Editor’s Note: This is an interesting observation on the Chinese thirst for power by Datuk Dr Marzuki Mohamad who was the former principal private secretary to eighth prime minister (PM) Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.

To retain the author’s flow of thought as per what appeared on his Facebook page, FocusM has decided to retain the original form of Marzuki’s rant in which the political scientist by training credited long-serving political columnist of The Star, Joceline Tan, for enlightening him that corruption or no corruption, the Chinese will rally solidly behind DAP.

We apologise in advance if Marzuki’s message does get somehow lost in translation (from Malay).

I was very interested in Joceline Tan’s article entitled “Chinese Political Game of Steps” in The Star. This article describes the “pragmatic” attitude of Chinese voters.

In the 15^th General Election (GE15), 95% of Chinese voters voted for DAP. However, with only 40 seats, DAP cannot form a government. Even if mixed with PKR and Amanah, there would only be 82 seats. Still an insufficient number to form a government.

After GE15, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin got the support of 115 MPs in the Dewan Rakyat to be appointed as Prime Minister (PM) and form the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government with the support of GPS, GRS and 10 Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs as well as several independent members of the Dewan Rakyat. Altogether 115 SDs (statutory declarations) were sent to the National Palace.

However, Pakatan Harapan (PH) chairman/PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook and other PH leaders rushed to the Seri Pacific Hotel to intercept. They met the leaders of UMNO and BN. As a result, they agreed to form a joint government.

Finally, the 10 BN MPs were forced to withdraw their support for Tan Sri Muhyiddin.

So, the unity government was formed. With the formation of the unity government, DAP returned to power in the government after they were booted out of the government through the Sheraton Move conspiracy in February 2020.

Surely, DAP’ must have harboured immense anger at Tan Sri Muhyiddin and other PN leaders for kicking them out of the previous PH administration.

Now, they are back in power. Without hesitation, they use the good name of the Yang Di-Pertuan Agong (YDPA) as if this is the YDPA’s government. In the past, the PN government was also a YDPA’s government because His Majesty the King appointed all the PMs. But DAP did not want to admit so.

Hasn’t DAP jolted the Chinese?

This is DAP’s pragmatism.

To illustrate how pragmatic DAP is, Joceline quoted the statement of Pahang State Legislative Assembly speaker Datuk Seri Sharkar Shamsudin:

“It’s the new reality. DAP leaders are PRAGMATIC, it is ABOUT BEING IN POWER or being the opposition,” said Sharkar who attended the recent DAP 2023 national congress.

DAP’s pragmatism is POWER. As long as you have POWER, everything is possible.

What happened to the principle of anti-corruption? Aren’t the Chinese who support DAP not amused by corruption?

Joceline Tan gave a complete answer on this question. She wrote:

Understood. Understood.

So, corruption becomes secondary after all. The important thing is that DAP holds POWER.

I thank Joceline Tan for unraveling Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s question in 2013 - “What else does the Chinese want?” asked Najib.

The Chinese want DAP to be in power.

Joceline has answered this question clearly and thoroughly.

Congratulations!

How about the UMNO delegation being greeted with thunderous applause by DAP delegates at the latter’s annual congress?

For me, that’s just ‘petting’ UMNO. You have lost power!

The message is loud and clear.

Unfortunately, it is impossible for UMNO to hear that message because UMNO is actually dead.

All that exists are UMNO zombies. - Sept 18, 2023

https://focusmalaysia.my/when-pragmatism-of-the-chinese-is-to-back-dap-defend-the-unity-government-till-the-heavens-collapse/