By Prof Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi

After last two weeks, which follow the events leading to the swearing in of a new Prime Minister, many Malaysians who voted for the PH are in utter despair.

I was not. Many Malaysians now felt they were cheated of their 'win' and that this new coalition called Perikatan Nasional is nothing more than a pirate hijacking a morally elected government.

I did not share the sentiment. To say that many Malaysians who are non-Malays are extremely sad of the events of the past two weeks would be an understatement of this century.

I neither felt despair nor unhappy. My state of disposition can be described as calm and reflective. I will illuminate why I felt and still feels that way.

I am writing this article to ask Malaysians to be more reflective and strategic in the face of what many consider the end of Malaysia. I hope Malaysians will be rejuvenated in spirit and resolve after reading this article and be ready to fight and strive for a new day and a newer and far better future.

Before I begin, I would like to state one assumption and that is that I think, from my ignorance of constitutional law and history, the Agong had thwarted the 'back door government' that was being hatched by the Sheraton Move. I think that the Agong had done his job in a most professional and convincing manner by disregarding the statutory declarations and met every MP as well as leaders of the political factions. I consider the appointment of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as PM as legal and binding…until he gets a vote of no-confidence in the Dewan Rakyat. As of now, whichever political parties are under his 'command' has now formed what to me is a legal government.

That being said, let us begin with the simple question that has NOT been reflected by the Rakyat who voted for PH. Did Malaysians who supported the Reformasi movement and the fight against a kleptocratic government really 'win' the election? All would say yes except me who says no, we did not win.

If we recall, the only true parties supported by the rakyat from 20 years ago was DAP, PKR and Amanah. PPBM was a Johnny-come-lately. It was formed from a race-based construct and has the Umno DNA. Warisan was a party with a BN DNA construct. Both these two parties had never struggled for 20 years. With the exception of Maszlee Malik and Wan Saiful who were hardcore Reformasi activists, Syed Sadiq was a 'Mahathir activist'.

I knew that PH was living on 'borrowed time' and I had predicted that the backdoor government would have come about at the end of the first year. We should be thankful that PPBM and Warisan 'allowed' PH to rule for 22 months. I have always known that PPBM and Warisan would probably form a different coalition with PAS, GPS and a significant defection of Umno MPS minus those who have court cases. What I did not count on was the defection of 18 MPs from PKR.

Everyone knew that Azmin and Zuraida would jump ship to save their skin regardless of any moral ideology but that the likes of Saifuddin Abdullah and Tian Chua also turned was devastating to those who followed their careers. That would be a 'backdoor government' led by none other than whoever was the president of PPBM at that time. In summary, we, did not win the election but was allowed to rule by the 'grace' of PPBM and Warisan.

The rakyat should also reflect on the effectiveness of DAP, Amanah and PKR as well as their leader Anwar Ibrahim. Why did the three parties and Anwar let PPBM dictate the rules completely. It was understandable that the parties must show solidarity and unity. Fine, no problem there. But I thought that politics was about smiling to your friend while you put bullets in your back pocket.

As the Godfather says "Keep your friends close but keep your enemies closer". I also thought that the first rule of politics was that there are no real friends or permanent enemies as the dictum goes "the enemy of my enemy is my friend". Ideology and idealism are fine things to live with and hold dear to but not on the battlefield. There pragmatism governs.

I would like to say much about Amanah and its uselessness. Amanah was useless in its primary job of dealing with issues of Melayu and Islam. All the leaders played the role of ministers well but failed miserably as politicians to battle against the opposition narratives of Islam under siege. Amanah did not produce any second line of leadership to hold ceramah and forums. Now Mat Sabu says he can speak freely. All that while he was a shadow of Tun M grinning foolishly everywhere the man went. I have lost complete respect for all the leaders of Amanah and was going to tell Malaysians to drop these people from the GE15 list.

Now that the Amanah leaders are no longer ministers and 'have time' for the rakyat lets see if they can charge the fortresses of PAS and Umno and take these seats away from the two parties. If not, my vote will certainly not go to Amanah. They had their 15 minutes of limelight and they blew it.

Malaysians should also reflect and be thankful that since now that there is a Melayu government wanted by the public university academics, the Malay middle class, the Malay professionals, certainly the Malay businessmen and let's not forget the Malay school teachers and head teachers. No longer will these groups spread slander and fake news because their selfless efforts of spreading lies and hatred has become successful.

Malaysia is now forever divided and polarized. Sabah and Sarawak are even farther than that. Yes, GPS now forms part of the new coalition but Semenanjung Malays do not care two cents about the people of Sabah or Sarawak.

The coalition I am sure benefits individual MPs and not necessarily the people on the ground. BN made sure the MPs were rich and that the people are poor and uneducated so that they would depend forever on the rich MPs for handouts and pittance. A perfect formula that worked for BN and now I am sure will work for PN. Just change the letter B for P. 

Malaysians should also reflect that the boisterous PAS who seems more radical and extremist than their 80s and 90s selves will now become ministers. Hadi and Tuan Ibrahim must take English lessons from now on and learn to speak at temples, churches and gurdwaras in order to be close to the people. Let them explain themselves what they meant when they accuse Malaysians as 'musuh-musuh Islam'.

I think the two-year stint will mellow the party down and they, who knows, might even become palatable politically. Just give them a chance and lot's of jobs to do. I hope civil society do not treat them as enemies but legitimate national leaders and invite them to forums and town halls.

They want desperately to be ministers…well, let's make them so and put them to work. After all…they are the servants to the people in a democracy. With respect to the RUU355, I do not think Malaysians need to worry. That was a ruse all along and these PAS leaders were mainly playing on getting the Malays to be on their side. The ruse was highly effective and now they will ditch it or put it as a KIV for next election where they will raise it again as a recycled issue.

I could write many, many more 'blessings' of a new government but I hope that Malaysians change their attitudes and perspectives and strategically treat this occurrence as an opportunity of development or an opportunity for setting up the issues and playing field for GE15.

The ball has always been in our court, but unfortunately we the people seem to be looking at our phones and not at our feet. I say bring on the new government. Let us treat it with a professional attitude and let us engage meaningfully with the new cabinet appointments by raising real issues but phrased in a courteous manner to the point that the new appointees would have no excuse but to answer.

Thus, in GE15, we would either have PAS, Umno, PPBM and GPS being a more mellowed group of political entities or they would be too tired to contest after being 'engaged by the civil society and Malaysian people' as well as infighting among themselves for the gravy train. Either way, we, the rakyat will be in a win-win scenario all the time.

In politics, politician wants a win-win scenario not to contesting parties but to his or her self mainly. This time, the rakyat will play the 'politician' role and make them work by pulling them up, down, sideways and round and round.

Happy 'New Malaysia' to Malaysians. Let us all be opportunistic, strategic and pragmatic…don't just be worried!

(Professor Dr. Mohd Tajuddin Mohd Rasdi is Professor at a local university.)