Perikatan unleashing their manifesto one by one. Are they fully recognised? Bersatu break-up becoming worst? Can Perikatan be trusted after waves of defections?
The first was a former defence minister who is now taking up the foreign affairs portfolio in the Perikatan government pledged the six new army helicopters that he ordered many years back will be delivered by the supplier at the end of this year.
Then, the PPSMI and the free breakfast in school scheme will be reviewed by the newly appointed education minister. Ties with Saudi Arabia will also be mend after the relationship between the two countries soured in the “Mahathir” previous government, follow by an attempt to resolve the palm oil spat with India and the Perikatan cabinet ministers are readying themselves to have their salaries reduced following the current economic uncertainties.
Furthermore, the Perikatan prime minister had also pledged to re-introduce the GST after the beginning of his reign this week after years of his opposition against the implementation of GST when he was on the Harapan’s side.
Then an Umno top leader dropped a bombshell calling for the new attorney-general to review all corruption and criminal charges against a number of Umno leaders who are currently undergoing a long-hour trial on their cases. That Umno top leader then called on the authorities to begin investigating all previous Harapan ministers for any possible crime or wrongdoing during their 22-month of governance. To the Umno leaders now, they wanted revenge and it is payback time.
Asides, from the recent meeting of the Umno supreme council, the Umno top leader has also labelled that the Perikatan Nasional government was not a government with a coalition of parties but merely a government of mutual understanding amongst the members of parliament from PAS, Umno, Bersatu, MCA and MIC.
A former Umno secretary-general who had seen his party position being abruptly replaced by someone else during the party supreme council meeting recently had cited that the current government which came into power via seizure from the previous ruling party will not last and a snap election must be called in order to ascertain its support and popularity.
Then, the president of Sarawak Progressive Democratic Party (SPDP), who is part of the ruling Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) in that eastern province, Tiong King Sing rejected his deputy ministerial position because it reduces his stature as head of the party, where he was supposed to get a full minister position.
There is a grave problem here after the Perikatan parties which consist of PAS, Umno, Bersatu, MCA and MIC seized power after playing the numbers game with the palace at the end of last month.
Does the governments of foreign nations recognise this Perikatan government then? So far only the prime minister of Singapore has called upon and made some remarks on this. As for the rest of the nations, as far as we knew, none had so far call on the “new prime minister” here to offer their recognition to his new administration which was just sworn in this week.
The question of legitimacy of the Perikatan government has arise following the wave of defection from the previous ruling party of which the Umno and PAS has decided to take advantage on following Bersatu’s departure from the Harapan coalition government. Then, after Bersatu’s defection, a number of state governments then collapsed and taken over by Umno and PAS.
Days later saw, factions within Bersatu are now divided in to those pro-Umno and pro-Harapan camps where they had decided to stay on to the party until their party election come this April 2020. It is certainly going to be a tough contest between the Mahathir faction and the Muhyiddin faction to take control of the party. Earlier Mahathir has resigned as Bersatu party chairman but has decided to take back the position after much the party leadership rejected his resignation. Then comes Bersatu president Muhyiddin who claimed that the party has sacked Mahathir as party chair and the party president himself will assume the role as party acting chairman.
In between the factional rift, both Bersatu secretary-general and the party youth chief has decided to throw their lot behind Mahathir leadership citing that whatever action carried out by the party president was illegal.
And today, as you can observe, more and more leaders in Umno voicing their dissatisfaction on the new cabinet announced by Muhyiddin. So does Sabah, the Umno chapter there had complained why none of theirs was included into the new administration.
So, Perikatan Nasional is face with a challenge here, the government installed recently remain unrecognised by foreign nations because the legitimacy and the way it seized power were still in question. Then foreign investors will be cautious when putting their investment into our nation’s market, then because of the investors’ no-confidence outlook on our nation, the economic uncertainties widens. The nation’s currency Ringgit has now dropped to its lowest after Perikatan’s power seizure, followed by weeks of political crisis.
Making things worst today. The people were distrustful of the Perikatan government due to its composition were manned by those who had defected from the previous ruling coalition. If the distrusts continue, will this government be respected? Will our people give their respect to those who had betrayed others or defected from their previous parties? Will our people trust these Perikatan ministers who are now running our nation and utilising the nation’s coffers? How secure is it of our nation’s funds when they are handling it? How is Perikatan going to erase or deny the fact that the current administration does consist of those who are involved in many crimes, corruptions, power abuses during their past reign of 61 years until 10 May 2018?
