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The Perak crisis finally ended. Saarani Mohamad is the new menteri kisser, replacing Ahmad Faizal Azumu, who last week lost a vote of confidence in the state assembly.
There are important lessons to be learned from this episode. First of all, Umno still needs PPBM as much as PPBM needs Umno. For now, despite bad blood in the past between both parties, they are inseparable.
There is no clearer evidence of this than to make Umno President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi apologize for the failed coup planned by his party’s elected representatives in Silver State.
It is unprecedented for the oldest and most influential party chairman to swallow his pride like that.
This underscores the importance that Umno attaches to links with PPBM. Why did Zahid eat a humble cake? That’s because, at the end of the day, the politics of race and identity still matter in Malaysia.
Umno could have co-opted Pakatan Harapan to form the new Perak government. But he knows that doing so would be anathema to his rank and file.
For decades, Umno had criticized DAP for being racist. If Umno had approached the Chinese-dominated party, the former would risk losing the credibility it had and face possible elimination in the next general election.
Similarly, the DAP’s proposals to Umno, not only in Perak, but also in its attempt to overthrow Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin through a vote of no-confidence in the Dewan Rakyat, did not sit well with its traditional bloc of supporters.
It is one thing to overthrow the prime minister, and another to join forces with your sworn enemy (Umno) to do so, and then work together with those whom the DAP leaders had labeled “kleptocrats”, “corrupt” and “racists” .
At the end of the day, Perak is a reminder that it would be foolish to upset the political balance today. The composition of the various legislatures, such as Dewan Rakyat and many state assemblies, underlines this.
Assuming the opposition succeeds in its attempt to overthrow Muhyiddin through a vote of no confidence in the Dewan Rakyat, then what happened in Perak over the past week could be replicated at the national level, without the opposition being better off, if no worse. off.
There is no way that opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim can improvise the next government without the backing of the 42 DAP MPs and Umno renegades, including corrupt leaders like Najib Razak and Zahid. In the end, return to the starting point.
The only difference is that we cannot afford a political crisis of such magnitude during this Covid-19 pandemic. God forbid, if this leads to a quick poll.
For better or for worse, we now have a political equilibrium that depends on the interplay of the politics of race and identity surrounded by decades of social conditioning. And for better or for worse, Muhyiddin has the upper hand in this game due to the ownership advantage, despite PPBM’s lower legislative representation.
Douglas M is an FMT reader.
The opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
