'Change government' Zahid fires epic shot at Hajiji & Anwar: Battle lines drawn with Bung-Shafie win seen
Written by Wong Choon Mei, PoliticsNow Malaysia
KUALA LUMPUR (politicsnowmy.blogspot.com) - A call to "change government", dropped rather deliberately even if cloaked in jest, by Umno president Zahid Hamidi in the federal Parliament has caught Sabah chief minister Hajiji Noor and his men on the raw.
Already smarting from a series of video clips that allegedly showed Hajiji and eight of his lawmakers greedily discussing bribes with a contractor, it was not surprising that his coalition rushed to rebuke Zahid, who is also Malaysia's deputy prime minister.
“Zahid’s reaction smacks of arrogance and double standards,” Joniston Bangkuai, the information chief of Hajiji's GRS coalition, was reported as saying.
“Umno and BN were in power in Sabah from 1994 to 2018. It would be interesting to know what Zahid and his party did to address this migration when they were in power then," Joniston raged on.
ZAHID SENDING HAJIJI & ANWAR A SIGNAL?
Tongue-in-cheek or not, Zahid had said that one way to reduce the migration of Sabahans to the peninsula would be through a "change in government". He was addressing the chronic issue of Sabahans migrating from their semi-rural East Malaysian state into the cities of the peninsula, where facilities are more advanced and jobs more plentiful.
"Zahid is a seasoned politician. He won't simply use words like 'change government' unless he wants to send a message to Hajiji, GRS and perhaps also Anwar," a political analyst told PoliticsNow Malaysia.
Indeed, Zahid appears to be teasing a drawing of battle lines ahead of the Sabah state election next year. Hajiji currently controls 56 of the 79 seats in his state legislative assembly but while the majority appears daunting on paper, almost all things can change in an instant in Sabah's roller-coaster, money-is-king political scene.
Many believe the contractor behind the video clips not only wanted to blow the whistle on the Hajiji group for reneging on their word to award him a project - but also suspect that he was approached by Sabah Umno agents to hype up the scandal, taking it all the way to the King's doorstep and as such making it impossible for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim to ignore.
"Make no mistake. The recordings seem to be genuine even if GRS claims they are AI-generated deep fakes. The voter backlash will be severe and there is talk of getting Anwar to pressure Hajiji and the eight reps to step down," said the analyst.
"Hajiji has no soldiers. Only the Kadazan Dusun Murut parties in the GRS have grassroots support. In the 2023 coup attempt led by Sabah Umno and Warisan, Hajiji clung on because Anwar supported him. The talk was that Anwar feared the rise of Warisan's Shafie and pushed Zahid to help him split up Bung and Shafie," the analyst continued.
He was referring to Bung Moktar, who heads the Sabah chapter of Umno and Shafie Apdal, the leader of Warisan and a former Sabah chief minister. Shafie lost the post to Hajiji, who swept to power in the 2020 state election.
DNAA ALREADY IN HAND, ZAHID NEEDS SABAH UMNO MORE THAN HE NEEDS ANWAR?
However, the wheel of fortune may have again turned to Bung and Shafie's favour. Given the blatant corruption captured on the video recordings, fear of voter disgust may push the parties in Hajiji's GRS coalition to ditch him.
Zahid, who already got what he needed from Anwar after government prosecutors withdrew all 47 corruption charges against him in September 2023, may not be so willing to 'sacrifice' his party's Sabah chapter as before.
"These days with Umno stabilizing in the peninsula, Zahid will need Sabah Umno to be strong as they used to be in the past if he and Umno are to survive in the federal government general election in 2027. Otherwise, they will be boxed in by Anwar and they are starting to find out he can be even more ruthless than they are when it comes to hanging onto the PM's post," said the analyst.
BIG WIN SEEN FOR BUNG & SHAFIE IN 2025 SABAH POLLS
Indeed, there are a growing number of Sabah watchers who predict a Sabah Umno and Warisan victory next year.
Bets are also on that Anwar will have no choice but to dump Hajiji after the whistleblower penned an open letter to the King, seeking royal help to get protection from the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission in exchange for the tell-all videos.
Inexplicably or perhaps tellingly, the MACC - which has been accused of being Anwar's lapdog - had refused and even more bizarrely, Anwar had backed them despite the public outrage at what is seen as his refusal to go after the corrupt so as to protect his own political interests.
"The fact that the whistleblower has resorted to begging the King Sultan Ibrahim for protection is sending the wrong message that PM Anwar was not only lame and weak, but also cannot be trusted in fighting corruption," wrote political website Finance Twitter in a report..
"The whistleblower has a valid reason to demand for protection. After the gruesome murder of Deputy Public Prosecutor Anthony Kevin Morais in 2015 for leaking information about 1MDB subsidiary SRC International, the whistleblower too can suddenly go missing," said the report.
ANWAR'S 'GRAND PLAN' TO SPLIT UMNO & WARISAN WON'T WORK THIS TIME?
The 67-year old Shafie Apdal was a long-time federal government minister before getting sacked along with Muhyiddin Yassin by previous Umno president Najib Razak for questioning his 1MDB corruption debacle.
Shafie formed his own Warisan party and stunningly won the state election in 2018, dislodging the seemingly invincible Sabah Umno which had ruled the state for more than two decades. The charismatic Shafie also harbors federal government ambitions and has been touted as a prime minister candidate, and as such is likely to be on Anwar's blacklist.
Muhyiddin, who formed the Bersatu party, managed to become prime minister before Anwar but the PN bloc that he leads failed to form the government in the 2022 general election that swept Anwar to power.
The parties that form the GRS coalition are GAGASAN, PBS, SAPP, PCS, STAR, PHRS, LDP and USNO. While the GRS has a commanding hold on the Sabah state government, it only holds six seats in the federal government.
"The only way for Hajiji to win is to split Sabah Umno and Warisan. That chimes in exactly with Anwar's grand plan to divide and keep the PM's post conquered so to speak. But Hajiji is now under tremendous pressure from his own coalition parties to step down," said the analyst.
"I believe Anwar's operators have no choice but to try and broker new deals with Shafie and Bung. Hajiji and his group of 8 look like history and Anwar may have to use the MACC to tell them that if they don't let go willingly. But again, all this melodrama is not for the Sabah people's sake. It's not about protecting Sabahans from corrupt leaders. In fact, it's just more corruption to preserve power and position, protect self interest and political survival."
Written by Wong Choon Mei, PoliticsNow Malaysia
https://politicsnowmy.blogspot.com/
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