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Neutralizing Azmin & Zahid – Making Sense Of The Latest Consensus Between PM Sabri & Pakatan Harapan



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Aug 25 2021
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Conveniently, newly installed Prime Minister Ismail Sabri met top leaders of Pakatan Harapan (the largest Opposition coalition) today (August 25). Accidentally, the meeting took place after Azmin Ali, armed with 10 MPs, threatened to withdraw support for the fragile government – unless he is made the Deputy Prime Minister. Coincidentally, Sabri and the Opposition struck a deal.

 

And suspiciously, UMNO president Zahid Hamidi has been hospitalized due to a fall at home last week, allowing him to avoid attending court hearings. It was a mystery that the crook hurt himself so badly on August 18, but still could attend an audience with Agong (King) the next day (August 19) and again present at the Istana Negara (national palace) for Sabri’s swearing-in ceremony on August 21.

 

In politics, nothing happens by accident or coincidence. If it happens, you can bet it was planned or designed that way. Azmin made his move to grab power after Sabri’s Cabinet list was deliberately leaked. And it was purposely leaked to test reactions from Sabri’s enemies in his own government, just before the final draft of the Cabinet is presented to King Sultan Abdullah for approval.

Bipartisan Consensus - PM Ismail Sabri and Pakatan Harapan Leaders - Anwar Ibrahim, Mat Sabu, Lim Guan Eng

Zahid, on the other hand, was obviously faking his illness to test whether his “puppet” PM Sabri would close one eye, allowing the corrupt UMNO government to once again intimidate the judiciary to drop all the 87 charges related to money laundering, corruption and criminal breach of trust (CBT). It was already bad that PM Sabri’s balls were being squeezed each by Azmin and Zahid.

 

It will become worse if the prime minister loses power when former PM Muhyiddin, the biggest ally in the government, suddenly withdraws support if Azmin is not made a deputy prime minister. The issue is not merely about the tussle for the No. 2, but more about other new demands that Muhyiddin’s party Bersatu has in store for “turtle egg” Ismail Sabri.

 

The Deputy PM is just the appetizer. Muhyiddin, or at least the greedy Azmin, wants the crown jewel – Ministry of Finance – as well as other lucrative and strategic ministries from “proxy” PM Sabri. However, at the same time, Zahid and his influential mentor, former premier Najib Razak, also wanted the similar ministries to grow their power and influence in the UMNO party.

Azmin Ali - Sad and Worry

Either way, Sabri is trapped between two power-hungry devils. Assuming he still has the support of 31 Barisan Nasional MPs when he tried to defend Muhyiddin’s administration during Zahid’s onslaught to topple Muhyiddin, he is still short of 80 votes in Parliament. At the last count, Zahid had managed to swing 15 UMNO MPs against Muhyiddin, leaving Sabri’s faction with only 27 MPs.

 

It means, at best, Ismail Sabri is extremely weak with support of 27 MPs. Muhyiddin has demonstrated that he has 35 MPs (31 Bersatu MPs and 4 independent MPs), in addition to 18 MPs from PAS Islamist party currently aligned to him. In total, Muhyiddin commands 53 MPs. Even though Zahid and Najib’s 15 MPs are small, they are sufficient to trigger a collapse of Sabri administration.

 

Sure, Zahid may not command the same 15 MPs anymore after UMNO is returned to power. It would be harder to justify the need to kick one of their own out. Still, UMNO vice-president Ismail, like his predecessor Muhyiddin, has a slim majority, as the government bench has only 114 MPs in the 222-member Parliament, where two seats are vacant after the death of 2 MPs.

Najib Razak and Zahid Hamidi - Crooks Laughing

Toppling the government is as easy as getting 4 MPs to withdraw support. Zahid and Najib certainly have more than 4 MPs on their side, if not 15 or 11 MPs. And coincidentally, on the other side, Opposition Pakatan Harapan has 88 MPs. Together, both PM Ismail Sabri and Pakatan Harapan have a total of 115 MPs, more than enough for a simple majority.

 

But why should the Opposition help Ismail Sabri? Has de-facto opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim gone mad for agreeing to work with the corrupt government? Have DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu gone insane over the idea of propping up the clueless and incompetent prime minister? Haven’t they got sick and tired of being used by UMNO?

