October | 2018 | The "thirteen million plus Ringgit" guy rambles....

The colours of Malaysian mainstream politics just became surreally psychedelic with hallucinating dynamic colours shifting about alive, since soon-to-be PKR President Anwar Ibrahim’s handsome win in the Port Dickson by-election concluded last night.

The entrance of long time ‘heir apparent to the Premiership’ Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim back into the pit of mainstream politics, is very interesting and subliminally earth shattering.

Firstly, he is a man yet to be officially ascended to the PKR throne as an elected President and no more ‘Dear Leader’ (Ketua Umum), quite soon.

Second, his party (PKR, which is today an evolution of a political movement ‘Reformasi’ he started upon his sacking from Cabinet and Deputy Prime Minister 2 Sept 1998 and UMNO as Deputy President 3 Sept 1998 by the same man who is Prime Minister today, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad), is the largest block of coalition parties which is the ruling Federal Government of the day.

Third, the (un)holy-marriage-of-back-stabbing-strange-bedfellows between Anwar’s, Dr. Mahathir’s and Lim Kit Siang’s parties shockingly tipped the scale for political control on 9 May 2018 XIV GE, left of them, all and sundry not really have a clue how to go about business when they were handed power by His Majesty the Agong to form a Federal Government under his name.

It took weeks for Prime Minister Dr Mahathir to sort out the full Cabinet set up, only to manifest the horse-trading behind closed doors was more than just a mere series of storm-in-a-teacup of threats and ultimatums.

This is not withstanding as a man of 22 years of premiership and 15 years of statesmanship, he was not too contented with those whom he could pick from to fill in all the strategic positions of Ministers of the Crown.

Hence, the speed and roll out of the formation of the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP), which was actually doing the bidding for and on behalf of the Prime Minister with the absence of ultra vires power.

To date, more Chief Secretaries and civil servants, heads of department, chief executives and senior management, key personnel, official representatives appear before the five-man CEP, all and in sundry than before the Federal Government in the name of His Majesty Tuanku Agong.

Right after the hundred day ‘running in period of the New Malaysia Federal Government’, the CEP wanted to stand down and each of the members were to go off and back into their own individual normalcies but vehemently rejected by Prime Minister Dr Mahathir.

It is not to the pleasure of Prime Minister Dr Mahathir in any way as he is spirally into a viscous cycle of paranoia, deep distrusts of people, fear and lost at sea of realism.

Administrative and diplomatic officers (PTD) taking selfie with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. — Bernama photo

PUTRAJAYA: The loyalty of civil servants such as administrative and diplomatic officers and police and military personnel to the government should not be up to the point of complying with directives contrary to the law, says Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

If government officers found that the task entrusted to them was clearly wrong or criminal in nature, they should not comply with the instruction, he said.

“You don’t have to follow all orders, just those that come in accordance with government policies,” he said at a town hall session for about 3,500 administrative and diplomatic officers (PTD) here yesterday.

The session was also attended by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Cabinet ministers and the Chief Secretary to the Government Tan Sri Dr Ali Hamsa.

“If, as the prime minister, I order you to kill someone, would you do it? There’s a difference between an instruction in accordance with certain policies and an order to commit a crime,” he said.

Dr Mahathir said it was wrong if a government officer received an instruction to commit a crime, such as the concealing of criminal evidence.

Dr Mahathir said government officers should strictly ignore improper directives such as campaigning for political parties despite being threatened with action.

“If you all say no, don’t tell me all of you will be punished?” he said.

Asked whether the government would come to the aid of civil servants who had been subjected to action for not abiding by the directives of the previous administration, he said the government was prepared to discuss and restore them to their positions.

Dr Mahathir said he had to look into the reports first to ensure that those who were actually victimised could be given a reprieve, while also taking into account the financial position of the government.

“Some have been given a reprieve, but the total number is too big, and some may have been missed out by our investigation.

“If they were (missed out), please provide details why they were ‘punished’ earlier and the government will restore them to their previous position or pay what is owed to them,” he said.

