Will Dr Mahathir bend a knee to Anwar?
The Opposition’s fight over who’s the best candidate for Prime Minister goes ever on, with nobody willing to compromise, it seems.
“I WILL fight for you. I will fight for the North. When you bend the knee,” Daenerys Targaryen, the Dragon Queen, told Jon Snow, the King in the North, in an episode of Game Of Thrones.
“My people won’t accept a southern ruler. Not after everything they’ve suffered,” he replied, refusing to bend a knee.
This week, PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim refused to bend a knee to sacked Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. The Port Dickson MP also did not submit to DAP, Amanah, Parti Warisan Sabah and Team Mahathir’s pressure for him to recognise the Langkawi MP as the Opposition’s PM-in-waiting.
Basically, Anwar told Dr Mahathir: “PKR won’t accept a Bersatu ruler. Not after everything they’ve suffered (to paraphrase Daenerys).”
Anwar suffered when Dr Mahathir undermined him by appointing his then PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali as Economic Affairs Minister and planting the ambition to become PM in his mind. And, arguably, Dr Mahathir did not honour the Pakatan Harapan agreement for him to hand over the Prime Minister post to Anwar after two years in power.
The PKR president has bent his knee to the former Bersatu chairman several times. The latest was on Feb 29 when Anwar agreed that Dr Mahathir could replace him as the coalition’s pick as Prime Minister candidate against Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
After Dr Mahathir toppled the Pakatan government by quitting as Prime Minister on Feb 24, Pakatan is now plotting to bring down the Perikatan Nasional government.
However, the two leaders could not bend a knee to who should be Prime Minister.
The fourth PM and seventh PM desires to be ninth PM. After failing to be fifth and eighth PM, Anwar dreams of being ninth PM.
Anwar’s supporters are adamant that it is time for Dr Mahathir to bend the knee to Anwar.
But the two parties in Pakatan don’t think so. DAP and Amanah ditched the president of PKR, which is their coalition partner. They are supporting Dr Mahathir for PM and Anwar as the deputy PM.
(If this happens, history is repeating itself as Anwar was Dr Mahathir’s DPM from 1993 to 1998 when Barisan Nasional was in power.)
Many are puzzled why DAP is supporting Dr Mahathir. Has DAP forgotten that when Dr Mahathir was seventh Prime Minister, two of its assemblymen were jailed for alleged Liberation Tigers of Tamil Ealam activities? Then there was the refusal to close down the Lynas plant in Kuantan, which one of Pakatan’s GE14 promises. And DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang was heckled by Chinese voters in his Iskandar
Puteri constituency last year over the khat issue, precipitated by a Dr M-appointed minister.
So far, the only DAP leader who has publicly stated that he remembers all this is Sungai Pelek assemblyman Ronnie Liu.
“Dr Mahathir may go back to his old ways and Anwar, as the deputy prime minister, will find it difficult to stop him. Pakatan will then lose all its credibility as a political coalition,” wrote Liu, on his Facebook page on Wednesday – he’s been a consistent critic of Dr Mahathir through his fourth and seventh terms.
However, Liu’s party seems to be confident that there are ways to guarantee that Dr Mahathir will step down within a stipulated period should he become Prime Minister. DAP organising secretary
Anthony Loke declared that if Dr Mahathir did not hand over the PM post after six months in power, a Pakatan component party could pull out from the government, forcing GE15.
Perhaps DAP is afraid of the fate that befell Lord Randyll Tarly and his son, Dickon, who refused to betray Cersei Lannister, Queen of the Seven Kingdoms.
“I offer you a choice: bend the knee and join me. Together we will leave the world a better place than we found it. Or refuse ... and die,” Daenerys threatened just before ordering Drogon, one of her three dragons, to burn them alive.
I doubt Dr Mahathir keeps dragons as pets, though.
Or maybe it is because DAP wants to be the Hand of the crown, which in Game Of Thrones is the second most powerful position.
Malaysia should “break the wheel”, as Daenerys says. The Dragon Queen compares power struggles to a spinning wheel that rotates power among noble houses and crushes the common people under its weight.
“Lannister, Targaryen, Baratheon, Stark, Tyrell – they’re all just spokes on a wheel. This one’s on top, then that one’s on top, and on and on it spins, crushing those on the ground. I’m not going to stop the wheel. I’m going to break the wheel,” she promises.
Perhaps Opposition leaders should nominate a Prime Minister candidate who is neither from House Dr Mahathir nor House Anwar. They should stop saving noble houses if they want to save Malaysia.