 

The short answer – they have a common enemy. The long answer – unless they work with the lesser of two evils, they could see Muhyiddin Yassin, Najib Razak or Zahid Hamidi return to power or even the most hated man, Azmin Ali, becoming prime minister. The enemy of my enemy is my friend, hence PM Ismail Sabri is Pakatan Harapan’s friend, at least temporarily.

Traitors - Azmin Ali, Muhyiddin Yassin and Hamzah Zainudin

In reality, it’s more complicated than that. As much as Anwar hardcore supporters dislike the truth, it’s crystal clear that the PKR president does not have the numbers, no matter how much he recites the mantra that he has a “strong, convincing, formidable majority” to form a new government. Even with Mahathir’s support, Anwar only managed to get 105 MPs behind him.

 

On one hand, Anwar has been played by former protégé Zahid again and again. On the other hand, he could not convince Sarawak-based Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) to support him. To make matters worse, none of PKR traitors wanted to return to the party, despite the collapse of Muhyiddin regime and the welcome carpet laid by PKR leaders.

 

With less than 2 years before the 15th General Election, Pakatan can either do nothing and wait for the election, or try the first baby steps towards working with UMNO – minus crooks like Zahid or Najib. The support from Pakatan’s 88 MPs would free Sabri from being held hostage by Bersatu and Zahid faction in UMNO. It would neutralize both Azmin and Zahid.

Anwar Ibrahim - Premier In Waiting

As much as Gabungan Parti Sarawak hates DAP for being a direct competitor in the state, Anwar isn’t popular in the rural Malay areas, the crucial vote bank delivered by Mahathir during the 2018 General Election, which ultimately led to the opposition’s stunning victory. Without Mahathir, Pakatan Harapan has no choice but to find an alternative Malay-based partner.

 

On paper, there are only three options – UMNO, Bersatu or PAS. Having been betrayed by Bersatu president Muhyiddin, who pulled out of the democratically elected Pakatan Harapan government and formed Perikatan Nasional backdoor government with enemies – UMNO and PAS – last year, it’s not possible for Pakatan and Bersatu (let alone PAS extremists) to work again.

 

The fact that PAS has chosen Bersatu, abandoning the previous cooperation between UMNO and PAS, which was glorified as “Muafakat Nasional” under the pretext of Malay-unity, has now provided more reason for UMNO to work with Pakatan Harapan. It’s worth mentioning that PAS president Hadi Awang is a bigger cheerleader of Muhyiddin than Ismail Sabri, let alone Zahid Hamidi.

Muhyiddin Yassin and Hadi Awang

So, even without different factions in UMNO, the party has every strategic reason to explore potential cooperation with Pakatan Harapan. There will be more clashes and disagreements in terms of seats allocation and distribution for the coming election among UMNO, Bersatu and PAS than between UMNO and Pakatan. And the next election will see UMNO against Bersatu-PAS for Malay vote bank.

 

Based on the latest political landscape, it’s immature to say Pakatan Harapan is dumb to be used by PM Sabri to stay in power. To be fair, both sides are using each other. In the short term, Sabri is using Pakatan to ensure neither Azmin nor Zahid could threaten him. Pakatan, in return, will get reforms after a 90-minute discussion on confidence and supply agreement (CSA).

 

Although Anwar did not specifically mention a CSA, he said both parties have agreed today on several matters, including strengthening Parliament, ensuring judicial independence and institutional reforms in the country’s governance. Those jargons suggest that the reforms sought appear to be quite similar to those offered by Muhyiddin in his last attempt to cling to power.

Bipartisan Consensus Signing - PM Ismail Sabri and Pakatan Harapan Leaders - Anwar Ibrahim, Mat Sabu, Lim Guan Eng

But why didn’t the Opposition take Muhyiddin’s offer on August 14 then? First, it was not a sincere offer, but a dubious deal hastily hatched at the last minute to buy support. Second, Muhyiddin had betrayed Pakatan Harapan. Third, based on his track record, the former prime minister simply cannot be trusted to honour the reform deal.

 

Is Ismail Sabri trustworthy? Compared to Muhyiddin, Sabri is in a bigger trouble and weaker position. Naturally, the premier does not have as much leverage to play the Opposition because he has only 27 MPs, compared to Muhyiddin’s 100 MPs back then. It is understood from sources that Pakatan Harapan has asked for wider reforms beyond that offered by Muhyiddin.

