THE THIRD FORCE
A posting today by OutSyed The Box purported that Dato’ Seri Anwar Ibrahim has numbers on his side to trigger a motion of no confidence against Dr Mahathir Mohamad, the Prime Minister of Malaysia.
According to the post, Anwar is working behind the scenes to trigger a coup with top personalities in Sabah seen leaning towards him.
That is a lie.
As much as I am displeased with the way the current government is run, I can assure you that Mahathir will remain as Prime Minister way past the 2nd of November 2018, the day Budget 2019 is set be tabled by Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng.
Pakatan Harapan currently has a 115-seat representation in Parliament.
That representation is further consolidated when one considers that Dato’ Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal committed his Warisan to Mahathir’s cause, meaning, the Prime Minister now has 123 MPs in his favour.
But the number could easily dwindle to a worrisome 98, given that 25 or so MPs from PKR are willing to abstain from voting in favour of the budget should Anwar tell them to do so.
Under the circumstances, the Government of Malaysia (GoM) is likely to collapse by the 1st of January 2019, as a lack of majority support for the budget would translate into a vote of no confidence against the GoM and a definite sign that Mahathir is a Prime Minister of the minorities.
But not if you were to take another read of OutSyed’s article.
If you do, you’d notice that he deliberately made no mention of PAS and Barisan Nasional, meaning, his analysis assumed that MPs from these two parties would not vote for the budget.
That’s another lie.
The truth is, not only have 50 of these MPs committed to supporting the budget, 18 of them are actually from PAS.
What this means, is that the Islamic party is fully backing Mahathir as Prime Minister and is wholeheartedly seeking his retention.
The remaining 32 MPs are from UMNO.
Do the math, and you will see just why Budget 2019 is set to become the strongest Budget ever to be presented in Parliament since the 2008 general election concluded.
Things may have been very different had Dato’ Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi resigned as UMNO president when I told him to do so.
Because he didn’t, even if I now have my finger on a ‘detonation’ button that could guarantee Pakatan’s downfall, I would never push the button, as a downfall of government would likely result in a caretaker administration that could see a Zahid man being named Prime Minister.
Under the circumstances, I think it’s best we let Dr Mahathir Mohamad complete a full term as Prime Minister and work towards GE15 by seeking a Muslim-led Third Force to replace Barisan Nasional.
Perhaps I will still be around to see this happen.
Perhaps I won’t.