Coup against Najib is unlikely

KOTA KINABALU - Tan Sri Pandikar Hj Amin Mulia, who is expected to continue as Speaker when Parliament  convenes, Monday, does not think there will be any real threat to the mandate that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak obtained in the just-ended 13th general election.

He said talk of a political coup lately being mounted by a "third force" comprising Members of Parliament from both sides of the political divide to enable Umno veteran Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah unseat Najib appears far-fetched.

The talk gained momentum lately following dissatisfaction by Sarawak MPs over Federal Cabinet posts and talk of MACC officials again pursuing investigations into corruption allegations against Sarawak Chief Minister Tan Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud.

"Such a political coup is not likely," he said, when asked on the chances of it happening.

"To be honest, I don't think it can happen because power actually is derived from party politics.

"It will never happen. Razaleigh is not the President of any party. If you want to be a Prime Minister, you've got to be head of a party."

He said based on his experience as the former Speaker, it was also unthinkable if the Opposition were to combine with, say some MPs from Barisan Nasional (BN), not necessarily from Umno but parties from Sarawak and Sabah.

"Then that office would be so weak that it could not do anything at all because all the policies or whatever he has in mind to implement will be at the mercy of political parties.

Simply, he is not the President of any of the political parties," Pandikar reasoned.

Asked if it would be possible then should Razaleigh mount a challenge for the Umno presidency in the party elections later this year, he said:

"With all due respect to Razsaleigh, I think his time is far gone.

I mean his contemporaries in Umno, people like Tun Dr Mahathir and the late Datuk Mohd Rahmat.

"It is the younger generation that now determines who wins and who loses.

If that being the case, what is the difference between Razaleigh and people like Najib and young leaders?"

He also argued that if Razaleigh were to sit there, we could not assume that everybody would be at peace and nobody would say anything like when Dr Mahathir was the Prime Minister.

"You must remember when you have two-thirds, then you can be a strong leader.

And how many would support Razaleigh, anyway? Is he going to have more than 133 from either side or what? If he were to take over, will those Umno boys who are supposed to be in the position, just keep quiet?"

On his own level of preparedness as Speaker for a second term even in the event the opposition Pakatan Rakyat nominate someone else and put the position to vote, he said: "I was unprepared in 2008 (when appointed) in the sense that I didn't know I was going to be the Speaker. I didn't have the experience of Parliamentary kind of style although I was a Minister.

"This time around after being there for five years, I have seen almost everything.

So I don't think it can be any worse than 2008, 2009 and 2010. That you can take it from me because that was the time when the Opposition really thought it would topple the Government with a vote of no confidence.

"Moreover, those days, the MPs didn't know me and I didn't know most of them. But by now, I almost know every person, every constituency."

Pakatan had said it would nominate former Federal Court judge Datuk Abdul Kadir Sulaiman for the job, insisting that Pandikar cannot be deemed to be neutral in view of him still being an Umno member and is seeking a secret ballot on Monday.

On the stronger Opposition (from 82 previously to 89 now), Pandikar did not think there was much difference with the additional seven Opposition MPs.

"These additional members of the august House might not necessarily be the ones that will create all the havoc." Barisan Nasional (BN) won 133 seats against the Opposition's 89 in the 13th General Election.

Asked whether he expected the opposition who boast having secured more popular votes than BN, to be even more aggressive and confrontational as a result, he said: "It can go either way meaning, maybe the new members would not be as aggressive as those in the 12th Malaysian Parliament, that lost in the election.

"Sometimes when pandemonium breaks loose in Parliament, it's due to personalities.

There are some of the personalities in BN before, maybe the source of all this pandemonium in Parliament are now in the Cabinet line-up so they are not able to do what they did before.

"Likewise, the Opposition lost some of their good ones. So maybe the new ones might be those characters that would try to pursue issues in a good way. Perhaps some will try to be good parliamentarians, and I don't think the older ones, the more experienced ones, would be worse than what they did from 2008 to 2013," Pandikar said.

On the new MPs from Sabah, he reckoned that the difference might be in style.

"From the BN side, we have Mary Yap who is a Deputy Education Minister.

I think she will give some good input because of her educational background.

"But believe in me, Parliament is something that once you are there, the feeling is altogether different. You have to have guts," he said.

While some of the "old" parliamentarians were not fielded or had lost in the election, Pandikar noted that those who returned as MPs were known to him for the last five years.

"Some of them I have known before, people like Lim Kit Siang, Anwar, whatever."

On his advice to the new Opposition MPs, he said: "I am sure each of them would like to be a leader in their own right and be remembered.

Of course, there are those who will make it in a big way, some ministers, deputy ministers.

Then if that is the case, behave like one because people will be judging you from your character and what you say in public. All this must be measured.

"But if you want to create an image of yourself that you want to be known for the wrong reason or you want to be an extremist either on the left or right, that is also a choice.

Pandikar, however, thinks that at the end of the day, what matters is the nation "because we have seen what happened in other countries in the name of democracy."

He added: "Thousands of people die and after that, you have to go through turmoil.

Is that what democracy is all about?

"If you have other alternatives, why not? If you can modify democracy, why can't you?

Even religion can be modified, in those days nobody ever thought about same-sex marriage but now almost all over the world. What more politics?"

In Pandikar's opinion, it is not the rakyat that would make the difference, saying it would be between the leaders.

"If the leaders of Malaysia now, from the Opposition or Government, want to sit together and put their political differences aside, what are they supposed to say?

They will say, ya, OK."

He agreed that in other countries like Britain and the US, even though they are adversaries, when they are in the Parliament or Assembly, where there is credit, the Opposition will give credit to the Government of the day.

"That is what you call political maturity. We are not matured. We know how to talk about democracy but we never practise it. When you have political maturity, you will not be thinking of yourself. You will be thinking of the nation."

He said often politicians forget that the nation does not belong to one group or one person or group of leaders. "It belongs to everybody. It needs self-sacrifice. Sometimes, you have political differences with your colleagues but then again, it is not the end of the world.

"These are the things that we don't have in Malaysia. With due respect, if the leaders are also politically immature democratically, what more the followers?"

Pandikar said with additional pressure on Barisan Nasional, they will actually perform better than the last time if they are really serious about changing the perception in the next General Election.

On the Chinese vote swing to the opposition, he said, as far as the Chinese were concerned, they really thought that the Opposition was going to win.

"Who doesn't want to be in the bandwagon? In Sabah, we also only lost the Chinese seats."

Pandikar was also full of praise for former Penampang MP Tan Sri Bernard Dompok who lost in the recent election.

"I have never seen a Minister who was very outspoken when he was in the Federal Cabinet.

He makes an effort like for instance, RCI (Royal Commission of Inquiry on Illegal Immigrants). When it comes to religious issues, Bernard is always there for his people. All the time he said it out.

"Those are things some of the ministers dare not do, but he (Dompok)_ would just say it out.

And after that, they (Penampang voters) just kick him out like that. After what he had contributed.

"From the kind of experience I have seen (in Dompok), it's really a loss," he said.