 

The fact that UMNO vice-president Khaled Nordin and other leaders have welcomed the bipartisan consensus, and even said that there should no longer be any prejudice against the Opposition, is a strong indicator that long term cooperation could be cooking. It could provide the necessary “launch-pad” in case no party has the majority to form a new government after the 15th General Election.

Flags - Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan

Most importantly, not a single UMNO leader, including the outspoken Najib Razak, has condemned the latest bipartisan consensus, despite United Malays National Organisation’s previous chest-thumping declaration of “No Anwar, No DAP”. UMNO is more desperate, not to mention it has more to lose than Pakatan Harapan as they have to explain to the grassroots why PM Sabri is surrendering to their decade-old arch-enemy.

 

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Comments

Wot, who dis Orifice Delhi Virus, Wolfo boy?. Sorry, no one here by that name, Wolfo Bitcho. Only Ori Wuhan Virus is here. Say it, Wolfo boy, Ori Wuhan Virus. There, good boy, gooood boy,
pat, pat, pat.

Now, as you have earlier expressed your dislike for local newspapers, we all know why that is, you like that Commie Little Red Book, don’t you? You know, the one that was introduced by Fat Boy commie comrade Chairman Moa Zedong who later did his Song an Dance on the local population with a Great Leap Cultural show which generated Tens of Millions of innocent people Dead ( man, women and children) in 4 years flat. Lots of videos in the net, Wolfo Bitcho, on how they were tortured, beaten, decapitated, cut up, burned, eaten even. Really brutal these commies.

Quote – As China marked the 100th anniversary of the founding of the ruling Chinese Communist Party…… Wearing a grey Mao suit for the historic event, President Xi Jinping unleashed his warning ……… “Anyone who thinks of doing this will smash their heads bloody against the Great Wall of steel formed by the flesh and blood of 1.4 billion Chinese people.” Unquote.

Great, the commies know how to convert flesh and blood into
steel.

Quote -“Well, back to the Chinese, that was quite a show the Chinese put on for their communist party’s 100th bash. And that was a grand and stirring speech by COMRADE XI ” – Unquote
Comment by Paul Wolfobitch on July 4, 2021 at 6:01 pm

Well, Wolfo Boy, we have doubts about the 1.4 billion local population supporting the Communist regime. Well, only time
will tell.

Meantime, here is another article written by another of your communist comrade about the point of origin of the Wuhan Virus. This time this comrade of your’s is from the middle kingdom of this country and the other earlier one was from the north. The news below that is a rebuttal of sorts for your commie comrades. Don’t be shy. Read all about it, Wolfo Bitcho, will ya, Mmmuahahaha.

Quote : — The Star / Letters,

China Upholds Science-Based Covid-19 Origin Tracing
————————————————————————-

Thursday, 26 Aug 2021
——————————-

THE Covid-19 pandemic is currently raging across the world with over 200 million people infected and 4.4 million deaths recorded. It has become the world’s most devastating infectious disease of the century.

To defeat Covid-19, we must understand the virus. China has actively engaged in origin tracing cooperation with the World Health Organisation (WHO) since the early outbreak of Covid-19, and shared the genome sequencing of the virus at the earliest time possible.

WHO experts were also invited to conduct origin tracing research in China and the teams were given full support. They visited every site on their list and met every individual they asked for.

After that, WHO released the China-WHO Joint Study Report on Covid-19 origin tracing, which clearly concluded that a lab leak of the coronavirus is ” EXTREMELY UNLIKELY ”

The report also outlined several recommendations, including “searching for possible early Covid-19 cases around the world”, and the “necessity to study the possibility of virus transmission via cold chain”.

There is mounting evidence showing that the virus has long been lurking in human communities. Research conducted by medical institutions and experts showed that Covid-19 was detected in Europe as early as November 2019, and opined that based on the overall situation, it is obvious that the disease has multiple origins and broke out in multiple places.

It is a common understanding among the scientific community that the virus evolves in nature. On July 5, 24 internationally renowned scientists, including a well-known Malaysian virologist, published an open letter in The Lancet noting that Covid-19 generated and evolved in nature.

