By Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily

Many different religions, be it Islam, Christianity or Judaism, have an important chapter on the Last Judgment in their respective teachings. All the rights and wrongs will have to be settled on the Judgment Day!

In the context of Malaysian politics, the ruling PH coalition's Last Judgment will be on this coming Friday.

The PH presidential council meeting will be held Friday, and the focus will be on the PM handover date.

The handover date cannot afford to remain ambiguous. Once this thing is not settled, stability will not return to Malaysian politics. Even the so-called "after APEC" needs to have a specific date!

Rumors have been rife during the past two weeks that the opposition and some in the ruling coalition are about to put up a Pakatan Nasional, along with a statutory declaration in support of Mahathir's full term in office. These believably will be part of the meeting agenda, too.

It is time for Mahathir and Anwar to show their cards. Whoever gets the Ace will have a louder say on who should take control of the government and for how long the PM should go on to rule.

The following are four possible eventualities atthe presidential council meeting:

1. Mahathir is unloading his duties on his own accord after APEC before 2020 ends.

This should be the most ideal situation that will see a smooth transition in the absence of vicious power struggle and will conform to the PH government's solution during its earlier days, albeit late by half a year. PH's crisis will be over for the time being.

Of course, the precondition is that this has to be out of Mahathir's willingness and he needs to also suppress dissident voices within his own party PPBM.

2. Anwar's camp overpowers Mahathir to force the handover right after APEC.

If Mahathir is reluctant to pledge a date, there are good reasons for people to speculate that the PM is prepared to complete his full term.

Then, if Anwar's camp has the upper hand in the presidential council and sufficient support in the Parliament, it can always force through a resolution to fix the date.

The question is: even if Anwar's supporters dominate the presidential council, will he have enough MPs to support him in the Parliament?

3. Mahathir has the upper hand, and the handover plan is stalled.

If Mahathir has no intention to hand over the baton yet, or Anwar is not his favored successor, the whole handover plan will be stalled if Anwar's camp is at a disadvantage in the presidential council.

And if this happens, the PH presidential council will have to accept this reality and stop pressing Mahathir for a date.

Sure enough the PM can say people don't want him to leave, not because he doesn't want to go!

4. No comprise from all sides. A PH collapse becomes inevitable.

If all the four component parties have failed to strike an agreement on the handover issue and no one is ready to give in, PH will head down to an imminent collapse.

A likely scenario is that the pro-Anwar camp in PKR will join hands with DAP and Amanah to set the date. But if Mahathir is not agreeable to the arrangement, there is nothing the presidential council can do, given his absolute advantage as the sitting prime minister.

In accordance with the country's Constitution, this thing will then go to the Yang di-Pertuan Agong and the Parliament for a decision. Politically neutral, the Yang di-Pertuan Agong must take the advice of majority of parliamentarians, meaning the candidate who has the support of majority of MPs will be prime minister.

The rumored statutory declaration will likely be the Ace card in Mahathir's hand!

If the SD signed by more than 112 MPs is laid on the table at the presidential council meeting, it's game over!

If this is unacceptable to Anwar's side, that's the end of the story for PH. And if it is acceptable to them, everything will have to go according to the Old Man's plan from this moment on, and whether it will still be PH or PN after that will depend on how he likes it.

Any of the four scenarios could happen. The sad thing is, as common folk we can only be observers in this whole matter.