IN THE END, WHO IS THE MOST CORRUPT OF THEM ALL – UMNO-PAKATAN OR BERSATU-PN?

DID the Red Wave and Green Wave sweep the 15th General Election in 2022 using the same issue?

In GE15, Pakatan Harapan’s Red Wave rode on the corruption issue, especially playing it up against Umno. Remember their famous phrase: “A vote for KJ is a vote for Zahid as PM”?

Former Health minister and then rising Umno star Khairy Jamaluddin, aka KJ, was a popular candidate in Sungai Buloh and Pakatan resorted to telling the electorate not to vote for KJ because if Umno won, party president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi would become prime minister, and Ahmad Zahid was facing a slew of corruption charges.

Pakatan won the most parliamentary constituencies in GE15: 82; specifically, Pakatan, comprising PKR, DAP and Amanah, won 81 seats and Parti Muda one.

Perikatan Nasional’s Green Wave got the second most number of seats: 74; Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and PAS make up the main parties in the Opposition bloc and won 25 and 49 seats respectively.

The popular consensus among analysts attributes the surge of the Green Wave to the successful campaign by Bersatu and PAS to win the hearts and minds of the Malay electorate using the 3R – race, religion and royalty – issues.

Some disagree, however, saying that the Green Wave is about more than that. They argue that Malays who voted for Bersatu and PAS were also voting against corruption. Like Pakatan, the two Malay Opposition parties painted Umno as corrupt, saying it was led by a president charged in court with corruption.

Of course, the irony of GE15’s aftermath is that the coalition that campaigned against corruption by painting its main rival at the time as corrupt ended up forming a government with that same party. In contrast, Perikatan didn’t offer a deal to Umno’s president (dealing instead with other party MPs) to establish a coalition government. In other words, it did not embrace politicians it had labelled as corrupt while campaigning just to get into power.

Will the Red Wave and Green Wave still use corruption as a pivotal issue in campaigning for the upcoming elections in Kedah, Kelantan, Negri Sembilan, Penang, Selangor, and Terengganu?

For the Red Wave, the question is, does the unity government, especially Pakatan, have the moral standing to campaign against corruption when it got into bed with Umno? Can Pakatan politicians repeat what they said during GE15?

Some can, simply by ignoring what has happened.

For example, a bemused colleague, Farid Wahab, messaged me recently: “I’m covering Amanah’s launch of its machinery in Hulu Kelang. One speaker said, ‘We must not let mereka yang sakau (those who are corrupt) win’. Meanwhile, they are working with Umno.

“Awkk-waard. They really should have updated their speech,” Farid pointed out.

It is not only the Pakatan politikus (small-time politicians) who can condemn corruption without realising the irony that they are now in power with the very party they accused of corruption.

The viral joke on TikTok is a video of unity government top leaders talking about “strict action against corruption, no matter who you are”, while behind them stands a minister facing corruption charges.

Some Pakatan leaders can’t get out of the habit of whacking Umno.

DAP’s Tony Pua whipped up a storm with Umno when at a party fundraising dinner on Friday night, he said Pakatan needed to prove to voters that it could do better than other parties and could form the government on its own.

“We need to prove to them that Pakatan is multiracial, a party that is clean and not corrupt compared with Malay-based nationalist parties like Umno and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, that we can do better than corrupt people like Barisan, Umno, and Bersatu,” he said.

I’m unsure whether it was unthinking friendly fire or a deliberate missile attack on Umno.

Umno supreme council member Isham Jalil did not take Pua’s statement well at all. On Facebook, he told Pua to tell DAP to kick Umno out of the unity government if they really think Umno is corrupt.

DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke did immediate damage control. Loke said Pua’s speech, which attacked a main coalition partner in the unity government, was uncalled for.

So DAP leaders can no longer talk about the alleged corruption of Umno. Gagged, they can only talk about Perikatan’s alleged corruption.

I’ve been thinking about the big state election issues that could come up because next week I will be a panellist at a Malaysian Industrial Development Finance Berhad (MIDF) roundtable on the topic “Upcoming State Elections: What to Expect?”

The opening question by MIDF is: “What issues will shape the campaign period? 3R, cost of living and economy, or political ideologies and parties?”

I’m tempted to say it will be the 3Rs. Perikatan will use the state elections as a second referendum – a sort of second GE15 – on which coalition Malays support.

The unity government too will be using the 3Rs, I think, but in a reverse of the campaign by Bersatu and PAS: Pakatan will frighten its core base into turning out to vote by saying that if they don’t, the Green Wave will win and their way of life will be at stake.

The cost of living will be a hot topic, too, of course.

Yesterday, Perikatan chairman and Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin took the Federal Government to task over pricier goods and the weaker ringgit. It is something that the rakyat can feel directly.

My favourite noodles in Kampung Inobong in Penampang, Sabah, just went up by RM1, from RM8 to RM9 a bowl. The consumers suffer as they have to pay more, and the noodle shop owner suffers as he loses customers who can’t afford the RM1 hike.

The polls in the six states will be about the Green Wave versus the Red Wave (diluted by Barisan blue). Which colour do you support?

ANN

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