It's clear that Umno and Dr Mahathir Mohamad are desperate. Mahathir is desperate to remove Abdullah from office, Abdullah is desperate to remain in power. And Barisan Nasional, post- March 8, 2008 is desperate to remain relevant. Now, desperate people usually will resort to desperate measures. Allow me to explain:

a. Umno: The desperate measures they are applying right now is by playing up the Malay rights and supremacy issue again and again such as attempting to indict Karpal Singh for alleged slander against the Sultan of Perak and many more.

These series of actions by Umno clearly indicate the desperate measures taken by Umno to maintain their Malay ground since Umno only managed to hold on to power thanks to the Malay votes. A fast eradication of the Malay ground will render Umno useless and irrelevant.

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is clearly desperate to remain as PM and president of Umno. He, too, is applying desperate measures. In my opinion, the entire ‘judicial reform’ and Lingam videotape probe was undertaken to vilify Mahathir and thus destroy Dr M’s credibility beyond repair. It's a fact that Mahathir is the only Umno figure that is credible enough to move the Umno masses towards removing Abdullah from the PM’s position.

Mahathir? He's desperate too. His most recent action by quitting Umno is a sign of desperation. There are major factors pointing towards Mahathir's desperation. One is that the Lingam Tape royal commission report will eventually led to his indictment and most probably his conviction. Mahathir might be sent to the same cell that Anwar Ibrahim was sent before.

He is desperate to remove Abdullah for good before anything happens to him. Pak Lah's decision to hold the Umno election at the end of December actually allows Mahathir enough time to act. The intended scenario is for Pak Lah is to face the Umno elections with Mahathir either incarcerated or having lost all his credibility making him uninfluential among Umno members.

Therefore, Mahathir quitting Umno is a last ditch, desperate move to corner Pak Lah and probably force Pak Lah not to arrest him on any charge.

What do we need to do now? Pakatan Rakyat must not be distracted by these recent events. Pakatan Rakyat must be focused on one thing - the eradication of Umno/BN. As long as Umno and BN still control the federal government, they are still dangerous and they are still able to mount an effective counter-attack.

Please remember, they still control the SPR, the police, the army, the Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara, the media, the Treasury and the judiciary. In short, they still have machinery, money and media flow of information). They are still able to communicate to the majority of the public. They can still meddle, lie and cheat via a rigged election process. They can still rely on the courts to nullify results which they don't like.

They can still rely on the police to cheat in the elections. They can still rely on the army to provide ‘postal votes’ that can change a lot of the results. They can rely on Jabatan Pendaftaran Negara to provide them with ‘phantom voters’. The media they control can create distrust among the people against Pakatan Rakyat.

What am I suggesting? There are the few steps that I would recommend Pakatan Rakyat to do given the circumstances. Pakatan Rakyat needs to connect with the people even more. They need to project themselves as a better option to the current Barisan Nasional.

They need to show that they represent the interest of the Malays, Chinese and Indians and they can do a much better job then BN. They must show that they are more committed towards the eradication of corruption and abuse of power

Pakatan Rakyat must be seen to be more committed towards eradicating draconian laws and measures which BN usually relies upon. Pakatan Rakyat must avoid touching on sensitive issues such as the Malay rights, the status of the sultan, the position of Islam and the NEP.

Pakatan Rakyat must continue to expose Barisan Nasional’s corrupt practices. For instance, when it comes to Malay rights, we must tell the Malays that so far, Malay special rights are only enjoyed by the Umnoputeras and not the majority of the Malays. The same with the NEP.

In short, whether it's Malay rights or the NEP, it's actually a smokescreen to make certain individuals rich or richer while leaving the majority of the Malays in the ditch.

Also, the Chinese need to be informed that Chinese businessmen are also party to NEP abuse since they are the ones usually working with the Umno elites for a piece of the NEP pie. The majority of the Chinese on the other hand have to strive and suffer just to have a basic life.

In short, at the end of the day, it's always the small but connected minority that benefits from all these BN programmes leaving most of us out in the cold to suffer.

Umno, MIC or MCA (even Gerakan) reminds me of the movie ‘Pirates of the Carribean’ in which each party is akin to a pirate ship that seems to be at odds with each other but can seem to work with each other when they have a common interest to pursue or a common target to plunder.

Pakatan Rakyat must never be distracted by this ‘Battle of the Pirates’. At the end of the day, no matter who wins - Mahathir, Pak Lah, Nijhar, Ong Ka Ting, Samy Vellu, - they're all still pirates.

The only option now is to replace these pirates with a clean and better government that cares for the people. Not a government that's bent on robbing the people.