WHEN YOU PUT A MORON IN CHARGE OF 1 MILLION SIGNATURES

With all those advantages this exercise should have been a walk in the park. However, the whole thing failed because Mahathir made the mistake of putting a moron in charge. And this moron bungled big-time. And the Statutory Declaration with all the attachments (which you can see below) is testimony of the very old saying: “never ask a boy to do a man’s job” or “put a moron in charge and the result becomes moronic”.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

It seems the de facto Opposition Leader, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, is pissed off big-time with his so-called political strategist, Syed Akbar Ali, on bungling the 1 million Citizens’ Declaration signatures. Syed Akbar has just proven that he qualifies to be honoured with a place in the hall of fame as the perfect moron.

Syed Akbar was the same person who came up with the idea of using the 1MDB issue to bring down Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak. Syed Akbar informed Mahathir that RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money had disappeared into thin air and Mahathir believed it. That was why Mahathir adopted that mantra “RM42 billion has disappeared into thin air” and sang that song the length and breadth of Malaysia.

Even ex-Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin believed this and when he found out later that it was not true he backtracked and tried to save face by saying that whatever he knows he found out from reading The Edge, although this matter had been discussed at the Cabinet meetings, one such meeting that Muhyiddin himself chaired.

Can you imagine Muhyiddin wants to become the next Prime Minister and he needs to read the newspapers to find out what is happening in the country and he does not even realise that all these matters were discussed in the Cabinet meetings that he not only attended but also chaired.

The main error of judgement that Syed Akbar made was that he promised Mahathir he could get 1 million signatures so the old man announced this. They should have just said they were going to get Malaysians to sign the Citizens’ Declaration and not put a target or figure to that petition.

But then Syed Akbar promised Mahathir 1 million signatures and Mahathir, believing this, announced that figure, just like he stupidly announced that RM42 billion of 1MDB’s money had disappeared into thin air based on what Syed Akbar told him.

Actually 1 million signatures is an unrealistic target and an impossible feat to accomplish. It is just like the new Manchester United manager appointed just yesterday announcing that they are going to win this weekend’s match by 50 goals. That is absolutely impossible and it would have been better to just announce that they expect to win the match and leave the number of goals unstated.

Anyway, they had already announced 1 million signatures so when they could not get the 1 million signatures as announced they needed to resort to fraud to make up that huge difference.

Mahathir has all the money in the world. He is holding on to RM100 billion of Umno’s money and has set aside a budget of RM2 billion for the ANC (Anti-Najib Campaign) to oust Najib. Due to his 22 years as Prime Minister he has built up an impressive network of contacts.

With all those advantages this exercise should have been a walk in the park. However, the whole thing failed because Mahathir made the mistake of putting a moron in charge. And this moron bungled big-time. And the Statutory Declaration with all the attachments (which you can see below) is testimony of the very old saying: “never ask a boy to do a man’s job” or “put a moron in charge and the result becomes moronic”.