantly, Harapan will spontaneously combust from all that hate and hypocrisy they are generating.
Look at the DAP dogpile on PAS Muslimat vice chief Salamiah Mohd Nor for essentially echoing what Beloved Tun said only last October, to wit “Vernacular schools stand in the way of national unity”.
When Mahathir says it (see tweeted story above), DAP wags its tail waiting to be petted as a “good boy”. When a PAS leader says the same, DAP wants the Sedition Act sicced on Salamiah.
Rational voters will not tolerate such hatred by the hypocrites directed not only at Muslimat PAS but against the wider Malay polity. Kucing tenang jangan disangka tiada roh ‘rimau.
Helen Ang 
A snap election would be the best way to break this power struggle at the top but given the shift in Malay & Muslim sentiments towards UMNO and PAS, why would Mahathir want to risk losing power altogether by calling a snap election now?