Muhyiddin not out of danger zone

THIS has not been the best of times for Bersatu deputy president Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin whose political ambitions appear to have suffered a setback.

Delegates at the recent party general assembly endorsed their president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as the party’s prime minister (PM) candidate in a move seen as quashing the step for a transition plan to pass the baton to Hamzah.

Hamzah may have the support of some 120 division chiefs, but he had been outplayed in a bold power game engineered by the circle around Muhyiddin.

Everyone noticed that he arrived late for the dinner gathering at the end of the general assembly. He did not join the VVIP table where his president sat with three other Tan Sri personalities and sat at an adjacent table.

The relationship between the top two will not be the same again.

The statutory declaration (SD) campaign was to press for a transition plan and not to ask Muhyiddin to step down but it went down badly with the Muhyiddin circle.

One of those who signed on said it was drafted in a respectful way in order not to hurt feelings. But this is Malay politics and it was seen as an act of treachery.

The curtains have parted on the power struggle going on inside Bersatu.

Accounts trickling out suggest that the SD campaign kicked off after a hush-hush meeting in February between top PAS leaders led by Tan Sri Abdul Hadi Awang and those aligned to Hamzah.

The meeting took place at Hamzah’s bungalow office often referred to as the "White House," where they heard from Hadi himself about PAS’ dissatisfaction with Muhyiddin’s leadership style.

Hadi told the "White House" meeting that PAS does not regard Muhyiddin to be the right person to lead Perikatan into the next general election. PAS leaders think Hamzah, at 68 and 10 years younger than Muhyiddin, is more energetic, open to consultation and easier to work with.

Muhyiddin also ruffled feathers in December last year when he reshuffled the Perikatan presidential council and appointed Datuk Seri Azmin Ali as Perikatan secretary-general and Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu as the information chief without consulting his coalition partners.

PAS leaders were upset and its vice-president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar resigned in protest as Perikatan treasurer. PAS has refused to nominate anyone for the post till now.

Hamzah had won the trust of PAS in the months leading up to the 2022 general election.

At that time, the PAS leadership wanted to go with Umno because they had worked well under the Muafakat Nasional set-up.

However, Hamzah who was then the Home Minister had intelligence information that the Malays were not with Umno. He told PAS that it could end up the biggest party in Parliament if it worked with Bersatu. But if PAS teamed up with Umno, it would win 30 seats at best.

Hamzah was proven right and PAS went on to win 43 parliamentary seats, making it the biggest party in Parliament.

That elevated Hamzah’s image among PAS leaders.

This was evident at the first Perikatan meeting after the general election when Muhyiddin, who is Perikatan chairman, asked PAS as the “big brother” in the coalition to nominate a name for the opposition leader.

Hadi immediately proposed Hamzah for the Opposition Leader job, taking Muhyiddin by surprise.

This was affirmed by then Bersatu Youth chief and Machang MP Wan Ahmad Fayhsal Wan Ahmad Kamal who was present at the January 2023 meeting.

The convention is that the coalition chairman is also the opposition leader and the presumptive PM candidate. But with Muhyiddin as Perikatan chairman and Hamzah as Opposition Leader, the stage was set for a power tussle.

Fast forward to the present, about two weeks before the Bersatu general assembly, Muhyiddin invited Hadi to lunch and a heart-to-heart talk at his Bukit Damansara house.

Well-placed sources said Muhyiddin asked Hadi during the lunch meeting who would be suitable as Perikatan’s PM candidate to which Hadi, without blinking, answered: "Hamzah Zainudin".

That must have been a rather awkward moment for the host.

Bersatu’s Gopeng retreat in 2023 is often cited as the premise for Muhyiddin to lead the party into the next general election. His priority then was to avoid a clash between Hamzah and Azmin for the leadership post.

However, Muhyiddin also agreed to hand over the reins "when the time comes". Where Muhyiddin was concerned, the time had yet to come whereas those aligned to Hamzah think it is time.

Clearly, there is a lack of trust between the rival camps. It is an open secret that Muhyiddin feels he owes Azmin for enabling him to become PM in 2020. The Hamzah faction is suspicious that Muhyiddin will pull the rug from under their feet and hand over the reins to Azmin "when the time comes".

Moreover, Azmin shines like a star as the Opposition Leader in Selangor whereas Hamzah often comes across as oozing too much bravado and too little policy content in Parliament.

Both men are assets to the party and have the potential to take Bersatu forward but there are two heads and only one crown.

PAS has tried to be the adult in the room, declining to endorse Muhyiddin as the PM candidate without actually disagreeing.

The Islamist party needs Bersatu to moderate its ulama image while Bersatu needs PAS to bring in Malay support.

Muhyiddin is not out of the danger zone, knowing that some 120 division chiefs want to see a transition plan.

The genie is out of the bottle despite the amateurish manner of the SD campaign and claims that some division chiefs want to retract their SDs.

The more worrying part is the insistence by PAS that they prefer Hamzah.

Troubling times lie ahead for the opposition coalition with all these undercurrents and uncertainty.