Why was PPBM deregistered?

Did PPBM sabotage itself on purpose to force the RoS to deregister the party so that Mahathir and PPBM can save face and not have to explain why they cannot win 70-80 parliament seats, which is what should happen if PPBM is supposed to be the backbone of Pakatan Harapan, PPBM’s Chairman is supposed to be Pakatan Harapan’s ‘Calun PM’, and PPBM is supposed to be the mirror-image or duplicate of Umno and the replacement to Umno?

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER 

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Today, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) was officially deregistered by the Registrar of Societies (RoS), as most people had been expecting since the last one month. Both party President and party Deputy President, Muhyiddin Yassin and Mukhriz Mahathir, had publicly announced that they had failed to manage the party properly.

What Muhyiddin and Mukhriz said is PPBM is supposed to be a mirror-image of Umno with branches and divisions and so on but they had failed to set up these branches and divisions and thus ran afoul of their own party constitution and the RoS.

Of course, any novice can understand that. The more important question is: was this merely ‘bad management’ or did Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad get PPBM deregistered on purpose because he knows that PPBM is going to fail and they are not going to win the most number of seats in GE14 compared to DAP and PKR and PPBM may actually be competing with PAN for last place.

RoS Director General Surayati Ibrahim announcing that PPBM has been deregistered

Yes, PPBM is supposed to be the backbone of Pakatan Harapan. PPBM’s Chairman is supposed to be Pakatan Harapan’s Prime Minister-in-waiting or Pakatan Harapan’s ‘Calun PM’. PPBM is supposed to be the mirror-image or duplicate of Umno and the replacement to Umno. That would mean PPBM should win not less than 70 or 80 parliament seats to qualify as the ‘top dog’ of the opposition and the ‘pengganti Umno’.

The issue here is, not only will PPBM not win 70-80 parliament seats in GE14, but PPBM together with DAP, PKR and PAN combined may not win 70-80 seats according to Rafizi Ramli if they cannot trigger a ‘Malay Tsunami’. And Rafizi said, according to INVOKE’s study, Mahathir and PPBM have failed to trigger a ‘Malay Tsunami’.

Three things must be noted here. First is that Pakatan Harapan needs Mahathir and PPBM merely to trigger a ‘Malay Tsunami’. Secondly, Mahathir and PPBM have failed to do that. Finally, if Mahathir and PPBM have failed to trigger a ‘Malay Tsunami’, then why the need for PPBM? Might as well close it down.

Mahathir knows that PPBM is worth more dead than alive

And that brings us back to the earlier question. And that question is: did PPBM sabotage itself on purpose to force the RoS to deregister the party so that Mahathir and PPBM can save face and not have to explain why they cannot win 70-80 parliament seats, which is what should happen if PPBM is supposed to be the backbone of Pakatan Harapan, PPBM’s Chairman is supposed to be Pakatan Harapan’s ‘Calun PM’, and PPBM is supposed to be the mirror-image or duplicate of Umno and the replacement to Umno?

To understand what is happening today you need to go back 30 years to 1988. In 1988, the RoS told Umno to hold an EGM and hold the party election again because the 1987 AGM and party election was defective due to ‘illegal’ candidates attending the meeting. That was all the RoS asked: hold the meeting again (like in the case of DAP in December 2012).

Mahathir, however, asked the RoS to deregister Umno, which the RoS said is not necessary. Kamaruddin Jaafar, Deputy Prime Minister Tun Ghafar Baba’s Political Secretary, lamented that the RoS did not want to deregister Umno and that it was Mahathir who wanted Umno deregistered so that he can kick out Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah and his entire Team B. Mahathir then formed Umno Baru and blocked Razaleigh and gang from joining Umno Baru.

Mahathir forced the RoS to deregister Umno in 1988 to avoid defeat at the hands of Tengku Razaleigh

Why did Mahathir rather close down Umno than hold an EGM and party re-election? That is because if they hold a new party election then Mahathir was going to lose and in 1988 Razaleigh would have been Malaysia’s Fifth Prime Minister. The only way Mahathir can remain Prime Minister would be to close down Umno and set up a new party minus Razaleigh and his Team B gang.

This has always been Mahathir’s modus operandi. When he cannot win, he sets up a new party. In 1988, it was Umno Baru. In 2016, it was PPBM. And when PPBM cannot succeed, he closes it down like he closed down Umno in 1988 when he knew that Razaleigh was going to win the party leadership if Umno holds an EGM and party re-election. And, just like in 1988, he forces the hand of the RoS to close down the party so that PPBM can play the victim and the RoS will be seen as the unjust villain.