On July 7, scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia published a pre-print paper on Zenodo, a European research data-sharing platform, pointing out that no evidence showed that Covid-19 originated from the Wuhan labs.

Nonetheless, several countries disregarded these existing scientific evidence. Instead, they politicised the matter of science, instructed their intelligence agencies to carry out origin tracing investigations, and smeared and slandered other countries. They even threatened the WHO Secretariat and international experts.

But the voice of justice shall not be ignored. Over 80 countries, whether through letters to the WHO director-general, statements or diplomatic notes, have expressed their support for the China-WHO Joint Study Report. More than 300 political parties, organisations and think tanks from over 100 countries and regions submitted a joint statement to the WHO Secretariat, urging it to conduct Covid-19 origin tracing research in an objective and fair manner.

The virus has no borders, nor does it recognise ethnicity. China, like other countries, is a victim of the pandemic. We all hope to find the source and stop the transmission as early as possible.

China always upholds that Covid-19 origin tracing must be based on science, and any politicisation of the origin tracing effort must be opposed.

Right now, respecting the science and advocating cooperation are the correct approaches. The purpose of virus origin-tracing is to enhance the scientific understanding of viruses, allowing us to deal with major infectious diseases better in the future. From mankind’s experience, the origin tracing of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS), Ebola, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and the 2009 swine flu involved multiple disciplines and fields. The origin tracing of Covid-19 is no different.

Combating the pandemic remains our utmost priority. China has provided over 800 million doses of vaccines to more than 100 countries and international organisations. On Aug 5, President Xi Jinping announced that China would strive to provide two billion doses of vaccine to the world this year and donate US$100mil to the Covid-19 Vaccines Global Access (COVAX) programme.

I believe that as long as the whole world stands united and works together, mankind will be able to dispel the dark clouds of the pandemic and usher in a victory soon.

OUYANG YUJING

Ambassador of China to Malaysia

==================================================

03/29/21

BIG PHARMA › NEWS
——————————

Scientists Push Back as WHO Says ” EXTREMELY UNLIKELY ” COVID Escaped From Lab. A China-WHO study on the origins of COVID concluded the virus “most likely” was transmitted from bats to humans through another animal, but news reports show many scientists are skeptical of the theory, and of the investigation.

By Children’s Health Defense Team
————————————————

https://childrenshealthdefense.org/defender/scientists-call-investigation-origins-covid/

The WHO investigation was incomplete and the lab theory cannot be ruled out. The Defender is experiencing censorship on many social channels.

The Associated Press (AP) today reported that a joint study by China and the World Health Organization (WHO) on the origins of COVID-19 concluded the virus “most likely” was transmitted from bats to humans through another animal.

According to a draft copy of the WHO-China report obtained by AP, investigators said it is “extremely unlikely” the virus leaked from a lab.

However, two people interviewed Sunday night on 60 Minutes said the WHO investigation was incomplete and the lab theory cannot be ruled out.

Jamie Metzl, former National Security Council official in the Clinton administration and member of a WHO advisory committee on genetic engineering, blamed the Chinese government for failing to cooperate with the WHO investigative team.

Metzl told 60 Minutes that even though there have been accidental lab leaks of viruses in China in the past that have infected people and killed at least one, “no one on the WHO team was trained in how to formally investigate a lab leak.”

Metzl is part of an international group that, on March 4, released an open letter calling for a full and unrestricted international forensic investigation into the origins of the pandemic. He told 60 Minutes that the lab leak theory is plausible and deserves a full investigation. He said that the Wuhan Institute of Virology’s (WIV) own lab reports show that it sent field researchers to the bat caves and that they brought back samples with coronaviruses:

“ … we do know that there were nine viruses at least that were brought back. And it’s extremely possible that among these viruses is a virus that’s much more closely related to the SARS-CoV-2 virus. And when I put all those pieces together, I said, ‘Hey, wait a second, this is a real possibility. We need to be exploring it.’”

Matt Pottinger, former Trump administration deputy national security adviser, also told 60 Minutes he believes China withheld information from the WHO team, including that the Wuhan lab director “published studies about manipulating bat coronaviruses in a way that could make them more infectious to humans, and there were reports of lax safety standards at the lab.”

