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By Niza Shimi
When people get old, they just love to retell stories many times. It’s like an overfull dam that needs to let some memories spill or the old folks will go bust, so to speak. So young folks will patiently humour them, right? Other old folks like me will just get more puzzled because their memory banks are overfull too.
That’s what it seems like when Pakatan Harapan chairman Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said he knew about the Sheraton Move six months earlier (New Straits Times (NST) September 29, 2022). That means he knew way back in August 2020.
The Sheraton Move happened in February 2021. (Details in The Edge Markets March 20, 2021)
But his knowing about the Sheraton Moves has to be put in his context. According to the NST report, Anwar said "Their aim was to stop Anwar at all cost (to become Prime Minister)."
However, in the final PH meeting before their government collapsed, according to the NST report, Anwar voluntarily asked Mahathir to stay on as prime minister for as long as he pleased. How magnanimous of him.
Considering that there was a time when Anwar was himself was playing the numbers game back in September 2020 (NST September 23, 2020). This news was widely reported in the international media. It didn't happen and the media lost steam on reporting it after that.
Anwar had planned to present the numbers to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong first. "For your information, I was granted an audience with the Agong on Tuesday at 11am but it was postponed since the Agong is currently being treated at the IJN.”
Anwar claimed that he has obtained the support of "close to" two-thirds majority in the Dewan Rakyat, which include MPs currently part of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government.
But history would have it that the Anwar Move did not happen despite him claiming again in March 2021 that he still had adequate numbers to form the government. (The Star March 16, 2021).
It would seem that the Sheraton Move pre-empted the Anwar Move. Was there a game of seat grabbing between the camps of the Sheraton Move and the Anwar Move? History will record that Anwar did not become the Prime Minister and Muhyiddin got ousted soon after becoming PM.
Also, it is puzzling why Anwar’s magnanimity about letting Tun Dr Mahathir stay on as PM had happened too late. If Tun Mahathir had been assured of support from the PH coalition, would he have stayed on for a full term? We will never know.
Where does that put Anwar and his numbers game? If he had succeeded, would it not have been an internal coup from within his own coalition? Tun Mahathir did the honourable thing, he stepped down. Kudos to Tun Mahathir for setting a good example.
Painful as it is for the fledgling PH government if the PM has lost support from within his own party, he does need to make way. The same situation happened in the United Kingdom when Boris Johnson was forced to step down due to a loss of confidence in his own party.
The next question is, why did the Sheraton Move happen? If it was to prevent Anwar from becoming PM, why? Wasn’t he given the royal pardon? Does that mean he has a clean slate? Why does the nation need to be saved from Anwar as PM? This is puzzling to many.
It’s no secret that Anwar has been trying to be PM for a long time, ever since he was the deputy PM. Under the PH government, he was dubbed the PM-Tepi, the heir apparent to the PM, so to speak. Will he finally get to be PM after the 15th general elections?
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