DESPITE the Yang di-Pertuan Agong summoning 114 MPs backing Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob as the Prime Minister (PM) candidate to Istana Negara on Thursday (Aug 19), it is presumptuous to assume that this is already endgame, or that Ismail Sabri will become PM9.

Social media has been abuzz with speculations and conspiracy theories, and after a quick visit to Twitterverse, two things became obvious.

Netizens were either already rejoicing the fact that Ismail Sabri was going to be PM9 or feeling dejected about how Malaysia is back to square one and complaining about how the country is going to hell if Ismail Sabri is sworn in as prime minister.

Amid the fanfare, a specific phrase on Twitter caught our attention – ‘yat yat sei’.

“114 in Cantonese is ‘yat yat sei’, or ‘everyday also die’. What an ominous sign!” exclaimed a netizen.

Another tweet read, “Yat yat sei. ‘Hari-hari mati’. Fengshui tak bagus. Malaysia is doomed.” (Yat yat sei. ‘Everyday die’. This is not good fengshui. Malaysia is doomed.)

But don’t get ahead of ourselves. A wise man once said, “It ain’t over ‘til it’s over”.

Put in the context of Ismail Sabri and his 114 MPs, let’s look at it this way: It is not game over for Pakatan Harapan or Opposition chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim until Istana Negara makes the official statement naming the new prime minister.

What is equally jarring about this jostle for PM-ship is the fact that certain media organisations have taken this a little bit too far to state as a matter of fact on how MPs have voted so far in their submission of their statutory declarations to the Agong.

But recall that when the Agong had told all 220 MPs to submit their declaration letters to Istana Negara naming one candidate as the next prime minister, it was also instructed that all the individual statutory declarations (SDs) be private and confidential.

Following this train of logic, shouldn’t the Agong be the only one who knows for sure what the exact numbers are?

So how did the presumption that all 114 MPs summoned to the palace have backed Ismail Sabri as the new premier came about?

A number of MPs from UMNO and PAS had confidently told members of the media that Ismail Sabri “has got the numbers”, but really, says who? – Aug 20, 2021.

https://focusmalaysia.my/ismail-sabri-better-beware-as-114-may-not-be-an-auspicious-number/