MUKHRIZ CONCEDES HE LOST THE BID TO MAKE HIMSELF PRIME MINISTER

If Mukhriz thought he still had a chance to become Prime Minister he would never have sued. He cannot sue, and deny that there is an attempt (or failed attempt) to make himself Prime Minister, and then does actually become Prime Minister. Only when he knows he is never going to become Prime Minister would it be justified to sue.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Today, Mukhriz Mahathir sued Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak’s press secretary, Tengku Sariffuddin Tengku Ahmad, (READ HERE) in what many leading lawyers say is probably the worst legal move he could have made. Basically, they doubt Mukhriz can win his court case. And Mukhriz himself probably thinks so as well.

But then winning the court case is not what Mukhriz is seeking at all. This is not about a legal case. It is actually a political move, although not a very clever one at that. Mukhriz knows that his chance of making himself Prime Minister is already zero. So what he is trying to do is to create a smokescreen or diversion and hide his real intention by distancing himself from the whole failed campaign led by his father to make him Prime Minister by making a political denial such a campaign ever existed. In short, the move to sue Tengku Sariffuddin is to mitigate the embarrassment of having failed.

While denying that the intention of his father to oust Najib is so that he can become the Prime Minister, Mukhriz is also denying that his intention to contest a seat in the Umno vice-presidency was to pave the way for his accession to the post of Deputy President and then President, which would give him the post of Deputy Prime Minister and Prime Minister respectively.

If that is not what he seeks then why in the first place did he contest the Umno vice-presidency when everyone in Umno knows that a vice-president’s post is the first step to the deputy presidency and then eventually to the Umno presidency? You do not contest a vice-president’s post for fun, especially as an outsider who does not even hold a supreme council seat, which is unprecedented and which, in itself, is a first in Umno history and something never done before.

It only demonstrates that Mukhriz’s ambition is to be the Vice President, Deputy President and President by 2020. Had it been otherwise he would have taken the customary route of first winning an Umno supreme council seat. You do not from the outside straight away contest an Umno Vice President’s seat.

It is like arguing that you did not get engaged to eventually get married. Then why get engaged? And when the marriage fails to happen you try to save face by saying that there was never any intention to get married although you did get engaged.

Most importantly, while the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) says all they want to do is to oust Najib, they know that once Najib is ousted, if he is ousted, they would need a new Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to take over. And it is evident that when the ANC said they do not want Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to take over, it is because the ANC candidate had always been Muhyiddin Yassin and it is customary that the Deputy takes over from the President and becomes Prime Minister.

Zahid is just one of the Umno Vice Presidents, not the Deputy President. The Deputy President is still Muhyiddin. So, if Najib were ousted, then Umno would appoint its Deputy President to take over. And once Muhyiddin takes over he would appoint his own Deputy, which would be Mukhriz. And had Mukhriz won one of the Vice President’s post it would make it easier to first appoint Mukhriz a senator and then the Deputy Prime Minister.

Mukhriz knows this is what his father wants and he also knows that Muhyiddin would never go against Mahathir’s wishes. Muhyiddin would have no choice but to go along with Mahathir’s game plan as he has always done in the past.

So they want Najib out and they do not want Zahid to take over. So who then are going to take over as the new Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister? This, they refuse to tell us. And we all know why they refuse to tell us — because if they do then they would have to admit that the new Deputy Prime Minister is going to be Mukhriz Mahathir with a ‘Goh Chok Tong’ taking over from Najib.

So this is what the suit is all about — a face-saving exercise. Now that Mukhriz knows he is never going to become the Deputy Prime Minister, let alone the Prime Minister, this is his way, and/or Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s way, of saving face and of covering their embarrassment. Getting removed as the Kedah Menteri Besar is shameful enough. Now, failing to become the Deputy Prime Minister so that he can make himself Prime Minister is a double-blow.

This is what is called an exit strategy. Mukhriz is trying to wash his hands of the whole thing by denying there ever was an attempt to make himself Prime Minister. And, to prove that, he sues whoever says there is. The suit is the ‘evidence’ that no such campaign exists. That is the political implications to this whole thing even if legally it does not make sense.

If Mukhriz thought he still had a chance to become Prime Minister he would never have sued. He cannot sue, and deny that there is an attempt (or failed attempt) to make himself Prime Minister, and then does actually become Prime Minister. Only when he knows he is never going to become Prime Minister would it be justified to sue.

In short, Mukhriz has conceded he is never going to become Prime Minister after all. And instead of facing the embarrassment and carrying the stigma of having failed, he denies any attempt to make himself Prime Minister. And the only way this denial would look credible and to save face would be to sue whoever says there was and whoever says that the attempt had failed.

This is the old strategy that I prove it is false by suing and if it were true would I sue? That is how politics is played. You create a perception and Mukhiz’s game of perception is to sue as a smokescreen or diversion to cover his most embarrassing failures. Hence not suing is not an option. There is no other way to mitigate the shame.