Dr Mahathir also said that in the effort to fighting wrong, the government officers must accept the fact that they would be ‘punished’ but they should believe that what they did would eventually bring good.

Acknowledging that he himself was ‘punished’ by the previous administration, including by stopping his monthly allowance and putting fear into his friends to keep them away from him, Dr Mahathir said these were challenges that must be faced in championing what was right.

“If I were to have gone along with them even after being ‘punished’, what would have happened to the country and our society? So, we have to accept ‘punishment’ for our refusal to do what’s wrong,” he said.

On the other questions and grievances on governance aired at the session, the Prime Minister said he would study, have discussions and seek evidence before making any decision.

“Many wrote to me. Now, I have a stack of letters and I have 18 hours (a day) to read them,” he said.

On Malaysia’s foreign relations, Dr Mahathir said the country practised a policy of being friendly with all nations of the world without regard for their ideology and reserved the right to criticise if they committed wrong regardless of whether they were big or small.

He said Malaysia used its influence in helping to resolve conflicts in neighbouring countries such as the Philippines and Thailand, but failed to influence countries of the Middle East.

“We have met with (Middle Eastern) leaders but our advice was not accepted, so we failed to influence them,” he said.

The Prime Minister said Malaysia came to the defence of Palestine because of the gross injustice against the people of that country, whereby their land was seized by the Jews.

He also said that terrorism could not be eradicated if the focus was on combating terrorism with weapons without identifying the reasons for terrorism. — Bernama

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And the damnest word he used is “Sabotage”. This is the context for the arrest of the elusive businessman Low Taek Jho.

The Sun Daily story:

Mahathir suspects sabotage is reason why Jho Low evading arrest

Posted on 12 October 2018 – 09:39am
Last updated on 12 October 2018 – 12:57pm

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BALI: Sabotage within the government is among the reasons why it is difficult for Malaysia to pin down and arrest fugitive businessman Low Taek Jho, better known as Jho Low, said Malaysian Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad (pix)>.

He said he believed that was the reason why Jho Low managed to evade arrest.

“I think he is hiding somewhere,” he said when asked if there was sabotage within the government by way of information leakage.

“(Tun) Daim (Zainuddin) says somebody is informing him (Jho Low). One time he was in Hong Kong. When we reached Hong Kong, he had flown away already,” Dr Mahathir told Bernama and RTM at the conclusion of the inaugural Asean Leaders Gathering here Thursday. Daim is the chairman of the five-member Council of Eminent Persons (CEP).

The Asean meeting, held on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, carried the theme ‘Achieving Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and Overcoming Development Gap through Regional and Global Collaborative Actions’.

Malaysia is seeking Jho Low to assist in the 1Malaysia Development Bhd investigation. — Bernama

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All of these happened since June is not without the ‘witch hunting and post Nazi styled culling’, though one of the first few phrases he said upon the euphoria of coming back to power is “We are not seeking revenge”.

One of the considerable laughing stock item of pockets of chin-wags about town is Prime Minister Dr Mahathir announcements and statements manifesting the grave inconsistencies on trade and economic foreign policies, which have Flip-Flopped too many times over in too short of time.

All of these happened is not without Anwar “Mat King Leather” Ibrahim moving steadily meeting each of the HRHs Malay Rulers and His Majesty Tuanku Agong, re-establishing his friendship and network.

Anwar also toured around the region to meet strategic Government and industry leaders.

At the same time, Prime Minister Dr Mahathir is on the continued path of irritating HRH Malay Rulers.

The ultra cold relationship between His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang DiPertuan Agong XV and the Prime Minister is very glaring.

The body language of His Majesty during the official swear in of the Prime Minister VII is abundantly clear that the private relationship between the two is to a level of cold-freeze burn.

The abrupt cancellation of the official birthday celebration of His Majesty Seri Paduka Baginda Yang DiPertuan Agong is the first in this nation’s sixty years history.

It is a very important annual formal event where the relationship of the Crown, his people and the relationship with the rest of the world is demonstrated in the exchanges of wishes and pleasantries.

More the part two of this essay.