BERSATU: from Ampangan to Putrajaya.

Saturday Feb 29, 2020 (Leap Year).

While Bersatu is in huge turmoil in Putrajaya, its Ampangan branch has had its own little turmoil in Seremban.

After one too many changes of dates,  the Ampangan branch finally held its shaky first official elections at half-past three today, one-and a half hours late. To the very end, even this was in confusion, because only three days ago Jefri, the acting Divisional Head had told me that the scheduled 29th elections had been postponed because the MB had cancelled the approval for the use of the hall in Gedung Lalang. This proved false, because today the guy ahead of me had the keys to the gate, and the meeting eventually proceeded as fixed.

Everybody knows what's going on in Putrajaya. 

Last Saturday hell broke loose when Mahathir resigned as PM, and soon afterwards as Chairman of Bersatu. The President of Bersatu, Muhyiddin then pulled out of the PH, causing the pact to disintegrate. PKR earlier had sacked Azmin and Zuraidah, both members of the PH Cabinet. They joined the Bersatu-UMNO-PAS pact. And all this one day after Mahathir announced that PH had given him the right to decide when to hand over the PMship to Anwar Ibrahim.

Ai had been appointed the interim Branch Head by  Jefri after several meetings over the last one year, even before Yunus Rahmat jumped into the branch from nowhere. In the last few months, the agreement was that Ai would go for the official Branch Head post, plus a seat in the Seremban Division. Yunus was to go for Head of Division. Even the incumbent PKR ADUN for Ampangan knew this, because he told me. 

After the nomination process last month, there appeared to be contests at both Branch and Division levels.  Jefri wanted to contest the Branch post, although Ai's position was done through him and the many meetings held. Yunus registered for the Head of Division. Then he asked Ai to withdraw from the Branch contest, which Ai refused.  Today Ai was nowhere to be seen. Phone calls went unanswered. Then Ari said he had pulled out. Yunus said the same thing later. Then Jefri pulled out of the Head of Division contest, going instead for the Deputy post. And today, before I left the meeting before even casting my vote, it appeared that Yunus was withdrawing, too.

The PH promise of Mahathir passing the baton to Anwar is known by everybody. This issue, lately loudly demanded  by Anwar's supporters, was settled.  But it is also widely known that there is deep antipathy in the country for Anwar being PM. From the beginning of the formation of the PH government, many had predicted that Anwar would never be the 8th. PM. Many reasons were offered, but underlining them was just the dislike for him.  Many are aware of the bottomlessness of his political war chest, evidenced by the funding of the entire PKR when in opposition, and the buying of the State seat of Kajang soon after  GE13, and the Parliamentry seat of PD soon after  GE14. So even as I write, when Muhyiddin has already been announced on tv and radio as the PM-elect by Istana Negara, Anwar's camp is still feared, with Sarawak and Sabah the targets. Muhyiddin is said to only have 114 MPs behind him, against the 222 total. GPS Sarawak (18), Warisan Sabah (8), and the mosquito parties plus 1 independent (7), plus Mahathir's loose ardent sympathisers among the MP's  can still cause havoc to the Agong's choice announced today. In fact right now Mahathir claims to have 112 -114 support for PM, with Anwar again changing stance and giving deference to the Old Man. Mukhriz also says 6 Bersatu MPs support his father. And Sarawak & Sabah say they're watching closely. Istana Negara notwithstanding, it may boil down to a vote in Parliament next week. If that takes place.

The attendance in Ampangan today was sparse, an indication of the interest shown. There were 11 Armada members, when the constitutional minimum requirement is 9, fortunately. The Srikandi members present was even smaller, and having the same requirement, I wonder if the qurom was met, because I left ahead of the voting. As to the ordinary members, to which the Armada and Srikandi numbers are added, I doubt if the qurom of 30 % of the full membership would have been met. But they can always play with that. Or simply cheat, like in UMNO branch meetings. Even running the meeting had an unresolved problem when I left. They couldn't find a someone to be the Permanent Chairman. The candidate for the Divisional Head came to me without even  introducing himself, trying to get me to do it. Yunus also tried to get me to agree. I rebuffed them both. This was the main reason I left early. The whole thing was shoddy. If Bersatu cannot interest people at the party's elections, how can they interest the voters at the next GE ? There's already rising frustration with PH everywhere. 

This "National Pact" PN government concocted by UMNO and PAS is understandable. They are the biggest  losers in Parliament. Something desparately needed to be done to get their claws in, or lose all. UMNO has only 39 seats now, and would have lost more to Bersatu if Mahathir had not slowed down in accepting the fleeing MP's because of Anwar's and DAP's caution, which is understandable. Bersatu stands to become the largest single party in Parliament despite starting with only 13. It's 36 now, a jump of almost 300% !. And without going to the polls ! Playing the racial issue in order to get the Malay support seems the natural and easy game to play for UMNO & PAS. They have to resort to the dirtiest tactics necessary before they lose more Malay support in the next GE. The last GE, and the 5 bye-elections , especially Parliament Tg. Piai, have shown that the Chinese choose race over other things. Only the Malays are broken up into pieces of UMNO, PKR, Bersatu, PAS, Amanah and Warisan. That's 6 pieces ! The only thing holding the Chinese back is their total 27% of the electoral roll, and their concentration in the urban areas.

Bersatu was born because of Najib alone, let's face it. He sacked Muhyiddin ( I hope he's not forgotten that),  Shafiee and Mukhriz.  Mahathir resigned. All because of 1MDB. Not the corruption. That came later. UMNO's DNA is in Bersatu. Playing the race card easily influence the MP's. It's not the rakyat at this point, as claimed by Mat Hasan. ( The PH government was the rakyat's voice at the polls in GE14, Mat !) It's only you desparate buggers in Parliament casting principles aside to save your skins ! Don't bring the rakyat in. Their job would be at the next polls ! And  DAP, never having tasted Government, got carried away and pushed things too hard, too fast. There was the Chinese script issue on official bulletin, the noises about Jawi in school, Guan Eng presiding the TH meetings and other race- and religion-related matters. Small matters, maybe, but irritating. For 6 decades they accepted such matters without losing anything material, and now in their first taste at national government they can't wait to paint everything red ! Now they're about to become the opposition again!

At the back of my mind, however, I think what has happened this last several days has to do with   Anwar.  

Anwar as PM is intelorable to many Malays except the 39 PKR divisions. Mahathir resigned not at a time of leadership crisis. His Parliamentry support is comfortable. UMNO is at its weakest. PAS remains small  at national level. Pesky, but small.  PH had just given Mahathir additional oomph at that Friday meeting last week. But at the back of Mahathir's mind must be the handing over to Anwar in November, the new deadline.

This afternoon I met Mustapha after maybe 20 years. He was with the State Secretariat when I was ADUN. He came because his friend, another retiree and a Bersatu member, invited him to the meeting. They tried to get him to chair the meeting after I rejected them.(I whispered to him to not accept, and he followed my advice.) "Don't ask for trouble" I said as he accompanied me out, while Armada was in their meeting. Just come and observe, and offer advice if asked, I said as I took my leave.

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