HAVE KHAIRY AND NAZIR JUMPED SHIP?

One very surprising re-alignment of alliances is by Najib’s own brother, Nazir of CIMB. He is working with Tong Kooi Ong of The Edge to keep raising stories regarding Low Taek Jho’s hidden hand behind 1MDB. Nazir himself is making many statements that The Edge is playing up.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The Chinese say that ‘crisis’ and ‘opportunity’ are spelt the same (or is it pronounced the same like ‘four’ and ‘die’?). Anyway, we have to admit that there are always opportunities in a crisis if you know where to look and if you know how to exploit a crisis.

I suppose it is a matter of looking at half a glass of water and deciding whether it is half full or half empty because it is actually both, half full plus half empty. However, looking at the glass one way (half empty) would be to see things as a loss while looking at it the other way (half full) would be to see things as a gain.

Capitalists love wars, especially if the wars are fought in someone else’s country and not your own. Wars are when you can make billions because wars cost money and if you know how to exploit and capitalise on wars you can become super-rich.

Wars can be good and can be bad. It depends on what you hope to achieve and how you hope to go about achieving it. While there are losers in wars there are also winners. But only a few smart ones will know how to profit from the misery and misfortune of others.

Barisan Nasional is in turmoil. So is Pakatan Rakyat. And within both these coalitions, Umno, PKR, PAS and DAP are also in turmoil. Some see it as a disaster and a great loss to whichever party or coalition they may happen to support. But there are those who are profiting and benefiting from all this turmoil.

In wars you cannot be idealistic. You cannot say you are prepared to go down with the ship. As General George Smith Patton Jr. told his soldiers: your job is not to die for your country. Your job is to make the other bastard die for his country.

And this is what politicians do. Politicians start wars. Diplomats try to prevent the war from happening. And when the diplomat fails the soldiers are sent in to fight the wars — who either die for their country or try to make the other bastards die for their country.

In the ongoing war within Umno, PKR, PAS and DAP, plus the ongoing war within Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat, no one knows just yet what the outcome is going to be. Hence secret alliances are being made lest the side you are on happens to lose the war.

It is always wise to make alliances with the other side in case your side loses. No one wants to be caught in a situation like in the Selangor Crisis where Khalid Ibrahim got ousted and Azmin Ali ended up as the new Menteri Besar.

Those aligned to Khalid got executed. Those aligned to Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, thinking that she was going to replace Khalid as Menteri Besar, are now waiting for their heads to roll. And those such as PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang who put his money on Azmin are silently chuckling in the background.

Of course, for ‘betraying’ (only the losers use the word ‘betray’) PKR and DAP by supporting Azmin, Hadi is now himself facing the risk of getting ousted. And the Anwarinas in PAS and PKR, plus DAP, are going all out to try to oust Hadi and get him replaced with their own puppet.

Hadi knows this. And he knows that they are raising the liberals versus ulama’ issue to achieve this. They are hoping that the secularists in PAS outnumber the Islamists. So Hadi is playing a very clever game by resurrecting the Hudud issue so that DAP can reveal its anti-Hudud stripes and antagonise the Islamists in PAS.

Anwar was pushing for what in reality is an ‘Unity Government’ with Umno, which he called ‘National Consensus’ and not ‘Unity Government’, but he could not do that without PAS also agreeing to join the gang. So Hadi torpedoed that move by refusing to join the talks even though he happened to be in London at that time.

Why should Hadi agree to an alliance with Umno on Anwar’s terms? If he does then it should be on PAS’s terms and not on PKR’s terms. So twice in one year Hadi torpedoed what Anwar was attempting: to replace Khalid with his wife and then to form an alliance with Umno.

So now Pakatan Rakyat is in crisis. And within PAS itself there is also a crisis. But it is only a crisis if you regard it as a crisis. If you look at it as an opportunity then there is much Hadi and PAS can gain from what others view as a crisis.

So what can Hadi and PAS gain? Aiyah, if I tell you that then it will not be called a strategy. Strategies can only work if no one knows what you are doing. If everyone knows then you can no longer call it a strategy.

Meanwhile, the crisis in Umno is also simultaneously being played out. And alliances are also being drawn and redrawn in Umno. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, who for two years has been giving the impression that he wants to retire and does not wish to take over from Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, has suddenly revealed his true ambitions: that he wants to become Prime Minister after all.

He did not reveal this earlier and pretended that he wants to retire because he was not sure whether he would be able to oust Najib. But now that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is all out to make sure that Najib is ousted by June, at the same time that PKR and DAP hope Hadi would also be ousted, Muhyiddin is making his moves.

One thing that is not too clear is why did Muhyiddin set up the Umno Wanita Chief Shahrizat Abdul Jalil for a fall regarding the NFC scandal? Yes, Rafizi Ramli of PKR was given all the documents so that Shahrizat could be brought down and the documents came from those aligned to Muhyiddin although Rafizi insists that it was an ‘anonymous source’. We can only assume it is because Shahrizat refused to join Team Muhyiddin and insisted on remaining in Team Najib.

Umno Youth Leader Khairy Jamaluddin saw what happened to Shahrizat for refusing to switch alliances so he has secretly met Muhyiddin to pledge loyalty to the Deputy Prime Minister. They met about two weeks ago and the meeting between Khairy and Muhyiddin was arranged by Abdul Azim Mohamad Zabidi.

Khairy’s job is to push the 1MDB issue and raise as many embarrassing questions as possible.

One very surprising re-alignment of alliances is by Najib’s own brother, Nazir of CIMB. He is working with Tong Kooi Ong of The Edge to keep raising stories regarding Low Taek Jho’s hidden hand behind 1MDB. Nazir himself is making many statements that The Edge is playing up.

It is no secret that Najib’s brothers are not on the same page as the Prime Minister and it seems it is because Nazir is sore that Najib refused to put his bank in charge of 1MDB.

So there you have it. When there are wars, fortunes can be made. And in wars realignment of loyalties are also made. And even amongst brothers you need to know who to align to because you do not want to fall together with your brother.

So let us see what surfaces in the next month or so. If Hadi and Najib are going to be ousted it must be done within the next month. If by June you cannot oust Hadi and Najib then it is not going to happen. And while the ousting game is going on you need to choose whom to align to so that you are in the winning team.

And if you do not know which team is going to win then you stay neutral but make a secret deal with the challenger. Both ways you will win.