Defending the WHO team — and the animal-to-humans theory — on 60 Minutes was Peter Daszak, a member of the WHO team and someone who has himself conducted controversial gain-of-function research, which includes manipulating viruses in order to make them more lethal and infectious.

But Metzl told 60 Minutes what other media outlets have reported: Daszak shouldn’t have been on the investigative team because he has conflicts of interest, including his long-time collaboration with the Wuhan lab.

Richard H. Ebright, Ph.D. one of the 26 scientists who also signed the open letter, called out Daszak’s conflicts of interest in an interview last week with Independent Science News.

“Daszak was the contractor who funded the laboratory at WIV that potentially was the source of the virus (with subcontracts from $200 million from the U.S. Department of State and $7 million from the U.S. National Institutes of Health,) and he was a collaborator and co-author on research projects at the laboratory.”

Metzl, Pottinger and Ebright are far from alone in questioning the WHO’s investigation and its insistence that the pandemic’s origin lies in the transfer of the virus from animals to humans.

Last week, Robert Redfield, former director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told CNN he believes the coronavirus escaped from a lab in Wuhan:

“I’m of the point of view that I still think the most likely etiology of this pathology in Wuhan was from a laboratory — escaped … I do not believe this somehow came from a bat to a human. And at that moment in time, the virus came to the human, became one of the most infectious viruses that we know in humanity for human-to human-transmission.”

An article published March 25 in Newsweek also questioned the animal-to-human theory, stating: “It’s not impossible. It’s just getting-struck-by-lightning-while-being-eaten-by-a-shark unlikely.”

In addition to laying out all the reasons the lab-leak theory makes more sense, the Newsweek article called into question the gain-of-function research being done in Wuhan and in other labs around the world:

“Lab experimentation on dangerous pathogens is another no-brainer, regardless of its role in this pandemic. There are thousands of labs around the planet doing this research, much of it of limited value. And as Filippa Lentzos, one of the world’s leading biosecurity experts, recently told the Washington Post, there is zero international regulation of their activities. ‘There’s no set international law that they have to follow. There’s nobody checking what they’re doing. There are no inspectors, no regulators. There’s none of that.’”

In a March 21 interview with Sky News Australia, David Asher, former lead investigator for the U.S. State Department’s task force that looked into the origins of COVID-19, said the data they collected “made us feel the Wuhan Institute was highly probably the source of the COVID pandemic.”

Reported today by Mercola:

“According to Asher, three workers at the Wuhan Institute of Virology who worked with the RatG13 coronavirus — the closest relative to SARS-CoV-2 identified to date — appear to have been the first cluster of cases of COVID-19. They fell ill with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 as early as October 2019. At least one of the workers required hospitalization.

“He also points out there is evidence in the genetic sequence of SARS-CoV-2 suggesting it’s been synthetically altered. It has the backbone of a bat coronavirus, combined with a pangolin receptor and ‘some sort of humanized mice transceptor.’ ‘These things don’t naturally make sense,’ Asher says, adding that experts around the world agree that the odds of this configuration occurring naturally is ‘very low.’”

On Oct. 6, 2020, Children’s Health Defense Chairman Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. sent a letter to members of Congress outlining important questions the elected leaders need to answer about the coronavirus pandemic.

In his letter, Kennedy asks if the virus is the product of natural evolution and if so, how did it so readily infect humans? Or was the pandemic the result of dangerous coronavirus gain-of-function research funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, and being conducted in Wuhan at the time of the outbreak?

On Feb. 4, Rep. Bill Posey (R-Fla.) introduced H.R. 834. The bill — Pandemics Require Evaluating, Planning, and Responding Effectively or PREPARE Act — would create an independent bipartisan congressional commission to answer questions about the COVID-19 pandemic and help us better prepare the U.S. for future pandemic threats.

Children’s Health Defense is asking readers to ask their member of Congress to support H.R. 834, citing the need to ask tough questions and uncover the facts about every aspect of the pandemic.

On Feb. 23, 28 members of Congress wrote to the principal deputy inspector general of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services requesting a prompt and thorough investigation into the National Institutes of Health’s response to biosafety concerns raised about taxpayer-funded coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology in Wuhan, China. To date, they have not received a response.

END.

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