By Nehru Sathiamoorthy
As talk of the MIC and the MCA leaving the “unity government” to join the opposition swirls, Mahiaddin Yasin has become giddy with the prospect.
He’s imagining he’ll gain an extra 22 seats because of their move.
“If we can avoid clashes between parties, we could add 15 to 22 seats, even with just a 3% vote swing,” he said in an interview with Sinar Harian.
Opposition parties currently holds 68 seats. Another 22 will make their seat share 90. With 90 seats in the peninsula, they’d likely be able to topple Pakatan Harapan and claw their way to Putrajaya. They’d need backing from either Sabah or Sarawak parties.
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Even if they don’t claw their way back to Putrajaya, they’d be such a force to be reckoned with that whoever rules in Putrajaya would be likely to be permanently walking on eggshells. They’d worry that the slightest mishap would topple their reign and allow the opposition to wrest power.
This is despite Mahiaddin himself admitting that the opposition coalition, Perikatan Nasional, was often seen as “too Malay-Muslim”. He acknowledged it was difficult to dispel the perception of being extremist.
He counters, however, that efforts are underway to show that the coalition is “moderate but firm” in the causes it champions.
What is this “moderate but firm” concept he is touting? Only heaven and Mahiaddin know, because nobody else does.
I certainly have no idea how you can be wet but dry, hot but cold, high but low, far but near. Maybe Mahiaddin means moderate but firm in the same way poets talk about being far but near, to describe how lovers might be physically separated but spiritually united. Or maybe he is talking philosophically, in terms of being “many but one”. This describes how multicultural societies can exist as one nation while retaining their cultural distinctiveness.
If Mahiaddin is attempting to be a poet, I think it is a good idea. I think the writing is on the wall that his stint as a politician is coming to an end.
If Mahiaddin is talking in terms of how multicultural societies can exist as one nation while retaining their cultural distinctiveness, I’m more than certain he is absolutely clueless about what he’s talking about.
If Mahiaddin has the least bit of self-awareness, all he’ll have to do is look in the mirror. He should see his coalition and at once grasp the idea that his coalition and the concept of multiculturalism should not be grouped in the same sentence.
The very fact he defended his “moderate but firm” concept by saying that the ethnic minorities in his party are just given associate status should how meaningless his multicultural ideal is. Just two representatives sit on the party’s supreme council.
“The council is almost all Malay, but we have two non-Malays there. They can speak freely. We talk about national issues,” he added. This indicates his “firm but moderate” multicultural approach nothing more than a word salad strung together to sound good, without representing anything real in reality.
The fact that ‘low energy’ Mahiaddin, already 78, is also saying that PN as a whole is deliberately moving slowly on its multiracial rebranding shows that the multiracial rebranding of the opposition isn’t worth the paper it is written on.
“If this keeps going for five, 10, 20 years, it will change how people see us, as a party that fights for all,” Mahiaddin said. He was elaborating further on his vision of a “moderate but firm” multiracial approach.
An entire generation might have left the earth! An entire generation might repopulate the earth. Mahiaddin himself might not be around. You and I reading this too might be dead or at least much older than we are now. But only then, according to Mahiaddin, can we expect to see an opposition that “fights for all” in a “moderate but firm” manner – if we’re to see it at all.
To make how worthless his aspirations are even clearer, Mahiaddin also claims the opposition he heads has no desire to present a shadow budget to counter the government’s budget that’s likely going to be presented soon.
“Preparing a shadow budget is not child’s play. You can’t just sit four or five people in a room and come up with one. Some people ask why we don’t have a shadow budget. That’s not our job. The government prepares it, and we debate it,” he said.
That Mahiaddin used to be PM and now leads an opposition with 68 MPs. That he cannot even come up with a shadow budget, although his team had an entire year to prepare, should itself tell us about the worth of Mahiaddin’s “moderate but firm” multicultural plan.
If you can’t even come out with a shadow budget, which you have done before just a few years ago, what are the chances that you can come out with a framework of a multicultural concept for the nation? The nation has been struggling to come out with this for decades since its inception.
Rather than take Mahiaddin’s word seriously, I reckon it’s far better to see it as just an empty-can concept. It’s designed to make noise rather than hold on to anything of substance.
Like Mahiaddin himself claimed, it is probably just something he conjured up one morning to “debate against the government”. It’s not because he, after deep and long contemplation, finally sees a path forward for the country.
It is likely just a reactionary urge. The government, headed by PH, has its multicultural approach, and Mahiaddin intends to use his imaginary multicultural “moderate but firm” approach just as a means to pick on the shortcomings of the government.
This is similar to how the opposition intends to debate and pick on the flaws of the government’s budget – although it has no budget of its own to present to the people as a legitimate alternative.
Regarding the absence of a shadow budget, Mahiaddin would say: “We raise our voice in Parliament and outside, but the government does not listen.” He sounds as if he is perplexed why anyone wouldn’t listen to what he has to say.
Well, whether it’s the government not listening to his highlights or the people not listening to his “firm but moderate” multiracial approach, I think the reason is the same. We are not listening because there is nothing to listen to.
When Mahiaddin talks, all we hear is just him saying he’s still relevant, because he can make things happen. But all that we see him making happen is what an empty can makes happen when it makes a lot of noise without actually having anything to offer.
Bersatu is going to hold its general assembly today.
In tandem with that, I would like to give Bersatu some direct advice:
Replace Mahiaddin with Hamzah Zainudin. You know that’s what you should do. We know that’s what you want to do. Everybody knows that’s what you should do. The only question that is perplexing us is why you still haven’t done it.
It seems like you cannot do anything you want. You can’t make a shadow budget, you can’t create a reasonable multicultural framework and you can’t even remove Mahiaddin although you have known he is just not cut out for the job for years.
How can a party so impotent have aspirations to rule the country?
Nehru Sathiamoorthy follows the Aliran website.
AGENDA RAKYAT - Lima perkara utama
- Tegakkan maruah serta kualiti kehidupan rakyat
- Galakkan pembangunan saksama, lestari serta tangani krisis alam sekitar
- Raikan kerencaman dan keterangkuman
- Selamatkan demokrasi dan angkatkan keluhuran undang-undang
- Lawan rasuah dan kronisme
