BOMBSHELL – A REAL ACID TEST FOR ANWAR – AS ‘KING’ ZAHID MAKES A PLAY FOR HIS OWN FREEDOM WITH MONSTROUS DEMAND THAT AG DROPS HIS 47 CORRUPTION CHARGES – AMID PUBLIC BROUHAHA AGAINST ROYAL PARDON FOR ‘1MDB CROOK’ NAJIB – IS ZAHID HOPING THAT MALAYSIANS WILL CLOSE AN EYE FOR HIM, SO LONG AS NAJIB’S THICK-SKINNED BID IS REJECTED?
All shook up by Umno bombshell
POWER attracts people and there was a big entourage from Umno to send off Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi when he flew off on Tuesday to perform the umrah.
The final 10 days of Ramadan are special for Muslims and Ahmad Zahid has often spent the period in Mecca. The courts released his passport last month and this is his first overseas trip since his legal troubles began in 2018.
But the bombshell he dropped shortly before he left is still the talk of the town.
The Umno president’s defence team has applied to drop the 47 corruption charges – in relation to the Yayasan Akalbudi case – against him on the basis that there is new evidence.
His lawyers have asked for the case to be postponed to Aug 1 and what was most intriguing was that the prosecution team informed the court that they had been ordered to not object to the adjournment.
Something is cooking behind the scenes.
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Ahmad Zahid’s move almost eclipsed the other bombshell that is Umno’s campaign to seek a royal pardon for Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
The anti-Najib audience is in disbelief that all this is happening and more so, that it is being done by a partner of the “reformist government”.
They are critical of the move and some are even warning the Prime Minister of repercussions.
The campaign to pardon Bossku has generated so much legalistic discussion but, strangely enough, there is none of the fierce outrage of previous years.
That is probably because the two political parties – DAP and PKR – which did such a fantastic job of demonising and bringing down Najib’s government are now the government of the day.
They need Umno in order to stay in power and they need Ahmad Zahid to hold Umno together.
Hence, the not-so-elegant silence among their leaders who have switched off their loudspeaker style of politics.
“To hold on to power, you have to work with the enemy and even keep one eye shut to corruption. But it will be crossing the red line if Najib is actually pardoned,” said political commentator Khaw Veon Szu.
The Umno political bureau has been tasked to seek an audience with the King and to present the party’s appeal for a royal pardon.
“Our party’s stand is that it was an unfair trial given the revelations about a certain judge and what occurred during the controversial final days of the hearing. It needs a political solution and our party will lead the campaign.
“I don’t see anything wrong with that. PKR had even gone overseas in their campaign to free Anwar,” said supreme council member Datuk Seri Nur Jazlan Mohamed.
Umno, said a well-connected party official, has quite successfully milked sympathy for Najib within Umno while fanning the narrative that Najib did not get a fair trial.
“The bulk of Umno believes that it was an unfair trial. They are not into the evidence of the case and they also believe it was selective prosecution,” said the Umno official.
The Deputy Prime Minister is often seen as playing second fiddle, but Ahmad Zahid has used it with such finesse and to his advantage, be it dishing out choice positions in government-linked companies to his loyalists or installing his man as the new Melaka Chief Minister.
All this has raised eyebrows and questions about whether the Prime Minister has lost control of his No 2.
An influential Putrajaya insider said Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Ahmad Zahid actually have a congruous working relationship.
Their body language, said the insider, is remarkably comfortable, warmer even than that between Anwar and his own PKR ministers.
Ahmad Zahid chaired two Cabinet meetings when Anwar was overseas, a sign of Anwar’s trust in his deputy.
They seem to be on the same wavelength when it comes to political survival – each needs the other to survive.
For the newcomers to Putrajaya, said Khaw, it has been like waking up to a clash of ideals and reality.
“What is happening now is a political education not only for politicians but for ordinary people who believe so much in one side or the other,” said Khaw.
For instance, the latest MACC crackdown at the Human Resource Ministry was shocking not because of possible wrongdoing but the fact that it is taking place when the government is still trying to find its footing.
Singing songs about corruption and preaching to the corrupt is fine when on the way to Putrajaya. But once in power, ideals often take second place to compromises and consensus.
There are no angels in politics. Many leaders who were so good at criticising and pointing fingers find it more convenient to be like the proverbial monkeys who speak, hear and see no evil once in power.
How will what is happening in Umno affect public opinion of Anwar’s government? Will it undermine Anwar’s reform agenda?
Pakatan Harapan leaders, said Khaw, are confident that their base with stick with them.
“They were able to persuade their supporters to accept Ahmad Zahid and their base wants to keep Anwar up there,” said Khaw.
Everyone has had to climb down from their high horse and acknowledge that politics can be crazy and dirty and that politicians are imperfect beings.
“The waters look calm for now but there are dangerous undercurrents,” said the above Umno official. ANN
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