When Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng said Malaysian politics is stable because Pakatan Harapan (PH) keeps its promises, netizens got riled up.
Someone called him a “One man stand-up comedy. A walking tragedy for Malaysia.”
Another said, “His philosophy is to give us one joke a day.”
Still another said, “Ban him from coming in. Useless.”
Obviously it’s all because Lim wasn’t stating the obvious, and the obvious is, Malaysian politics is far from stable and PH has failed miserably when it comes to keeping its promises.
There is so much power play in PH now, essentially over the succession issue.
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who seems to think he was born to be the eighth prime minister of Malaysia, can’t wait any longer.
The supposed two-year term of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s premiership is hardly 10 months away, Anwar wants to make sure that when the time comes for Dr Mahathir to let go, he will be prime minister.
Dr Mahathir said he will keep his promise but he can’t just leave because the economy is bad (even though Guan Eng said it’s good). Dr Mahathir said he needs to improve the economy and that may take more than two years.
If that wasn’t enough, added to Anwar’s misery is the call from political leaders, including those from the opposition, to Dr Mahathir to remain prime minister for the full term.
What that means is Anwar has to wait, which he can’t afford because his deputy Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin, the man many said Dr Mahathir prefers over Anwar, is still a free man.
When that Sarawakian guy Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz claimed that the other actor in that steamy video was Azmin, the latter was supposed to be jailed, just like what happened to Anwar before. But when that did not happen, Azmin remains a serious prime minister-contender, which makes PH politics what it is today — a ticking time bomb.
Even as Guan Eng said, “I want to repeat once more that the political situation in Malaysia is stable,” his own party DAP threatened to implode over the Jawi (or khat) issue.
For whatever reason or purpose, Lim Kit Siang said he learned Jawi and it didn’t make him less Chinese; in fact, it made him more Malaysian.
The problem is he learned it in jail; he didn’t go to school. That’s where the DAP leaders differ and it’s no small matter.
Why the khat? Whose idea was it? Guess as much as you like, but DAP knows it is the party that will lose in this particular game.
So, dare Guan Eng say Malaysia’s politics is stable when “Tens of thousands of messages have flooded the social media pages of DAP leaders as well as private chat groups for divisional members, with some threatening open rebellion if the party does not oppose the move … ”?
As to the PH keeping its promises, Sarawakians have no reason to not see the hollowness of Guan Eng’s statement.
PH has failed Sarawak completely, and the last time the finance minister was here he didn’t come to announce any financial allocation for Sarawak. What he did announce was demeaning to Sarawak and Sarawakians: He said Sarawak would go bankrupt in three years.
Sarawakians are not in the habit of speaking ill of political leaders, but Guan Eng had touched raw nerves and for that the finance minister had brickbats thrown at him.
What he said was nothing more than political rhetoric that has been conclusively disproved by Tun Daim Zainuddin.
The former finance minister, who is the chairman of the Council of Eminent Persons, spoke highly of Sarawak during his recent visit here. He described the state’s development as “well-structured”.
The last couple of days Sarawakians have been throwing brickbats at yet another PH leader, also for saying something that has no basis.
This time it’s Puncak Borneo MP Willie Mongin, for saying that the RM300 allowance given to councillors by the state government is an abuse of power.
Willie even went as far as to caution that once the allowance is implemented, it will rank among the most blatant misuse of public funds.
But whether he knew or not, the DAP government of Penang is dishing out to local government councillors RM2,500 in fixed allowance, RM1,200 attendance allowance and RM300 as telephone allowance.
Willie’s PKR Selangor government gives its councilors RM1,000 fixed allowance and RM100 attendance allowance.
By simple logic, what would be the most blatant misuse of public fund, RM300 or RM4,000?
Would Willie throw at DAP and PKR the same accusation that he threw at GPS?
There is something similar about Guan Eng and Willie.
They both shot themselves in the foot.
