In dire need of swats and repellent

In the first place, if Anwar is such a popular and accomplished leader and that his name is already preordained in the manifest of Malaysian PMs, why need Dr Mahathir for it especially when the post is not for him to pass down.

(The Malaysian Reserve) – FOR a political party condescendingly described as a mosquito party, the attention it gets, or at least its chairman, seems to point to the contrary. 

Indeed, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air and its chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad continues to be targeted despite the rout it suffered in the recent Johor polls that led to the “mosquito party” label from a DAP token. 

It is actually not surprising though, for Dr Mahathir, and Pejuang by extension, to continue getting much flak as they are convenient targets for the other parties to apportion blame for their own failures. 

In fact, reading and listening to the whining, bleating, wailing and moaning, that are interspersed with racist taunts and expletives, of supporters of the other parties whenever Dr Mahathir and Pejuang make news, these parties sound like they are actually made up of mosquitoes, droning on and on about their parties’ woes and the pathetic mess they’re in. 

Chief among the complaints is that Dr Mahathir had betrayed PKR’s president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim by not handing over the prime minister’s (PM) post to the latter before the former decided to resign. His resignation is also being questioned. 

In the first place, if Anwar is such a popular and accomplished leader and that his name is already preordained in the manifest of Malaysian PMs, why need Dr Mahathir for it especially when the post is not for him to pass down. 

It cannot be compared to the time when Dr Mahathir was in Umno/ Barisan Nasional where the party’s grip on the government is near absolute and the issue of the successor not getting the majority support doesn’t arise. 

Dr Mahathir resigned because he believed that he had lost majority support, an act which was demanded of Tan Sri Mahiaddin Md Yassin by PKR supporters when his majority was in question. 

Secondly, lest his supporters accept the fact that Anwar would never have the numbers as it was not only Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia Dr Mahathir’s then political vehicle rejected Anwar’s leadership but a faction of PKR led by its then deputy president Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali. 

The trajectory of the whole episode painted by Anwar’s PKR supporters is that he was victimised and denied of what to them, seemed to be almost his birth-right. 

But they chose to ignore that the derailment of the plans started from within PKR when Anwar decided to openly back Rafizi Ramli when he decided to challenge Mohamed Azmin who was the incumbent PKR deputy president. 

The fact that Rafizi, obviously Anwar’s proxy in the party polls only points towards Anwar’s less than convincing grip on the party, let alone the ruling Pakatan Harapan (PH). 

And if some of the PKR supporters are of quality and not merely pests, they would have been quite aghast with the manner some of Anwar supporters’ blatant attempts to raise issue over Mohamed Azmin’s alleged indiscretions in the sex videos. 

Surely, if for years they had believed that Anwar was a victim of political conspiracies to over accusations of sexual misdemeanours and how cruel it was to his family, they would have opposed those from within who were exploiting Mohamed Azmin’s purported indiscretions. 

After all, Mohamed Azmin was in the forefront and took the brunt for standing up against the sexual accusations levelled at Anwar. 

In other words, that was how dysfunctional PKR was and it seems to continue to be so until today as it suffered defeats after defeats in the Malacca, Sarawak and Johor polls. 

And prior to that, despite several times declaring that he had a strong, formidable and convincing majority, Anwar remains a PM wannabe. 

Anwar and the rest of the PH know that Anwar never had the numbers. After Dr Mahathir resigned, Anwar and PH went for the PM’s post but failed because he didn’t have the majority. 

They then went back to Dr Mahathir and asked him to be their PM candidate, knowing that Anwar would not have the numbers and the only way for PH to return to power is through Dr Mahathir. 

Alas, when they did manage to get the majority, they were denied by the denier. 

Now, Dr Mahathir and PH have parted ways but some of the PH leaders and supporters continue to stumble over each other in trying to pin the blame of their failures on him. 

Unable to move on, they continue to vilify him, not so much because they believe he was at fault but out of frustrations when realising that on their own, they are unable to achieve what they did when Dr Mahathir was with them. 

In fact, since they parted ways with Dr Mahathir, there had been a series of missteps — from not voting against the Mahiaddin’s budget to the signing of the memorandum of understanding with Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government. 

In their impotence, they blame everyone except themselves. Unable to pick themselves up, they accuse others of not offering a helping hand. So, on and on they whine and complain, their toxic buzz reaching a crescendo. 

With that, these pests drown voices of reason.