COMMENT | The last days of the Pakatan Harapan govt

COMMENT | Earlier, on Jan 2, 2020, sensing that the temperature was worryingly high, Lim Kit Siang met PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and expressed DAP’s support for him to be prime minister.

However, Kit Siang also advised him not to push for the May date – two years of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s premiership as the date for handover. There was never an agreement to commit to any date.

Kit Siang, instead, asked Anwar to create conditions for a successful transition after the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit. A smooth transition would ensure that Mahathir’s camp would not feel left out in the government after he leaves.

As January progressed, more and more leading PKR figures beyond the usual suspects of Hassan Karim and Abdullah Sani were pushing for the May transition date.

Those in Mahathir’s camp admitted that they could tolerate Hassan and Abdullah, accepting Anwar’s explanation that he wasn’t able to control them. But when more of Anwar’s close aides came forward to push for the specific date in May, the more ‘evidence’ it gave the plotters to blame Anwar’s putsch, legitimising their ‘counter-coup’ of a Malay-government with 130 MPs.

The air was tense, and one could eerily feel that something would happen. Anwar met Mahathir on Feb 13 and declared that all was good.

We were briefed that Mahathir had not objected to the idea of transition in his meeting with Anwar. I later hosted a lunch for majlis setiausaha on Feb 18 when my old Canberra contemporary, Bersatu’s Mohd Radzi Md Jidin, asked a seemingly innocent question: “Actually, what are the terms of reference of majlis setiausaha?”

Somehow his question lingered on my mind. A presidential council meeting was scheduled at 8.30pm on Feb 21.

In hindsight, we knew that the core leadership of Bersatu was summoned by Muhyiddin Yassin for an emergency meeting in the afternoon, and they were told that Anwar, DAP and Amanah would force Mahathir to resign immediately at the presidential council meeting. But there was never such intention nor plan.

At the meeting proper, Azmin Ali and his staunch supporter Zuraida Kamaruddin argued that Mahathir should serve the full term, an outright break with Anwar which shocked those who were present.

For a moment, the meeting was deadlocked on whether to set a date for transition. Marzuki Yahya, Bersatu’s then secretary-general who was privy to the discussion in the afternoon, told the meeting if it decided to force the hand of Mahathir, Bersatu would react.

Sensing the danger, Anwar quickly interjected and said that he would leave the date of transition to Mahathir.

To Mahathir, he had balanced both sides and confirmed that there would be a transition to Anwar albeit without a date specified. But as the first salvo had already been fired, nothing could hold the forces anymore.

I flew to Johor with Guan Eng the next day, and he remarked that “the clock is ticking”.

Essentially, Muhyiddin had aligned with the Azmin-Hamzah (Zainuddin)-Hishammuddin (Hussein) plotters when they met in London. Plans were hatched, regardless of Mahathir’s inclinations.

The coup was launched in the name of saving Mahathir from Anwar’s threat but in effect, to put in place the 2016 idea of a Muhyiddin-Azmin leadership.

Mahathir probably thought that he could hold back everyone by balancing through ‘making everybody unhappy’.

By February 2020, with Umno’s full number of 39 MPs on board, their plan was to kick out Anwar’s group in PKR, DAP and Amanah. The coup plotters assumed that Shafie Apdal’s Warisan and Mahathir would be supportive, and the new Sheraton coup government would govern with at least 125, if not 130 seats.

Upon failing to hold back Bersatu’s attempt to work with Umno on Feb 23 at the Bersatu central committee meeting, Mahathir resigned on Feb 24 morning and became an interim prime minister.

The Pakatan Harapan cabinet was dismissed in the evening.

On Feb 25, Mahathir informed Anwar, Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and Guan Eng that he would be forming a unity government in which he would choose ministers from all parties, not bound by the leadership of any parties.

Instead, Guan Eng pleaded with him to continue as Harapan’s prime minister and to attend the coalition’s presidential council meeting that evening. He, however, declined.

Anwar informed the council that he had a high chance to secure the votes from Sarawak’s GPS as he was negotiating with them. Also, he claimed that his palace contacts informed him that the palace would likely accept a minority government.

As Mahathir was not interested in becoming Harapan’s prime minister anymore, DAP and Amanah had to back Anwar as prime minister at the palace on Feb 26.

The Johor Harapan government fell the next day. Kit Siang and I were travelling to Johor Bahru from Kuala Lumpur to meet our elected reps.

As we were nearing Yong Peng, Guan Eng called and summoned us to return to Kuala Lumpur, as Dewan Rakyat speaker Mohamad Ariff Yusoff rejected interim prime minister Mahathir’s application to hold a special sitting on March 2 due to the failure to fulfil the august house rules.

Kit Siang joked that even after 55 years in frontline politics, there were still new things that he experienced for the first time just like everyone else.

At 4pm on Feb 28, the palace announced that the results of the signing of statutory declarations in front of the Yang di-Pertuan Agong were not conclusive. The palace would wait for party chiefs to submit their numbers the following day.

Anthony Loke worked very hard to persuade Anwar to meet Mahathir to form a new Harapan government.

Anwar, however, stormed off Mahathir’s house after nearly three hours of negotiations, mostly through intermediaries, apart from the first 20 minutes which saw both men arguing with each other.

Mahathir was seated in the dining room while Anwar and the rest of us in the living room. Mahathir’s daughter Marina, Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman and Loke were in and out between the two rooms.

The final offer was to reinstate the original cabinet with Wan Azizah as deputy prime minister. Anwar was upset and left.

Guan Eng asked Mahathir not to reappoint him as finance minister to give way to Anwar to join the cabinet, but the idea was rejected.

We then returned to Eastin Hotel in Petaling Jaya to meet Anwar to convince him that Muhyiddin would likely become prime minister the next day if we failed to reach a compromise.

We woke Kit Siang up from his nap in his Petaling Jaya home and brought him to the meeting. Anwar has respect for Kit Siang.

As Kit Siang said “let’s live to fight another day!”, Anwar relented and agreed to the proposal of a second Mahathir-Azizah government as a way out.

The last effort by Kit Siang and others failed to save the Harapan government. Muhyiddin was announced as prime minister at 4pm on Feb 29, 2020 - exactly four years after Mahathir quit Umno in 2016 - and he was sworn in on March 1, 2020.

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LIEW CHIN TONG is the author of the book Lim Kit Siang: Patriot. Leader. Fighter. from which the above excerpt is taken from.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.

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