I Came,I Saw, I Shall Conquer

Hantu Laut

Veni, vidi, vici or in English I came, I saw, I conquered was what Julius Ceaser told the Roman Senate after his victory at the Battle Of Zela.

I came,I saw,I shall conquer should be the parody for Anwar Ibrahim after his recent visit to Sabah if he can hoodwink the frogs with his bluff.

I have the numbers he says but I am not in a hurry to take over the government. Really?

"I don't think we have established a definite clear time frame when I will take over as prime minister but it certainly wouldn't reach three years" he said to a crowd of benighted Sabahans. Than in complete contrast he said it could be next month, the month after that, it could be in July or it could be during Merdeka... but I think it should not exceed Merdeka day.Than he chose the 16th of September as a date of the highest possibility for the coup to take place.

Anwar Ibrahim is a man always in a hurry and sometimes he trips, stumbles and falls as was the case when he tried to topple Mahathir with his stealthy campaign against the then prime minister. He became very popular with the younger members in UMNO at that time and it was even rumored that many of his supporters wore rings given by him to show their royalty to him, the making of a personality cult. His allegation of trump up charges against him could have been the result of his disloyalty and treachery against his boss who was not yet ready to hand over power to him at that time.

Mahathir is a man who doesn't take kindly to disloyalty and treachery. He had been responsible for the meteoric rise of Anwar in the party hierarchy, at the expense of more senior party stalwarts. He believed Anwar would make a good leader and prime minister until he found out the dark side of Anwar Ibrahim. The man who just couldn't wait his time to get to be prime minister of the nation.

This time he wanted to steal the premiership from Abdullah Badawi, a weaker opponent compared to gutsy Mahathir.

Anwar is back in his element after the minor windfall his party won at the recent polls. His party and his position can only survive politically as long as the coalition with PAS and DAP stays intact.Any discord and dismembering of the coalition could put Anwar back in dire straits and a miss as good as a mile at the coveted title.

The emergence of stronger oppositions at the last elections was more accidental rather than a true reflection of the wishes of the masses. The shift was more due to disillusionment and disdain for Abdullah's weak and incapacitated leadership.

The shift towards Islamisation underwent a major change under his leadership and one of the many reasons for the non-Malays to abandon the BN. His openness had opened the Pandora's box where act of corruptions were nicely locked up before under previous administration.

In trying to compete with PAS Abdullah had fallen victim to radical Muslims in his government.He allowed them free reins in strengthening of the Sharia and its interpretation and brought it into conflicts with other religions. Even Muslims are beginning to wonder and worry where the Islamists in the government are going to take the nation to next. This was done in the hope of keeping the Malay votes with UMNO and away from PAS.The whole exercise of getting the Malays to close rank under UMNO backfired. Internal squabbling in the party, lack of consensus in selection of candidates and sabotage aggravated the situation.

To show what a staunch Muslim and a Malay nationalist he is, Abdullah theatrically took over the role of Imam and led worshippers at mosques when ever there is a need to remind the Malays where their faith and their future lies.

Abdullah's myopic view of the changing political landscape has done extensive erosion of support for other coalition partners in the BN.The Chinese and Indians almost completely abandoned the BN in favour of DAP and PKR. Majority of Malays are still with UMNO and pockets of very disgruntled Malays voted for PAS and PKR in other states with the exception of Kelantan which is its stronghold.

The Malay support for UMNO will continue to erode if Abdullah doesn't change his style of leadership or step down as prime minister.

His recent announcement of making the ACA fully independent is typical of the Badawi's syndrome.Next day he qualifies his previous statement by saying although the Commission would be required to table its annual report to the parliamentary committee, he would be responsible for the Commission. In other word they would still be taking directives from him.

Has he got a kitchen cabinet that advises him to change his statements after having made them or it is just his style ?

What's the point of making such announcement when you are only playing with words thinking
Malaysians are such an ignorant bunch that we can't differentiate between fact and fiction. It makes one wonder when will Abdullah be able to speak in a frank, honest and unambiguous manner.

Has Anwar the numbers or is he pulling the bluff ? I would say a bit of both.

Anwar would have formed the government yesterday if he had enough of those kataks. He probably has a few disgruntled BN MPs shopping around on what he has to offer if they cross over. The number is no where near as many as he made it out to be. Anwar is putting the cat among the pigeons.

Anwar is using psychological warfare to entice those MPs not happy with the BN but were afraid to make a move individually. Without solid proof from Anwar on the number of BN lawmakers that have confirmed to cross over very few will take the risk of leaving the BN and end up in a worse position. In the case of Sabah the state can only benefit if the whole status quo changed completely.

The only way Sabah can benefit from this 'katak' exercise is to ditch the BN completely and all elected assemblymen and members of parliament move to one multi-racial party. It means the end of UMNO in Sabah.

Sabah alone is not enough to form a simple majority for Anwar to grab the trophy.He would need additional number from Sarawak or the whole of Sarawak to follow suit to give him a comfortable majority.

Both Musa Aman and Taib Mahmud are BN loyalists.Would they dare make such a move ? Would they be deserted by their elected representatives in favour of Anwar?

Would Sabah gets the 20% oil loyalty and all the other promises made if Anwar succeeded in forming the central government?

There are many questions but can only be answered if Anwar formed the government.

"It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt." Mark Twain

Latest release: Anwar is now not sure of the numbers.
Sabah MPs joining Pakatan Rakyat only a possibility: Anwar