MARCH 21 — In all his speeches at the recently concluded Umno General Assembly, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob has proven to be the better leader, despite playing third fiddle to Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Mohamad Hasan (Tok Mat) in the Umno leadership hierarchy.
Ismail Sabri looked and sounded like a statesman giving the delegates his views on the general state of affairs in the country, peppering it with the necessary statistics ala a state of union address of a US president, and announced several new initiatives of his government.
This includes increasing the minimum monthly wage from RM1,200 now to RM1,500 nationwide effective May 1, thus putting monies in the pockets of the vulnerable group at a time when cost of living is going up.
Under his watch, the economy has grown to 3.6 per cent in the last quarter of last year compared to a contraction of 4.5 per cent in the previous quarter, while foreign direct investment was worth RM24.7 billion in the fourth quarter of last year as compared to RM12.8 billion in the third quarter.
“This is proof of foreign investors’ confidence in the Umno-led government,” he said amid applause from the delegates. “Today, I would like to announce a new investment of RM32 billion for developing the Automative High-Technology Valley at Proton City, Tanjong Malim Perak.
“This investment from DRB-Hicom will generate 370,000 employment opportunities throughout the development phase and 161,000 employment throughout the operational phase,” he added, amid a standing ovation from the delegates.
Compare this with the speeches of Zahid and Tok Mat, and they are all about the parochial outlook of Umno, Umno and Umno, not even BN.
One initiative announced by Zahid is the launch of Umno’s own school of politics to boost the political education of its future members and spread its ideology.
This is a mere intensification of the indoctrination of the rakyat with Umno’s ideology, which will only benefit Umno and not the rakyat at large. And what is Umno’s ideology? The court cluster will have a different view of this ideology compared to the minister cluster.
While Tok Mat’s speech consisted of nothing more than hurting the enemies more when they are so weak by holding the 15th General Election (GE15) soon.
This sounds more like a page taken from Sun Tzu’s The Art of War, but Tok Mat may have missed the part where Sun Tzu said such strategy should not be said openly lest your weakened enemies know and make some countermoves that will leave you bleeding profusely.
Thus, it is clear if an Umno-led government helmed by a member of the court cluster as its PM were the reality, the greatest beneficiary will be Umno and its cronies, just like what it was for some 60 years ago.
On the contrary, if an Umno-led government is helmed by a member of the minister cluster, the greatest beneficiary will immensely be the rakyat including all Umno members.
There is now an interregnum in the looming battle in Umno at the end of the recently concluded Umno General Assembly when the court cluster failed to push for the dissolution of Parliament to make way for GE15.
It is now the court cluster, which is at pain in convincing the delegates that everything is all right and there is no cluster in Umno.
The problem with politicians is when negative thing such as disunity is obviously taking place in the party they will go into a denial mode by putting on an act of unity claiming that there’s no disunity when disunity is there for all to see.
The court cluster is under the delusion the BIG win in the Johor election is a victory of its own making when many contributed as well to the BIG win — Umno HQ, the Prime Minister, Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Chief Ministers and division heads nationwide.
Even opposition parties like Muda, Warisan and Pejuang had played a “positive” role in contributing to this BIG win. Thus, it is good that the Johor royalty knocks some sense on the head of the court cluster by appointing an MB who is different from their confident expectation.
This has blunted the court cluster’s attempt to go all out clamouring for GE15 to be held soon, and is also the reason why Umno Youth delegates from Johor were not allowed to speak due to the sensitivity of the MB issue.
The looming battle in Umno that is being talked about for quite some time started on election night when Umno and BN supporters shouted “bubar Parlimen” (dissolve Parliament) at Ismail Sabri as he walked through the jubilant crowd gathered at the Johor Umno headquarters to await the official results in which BN/Umno secured a two-thirds super majority in the recently concluded Johor state election.
All comments on that night were like guns trained on Ismail Sabri, along with the snubs that he was treated to by Zahid in allowing a group of small screamers to shout “bubar Parlimen” at the PM, and making no mention of the PM in thanking BN leaders for the BIG win in Johor in his victory speech although the PM had rolled his sleeves and went down to the field to help in the campaigning on a number of occasions.
The battle line was clearly drawn too on that night. The court cluster is no longer limited to just those with court cases but also includes those who are “sick” with Datuk Seri Najib Razak being associated with the 1MDB issue and those who want the GE15 to be held earlier than July.
To the credit of Ismail Sabri, he took all these “snubs” in his strides and remained quiet throughout and responded only the next day with a firmness that the office of the prime minister demands by saying the call for GE15 would only be made by BN and not a small group of people who are “screaming” for it to be held immediately.
He also said a decision would be made when BN was “fully prepared” and the government would not rush it since it needed to consider various opinions before it could call for the dissolution of Parliament.
“What is important is that the rakyat’s interests need to be taken care of, which is why I said, it is not yet time for the general election. Let us wait,” added Ismail.
The PM’s approach is very praiseworthy because it is in line with the concept of musyawarah (consultation) that Islam holds on a high pedestal, unlike the decision of the Johor Umno not to consult its coalition partners in dissolving the state assembly.
There was only one real moment of unity between the court and minister clusters and it took place when they closed ranks and were united in nominating their vice-president Ismail Sabri as the new PM way back in August last year.
This unity paved the way for Umo/BN victory in the sudden Melaka state election in which the leader of the court cluster Najib played a key role in the victory.
Buoyed by this victory, the talk then was Najib was tipped to be appointed as an economic advisor to the government. But when this did not materialise, the court cluster continues to plan its scheming, which led to the present looming battle taking shape.
Also thing got a bit tense which resulted in the snubs that Ismail Sabri received on election night when it was rumoured the delay in reappointing the Attorney General (AG), Tan Sri Idrus Harun whose term ended on March 6 was due to the intense pressure by the court cluster on Ismail Sabri to appoint a new AG sympathetic to the plight of their top leaders.
Even some MPs brought the matter up in Parliament, as the delay in the reappointment is irregular and could raise many questions over the fate of the court cluster.
But the court cluster has one ace on their sleeves and that is the resolution approving a motion to postpone the party election to six months after GE15, announced by Tok Mat.
This means that Zahid will be in an important position in deciding who’ll be Umno/BN candidates in GE15.
And note the defiant chord in Tok Mat’s warning to Ismail Sabri: “I also ask the PM to please pay attention to this matter. If we write (about this motion) to the RoS, no one should obstruct our party’s decision.”
As for Zahid, he seemed to make an awkward compromise when in his address, he implied that Ismail Sabri would be allowed to carry on as PM should the Umno-led BN coalition return to power after GE15.
* Jamari Mohtar is the Editor of Let’s Talk!, an e-newsletter on current affairs.
** This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
