The recent announcement by Muafakat Nasional (UMNO & PAS- MN hereafter) to support Muhyiddin as Prime Minister for the coming elections sent shock waves through the political gossip and punditry circles.

Within days however, the response from UMNO warlords drowned everything out. What started off as hairline cracks are now real fractures, especially after Annuar Musa’s pronouncement of UMNO’s defence of incumbent and traditional UMNO seats; directly antagonising BERSATU without mincing words. The focus should no longer be just on the BERSATU–MN split, but also the split within UMNO.

Such conflicts we see aren’ t just signalling errors but significant splits within UMNO. The conflict of interests, contestation of power between UMNO factions are disintegrating UMNO from within.

Majority of UMNO ministers are working over time to stay in office, with a sideshow of plotting a return to UMNO dominance. Najib and Zahid are working together, combining their accumulated ‘cash is King’ potency to return themselves to the seat of absolute power. Hishamuddin’s group is fighting for survival, and Mat Hassan and crew are also scheming and screaming to further their own agenda too.

As always, UMNO’s story would only be half told if there’s no internal tussle. Each camp has their own trajectory and end game. It is so bad that the destruction of BERSATU is rendered second fiddle at best; worse still insignificant and irrelevant in UMNO’s scheme of things.

Has MN abandoned their open secret plan to wipe out BERSATU? Why not eek out what’s left of this mandate? Why not siphon whatever resources required and be done with BERSATU? Why not swiftly complete whatever preparations necessary for snap polls and return the crown jewel to ‘the rightful hands, ergo UMNO?

BERSATU wipe out still under way

Rest assured, the plan to wipe out BERSATU is very much still in motion. But this curveball of pledging allegiance to Muhyiddin to project the optics of unity among all Malay parties is nothing more than a smokescreen for both the Malay middle ground fencesitters, as well as to lead Muhyiddin down a garden path.

Ironically UMNO’s hesitance to outrightly strong arm its way back to absolute power is stifled by the very narrative they have used to cobble together the unholy matrimony of Perikatan Nasional.

UMNO is of the view that they cannot be seen as the party that breaks this longed for and long fought for, now realised Malay Unity. If UMNO goes all out on a warpath with BERSATU, they may antagonise those who see some merit in this faux-unity.

But how is MN going to back peddle, U-turn, or out right sever ties with BERSATU without antagonising the all important middle ground they sorely need to retake Putrajaya?

The chest thumping, snidey posturing seen from Puad Zarkasi, Tengku Razaleigh, Lokman Adam, Nazri Aziz, Mat Hassan and many more UMNO warlords are the seeds of discontent planted now, that will be nurtured into a narrative of betrayal.

It will be a narrative of BERSATU asking for more than their worth, BERSATU getting more than their fair share, eventually BERSATU betraying the struggle for Agama, Bangsa dan Negara.

It will also likely be a meticulously choreographed and orchestrated policy and ideological contradiction between MN and BERSATU that will emerge out of no-where, that would seemingly render the relationship no longer tenable.

When the story is painted with enough cracks between MN and BERSATU, and the groundswell of Malay discontent towards BERSATU hits it’s boiling point, UMNO will go for the killer blow of severing ties.

They may perhaps ‘sedekah’ a handful of seats to BERSATU just to demonstrate mercy and compassion, but it will be nothing more than for show. Or an olive branch in the form of an invitation to rejoin UMNO will be extended; in fact overtures to that tune has already started being broadcasted.

One might wonder how is MN going to get the propaganda out there to serve their cause. The Minister for information and Multimedia is a proven ‘versatile and flexible’ operator when it comes to allegiance. He will have no problems with being co-opted back into the corridors of power; of course in exchange for his cooperation even against his ‘leader’ Azmin Ali- who will surely be soiled goods thrown under the bus by then.

Something wicked this way comes

Whether he knows it and is in denial, or is busy counterplotting; or he is intoxicated enough by the spoils of power to the point where he is oblivious of the quake that is happening under his feet, all in all, all is not well in Muhyiddin’s house of Hibiscus.

As for those who are helplessly and hopelessly wishing for the demise of the current backdoor government and perhaps a return to the people’s mandate given in 2018; Perikatan Nasional may look strong and steady, but they are imploding violently below the surface as we speak.

For Muhyiddin, one thing is for sure- Something wicked this way comes.

Howard Lee Chuan How

DAPSY NATIONAL CHIEF & SA FOR PASIR PINJI