Duit Raya and 1MDB

Najib's daughter asks: Is my baby's duit raya linked to 1MDB? after her and her son's bank accounts were frozen.

Perhaps the duit raya was not from 1MDB but what about the other money in the accounts? Surely the authorities would have to have good reason to freeze those accounts.

It's such a silly strategy to try to spin the story as if the authorities were freezing the accounts because of duit raya. I wonder who is advising them on PR strategy.

Who wants to quit Pakatan?

The malcontents need to adopt a big picture view and not focus on ministerships.

So, some DAP fellas are unhappy that they didn't get enough ministers. Apparently there were a lot of grouses at a DAP retreat. To this, Kit Siang had the best response:

"Anybody wants to quit Harapan? We have fought 50 over years as opposition, now we are not even in power for 50 days, are you going to quit?"

It must be said that Kit Siang is eminently entitled to ask this rhetorical question for he declined to accept a ministerial position. So, he certainly has the moral high ground here. If anyone deserves to be a minister (and a senior one at that) it would be Kit Siang. Yet, he voluntarily turned it down so that younger members would have a chance and he could instead play the role of elder statesman.

It's shocking how narrow minded these complainers are. Is getting a ministership what it's all about? Is that what the struggle is all about? If so, they are no better than the MCA politicos who kowtow to UMNO just for ministerships.

If the Pakatan cabinet as a whole is functioning well and the Pakatan agenda is being carried out, does it really matter which party has more ministers? Isn't what is important the welfare and well-being of the people of this country? Or is the most important thing about who gets to become a minister?

Khairy tarik harga

No, KJ is not going to be the Opposition Leader.

And no, he won't be BN's Secretary-General.

It's UMNO President or nothing.

Well, since he lost in that election, it's nothing for him.

KJ clearly thought being the UMNO president would be a great vehicle for him to really establish himself as a reformist. Imagine if he could have achieved just half of what he promised or even a quarter of it. That would still be more changes than what Zahid and Ku Li combined had to offer.

But given his ambitions of someday becoming the PM, he needs a vehicle. What will he do? How much of an impact can he make by just being an MP? This is the BIG question.

Of course KJ being KJ (and with his PM ambitions still fully intact), you can be sure he's already cooking up some ideas. Whatever it is, you can also be sure of a few things:

i) It won't be through BN (or whatever replaces it in the near future). If he had wanted to try to do something through BN he would have lobbied for the Opposition Leader in Parliament job or accepted the BN Sec-Gen job. But he's clearly not interested.

ii) It won't be through Pakatan Harapan. While some BN types might be able to switch over and get accepted into Pakatan, this would never be the case for KJ, who is despised by Dr M, Anwar and Lim Guan Eng, whom he has personally offended in more ways than one.

iii) He'll continue to bolster his "hip" image among millennials. Although the politically savvy ones knows what his true colors are like, having watch him play the UMNO game since the Pak Lah's days, less politically-aware youngsters are captivated by his seeming progressiveness and savvy ways.

I have a feeling we'll find out pretty soon. As a media-savvy politicians he knows he needs to stay in the spotlight or he would soon be forgotten.

UMNO president to be investigated by MACC

Newly minted UMNO President Zahid Hamidi will be having a chat with the MACC over two matters. One is regarding a foundation that he heads and the other relating to 1MDB (and the supposed Arab donor whom he had claimed to have met).

Who knows whether this could lead to any prosecution but it certainly doesn't look good for UMNO to have its new president investigated by MACC. Hardly augurs well for a party that wants a new start. But then again they voted for the candidate that was least likely to make sweeping changes within the party.

KJ was the one with the most radical transformation plan while Ku Li was the one not tainted by 1MDB. Yet, UMNO voted in the one that's most representative of the status quo.

Earlier, I did say that UMNO will get the president they deserve. Well, they truly got what they deserve.

Is it a good thing if UMNO implodes?

We've seen Sabah and Sarawak -- BN's former safe deposits -- ditch BN/UMNO. We've also seen a couple of peninsula UMNO MPs jump ship (to become independents supportive of Pakatan).

Is this the start of a trend? Likely. Will it result in the crumbling of UMNO? Possibly. Is this a good thing? Yes and no.

Many people are happy to see UMNO defeated and quite a few want to see it completely crushed. But as Wong Chin Huat points out in this opinion piece, that may not necessarily be a good thing. He highlights three key reasons. Let's look at them, shall we?

1. PAS would become the main opposition
Wong predicts that if UMNO collapses, many of its voters will switch to PAS instead, allowing it to not only retain Kelantan and Terengganu but to also take over Perlis, Kedah and Pahang in GE15.

I don't agree with that assessment. After four or five years of Pakatan, the electorate will get a chance to compare what Pakatan has achieved and what PAS has achieved. That being the case, PAS will probably at most be able to hold on to Kelantan but it will probably lose Terengganu and it has no chance of winning Perlis, Kedah or Pahang.

2. UMNO MPs switching over to Pakatan
Will that happen? Right now the guidelines are that they have to become Pakatan-supporting independents. But that might change over time. Bersatu seems to be the one most open to accepting from UMNO members. PKR is not quite as keen but may be open to the idea if they see lots of them moving into Bersatu. If UMNO implodes, Pakatan might be flooded with UMNO members, via Bersatu and PKR, says Wong.

Again, I don't quite agree with that assessment. All the leaders of the component parties know just how hard it was for them to finally defeat BN/UMNO. These guys are not short-term-minded idiots. Having achieved the impossible, they will not risk all that they've worked so hard for over a bunch of former UMNO MPs who are not worth that much to them in the first place.

True, Bersatu could use more MPs to boost its numbers within the coalition. But their man is the PM and as a party they carry more weight than their numbers suggest. They've got nothing to worry about in this first term. What about the second term? Well, it's worth remembering that Bersatu contested in a lot of UMNO areas (and lost). In GE15, they will contest in the same areas and this time around, they are less likely to lose. Why? Because voters wouldn't want to vote for down-and-out party (which is what UMNO is already and will be even more so by GE15). They will vote Bersatu and the party will be more at par with DAP and PKR after GE15. That being the case, there is no reason to take in frogs from UMNO. What about PKR? Well, their man is going to be the PM, certainly for the second half of this first term. It doesn't have any need for UMNO MPs.

3. Implosion of Pakatan
This is related to Point 2 above. According to wong, the influx of UMNO MPs will affect the composition of the coalition and cause it to implode. This premise is based on the assumption that there would be an influx of UMNO MPs should that party collapse. I don't think it will happen. I think Pakatan will stick to its principle that these people have to be independents supportive of Pakatan. They will not be part of Pakatan.

Conclusion: UMNO's implosion is not such a bad thing after all.