Muhyiddin is a day late and a dollar short

 

“If you want to test a man’s character, give him power.”

The character of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has been tested.

To paraphrase the quote from ‘Knight’s Tale’: He has been weighed, he has been measured, and he has been found wanting.

I can base this view on one factor, and one factor alone - the abysmal mismanagement of the Covid-19 pandemic.

I believe had the PM done a better job and listened to experts, thousands upon thousands of Malaysian lives could have been saved.

For one and a half years, this PM was tested - “clothed with immense power”, such as is afforded by the overcentralisation of power in the person of the PM of Malaysia.

There were a great many things he could have done in these 18 months - a great many reforms that could have been pursued.

Not once in all that time did he ever mention a two-term limit for PMs.

Not once in all that time did he ever mention an anti-hopping law.

Not once in all that time did he ever seem serious about implementing Undi18.

And now, when he has clearly admitted losing his majority in Parliament, this is suddenly the song he sings?

Only a fool would mistake this for sincerity.

And only a greater fool would trust such an offer.

This is not the first time an outgoing PM flailed around desperately trying to cling to power.

After Dr Mahathir Mohamad realised that he had massively overplayed his hand in 2018, and the realisation that his ship was going down slowly started to sink in, he too started spouting grandiose ideas about a ‘unity government’.

No one paid him the least bit attention; and no one is going to pay Muhyiddin any attention now.

Too big a trust deficit

In politics, words mean nothing, and credibility means everything.

I will be the first to admit, not everything Muhyiddin put on the table was bad.

Many of these things were exactly what civil society had been pushing for years, decades even in some cases.

But if a shady guy comes around selling you gold watches hanging from the inside of his trench coat for cheap, what kind of idiot jumps to buy them without asking where those watches came from?

It doesn’t matter how good the quality of the watches is, if they are stolen goods. And it doesn’t matter how sweet someone’s promises are, if nobody trusts the person making them.

There may have been a time where Muhyiddin’s word was worth something. I can guarantee you though, that August 2021 is not said time.

Not after 12,000 avoidable Covid-19 deaths. Not after the backstabbing of February 2020. People do not forget.

Then, of course, there is the issue of what some MPs have called bribery, live on national television.

I think if MPs took Muhyiddin up on his offer now, voters would forever remember them as ‘makan dedak’. Those MPs too would lose all their credibility and be seen as people who would sell their principles for mere crumbs.

I am no stranger to the world of spin-doctoring.

Obviously, this offer is designed in part to make MPs ‘look bad’ should they reject these ‘make Malaysia better’ offers.

Long story short though, it’s quite clear to see that the MPs will look even worse if they appear to have been ‘bought’ by trinkets and promises that lack any semblance of credibility.

Perhaps the one, single thing that I personally felt would have made Muhyiddin’s offer worth considering is to hand over full and complete decision-making power on Covid-19 matters (especially on public health, the economy, and education) directly to public policy experts and professionals.

He never even mentioned anything even remotely related.

What next?

As has been pointed out ad nauseam by now, Muhyiddin has all but flat out admitted that he no longer commands the majority.

That flimsy thread on which he is desperately clinging to is the fact that the MPs who oppose him cannot unite around a single candidate.

I have considerable sympathy for Malaysians who feel that if the opposition still cannot achieve this goal, then perhaps they too do not deserve to govern.

I have written before about how compromise candidates should be considered. Practically any half-suitable MP whose name is not Muhyiddin Yassin, Anwar Ibrahim, Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Hishammuddin Hussein, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Najib Abdul Razak, Mahathir Mohamad, Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah or Azmin Ali can be considered.

People like Khairy Jamaluddin, Maszlee Malik, Dzulkefly Ahmad, Azalina Othman Said, and so on are extremely low down the list of names that would normally be considered for prime minister. But perhaps that is exactly why they should be considered - interim compromise candidates with minimal baggage or connections to the helplessly stalemated, decaying old guard.

Even if the opposition still really cannot meet the extremely low bar of expectations and produce a single candidate, I do not believe Muhyiddin should be allowed to carry on. Same simple reason: 12,000 Covid-19 deaths.

In this case, as I have written before, we should look into a ruling body like the National Operations Council (Mageran) to break the deadlock. If truly necessary, elected representatives can sit on the council; but the council should be led and driven by public health experts until the Covid-19 pandemic is truly under control.

In fact, MPs should be given a deadline to resolve their differences and decide on a prime minister, or find their right to do so forfeit, and the cabinet replaced by such a Mageran-like body.

An opposing view: Is Muhyiddin offering olive branch or poisoned chalice?

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NATHANIEL TAN would like to thank Gurpreet Singh and Teoh Jia Chern for saving his life. Email: nat@engage.my. #BangsaMalaysia #NextGenDemocracy. - Mkini

✍ Credit given to the original owner of this post : ☕ Malaysians Must Know the TRUTH

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