“Things aren’t looking good for Anwar and Zahid, and sources claim the duo is no longer on good terms”
Raggie Jessy Rithaudeen
سمواڽ تيدق لنچر، اور-اور هوبوڠن انور-زاهيد رڠڠ
UNTUK BERITA TERKINI, SERTAI TELEGRAM TTF DI SINI
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday that he was ready to bear the consequences of fighting corrupt leaders, stopping short only of naming the people he meant.
Question is, was Anwar making a veiled reference to Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak, and does it have anything to do with UMNO’s bid to free Najib from jail and Zahid’s bid to have corruption charges against him dropped?
WATCH: TANDA-TANDA JELAS KENAPA ZAHID TIBA-TIBA TERDESAK LEPASKAN DIRINYA SEKARANG
Anwar has been heavily criticised from day one for appointing Zahid, a man facing 47 criminal charges, as his deputy.
The move is certainly the least convincing of ways to fight corruption, and people are already asking why Anwar, who claims to be on a mission to rid the country of corruption, is reluctant to direct the Malaysian Anti Corruption Commission (MACC) towards a discovery into his own deputy’s role in the LCS scandal, a role Anwar himself previously implied.
Of late, not only has Zahid secured his passport from the court, he successfully got the court to postpone his corruption trial pending a decision by the Attorney General’s Chambers (AGC) whether the charges against him should be dropped.
This has intensified criticism against Anwar, and the perception is that Zahid’s position as Deputy Prime Minister has put enormous pressure on the Attorney General, the AGC and the High Court.
True or not, the cause for concern is valid.
To make matters worse, Zahid has lent himself to a movement within UMNO, said to be by Najib’s proponents within the party’s supreme council, to have the jailed former prime minister pardoned.
This comes barely eight months into Najib’s imprisonment, and news from the grapevine has it that the DAP is not on very good terms with Anwar over the development.
Anwar will sit on the Pardons Board when it convenes later this month, and team Najib hopes that Anwar will push for an immediate pardon.
Should that happen, the DAP’s biggest fear is that Pakatan Harapan will suffer a massive backlash come state elections in July or August.
As it is, growing Malay-Muslim dissent against Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) is set to trigger a gargantuan Malay-Muslim Tsunami on election day, and Najib’s release isn’t likely to turn the tide.
During the 15th general election, UMNO managed only 26 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, while the party’s president, Zahid, barely made the cut with a razor thin majority.
There was a definite shift in the Malay-Muslim pendulum, and Perikatan Nasional managed 74 seats against PH’s 81 even though a large number of Malay-Muslims stayed home.
Then, after it became clear that PH and BN had deceived voters about “never wanting to work together,” Malay-Muslims turned up en masse during the Padang Serai parliamentary election to deliver a thumping victory to PN, making it clear that the power to shift tides lay solely in the hands of a united Malay-Muslim front.
Yes, things aren’t looking good for Anwar and Zahid, and sources claim that the duo is no longer on good terms.
