The Reason PAS Is Being Targeted For Assassination

Raja Petra Kamarudin

The reason PAS is being targeted for assassination is simple. To kill Perikatan Nasional, you need to turn Umno, PAS and Bersatu against one another.

Umno, PAS and Bersatu must fight one another in the Malay heartland in three-corner contests — and not united under one banner — so that the anti-Pakatan Harapan votes (or the Perikatan Nasional votes) are split three ways.

And that would mean Pakatan Harapan will be able to win those seats even with less than 50% of the votes (since the Perikatan Nasional votes are split three ways).

The bottom line is simple: a united Perikatan Nasional (with Umno, PAS and Bersatu contesting under one banner) would mean Pakatan Harapan has very little chance of winning GE15. A straight fight between Pakatan Harapan and Perikatan Nasional would mean Perikatan Nasional will win the general election. That is the long and short of it all.

Lim Guan Eng more or less admitted this when he said Pakatan Harapan is going to win GE15 because the Malay support for Pakatan Harapan has increased 15% since GE14. In other words, if the Malay support for Pakatan Harapan does not increase, then they cannot win GE15.

The non-Malay support for Pakatan Harapan has already reached the maximum level. Even MCA admits so. Hence there is no more room to grow. If Pakatan Harapan wants to see any further increase in votes, then it must come from the Malay voters. That is the reality.

But this will not happen if Umno, PAS and Bersatu agree on a straight fight against Pakatan Harapan. It can only happen if Umno, PAS and Bersatu engage Pakatan Harapan in three or four-corner fights, or more.

No doubt, the issues, which some Umno people are raising against Bersatu (and even against PAS), sound genuine. Yesterday, they even raised the issue of Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin going to Saudi Arabia without including PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang in his entourage (and they say, hence there is no longer any reason for PAS to continue supporting Muhyiddin and Bersatu).

But all that is mere window-dressing. Those are just smokescreens to hide the real issue. The real issue is the political warlords are fighting over who should be the boss. And everyone has the impression that he is God’s chosen one or God’s gift to humankind.

I think everyone needs to go back to basics. We have terlajak so far that we no longer remember why in the first place Umno, PAS and Bersatu got married. Today, everything revolves around personal issues and it is no longer about the rakyat. Where do the rakyat fit in to this internal war between all the parties in Perikatan Nasional?

Pakatan Harapan says it is all about the rakyat’s mandate. That is like saying the United States bombs countries in the Middle East to defend democracy, civil liberties and human rights. How can millions of women and children dying and suffering as refugees serve democracy, civil liberties and human rights?

America attacks other countries because they want to dominate the world and for no other reason. And politicians quarrel because they want power and for no other reason. The rakyat, democracy, civil liberties, human rights, justice, and so on, have absolutely nothing to do with it.