By Tay Tian Yan, Sin Chew Daily

Is the phone conversation recording between Anwar Ibrahim and Ahmad Zahid real?

To be honest, people who have come into contact with Zahid and Anwar, including journalists covering political events, should know very well without much hesitation.

The voices in the recording are 99% in resemblance. Of course, some may argue that voices could be easily faked with technology, like in the Mission Impossible films. Not only voices, human faces, too, can be faked!

The thing is, not only the voices, even the tempo and accents have all been similar to those of the two leaders. That's real hard even for the most sophisticated devices to duplicate!

Both Zahid and Anwar have instructed their assistants to lodge police reports, which is probably the best thing they can do to clear themselves of any alleged involvement.

But so far none has produced any evidence of a police report. Some argue that if they are serious about lodging police reports, they should do it themselves instead of getting someone else to do on their behalf, just to prove their seriousness.

As such, the Malay political community overwhelmingly believes the voice recording is real.

Former PM Najib's confidant Lokman Adam has openly urged Zahid to admit that he and Anwar are on the same side fighting Muhyiddin and his party Bersatu and planning to take Umno out of the PN government, which to him is nothing wrong anyway.

The thing is, given his stature as Umno president, how do we expect Zahid to make the public confession?

Zahid loudly declared "No DAP, no Anwar and no Bersatu" in the just concluded Umno general assembly.

Several hours after that, the two voices in the alleged phone conversation between the Umno president and Anwar Ibrahim congratulated each other for successfully carrying out their plan.

We have no way to authenticate the voice recording, but Umno members and the public have made their own judgments. Looks like both Zahid and Anwar have really messed things up this time.

If the voice recording is real, then Zahid must have fooled the the thousand-odd delegates at the general assembly, and in the eyes of some three million Umno members, he has betrayed the party!

Zahid could have put up an excellent show at the assembly by turning everyone against Bersatu to fulfill his own agenda, if not for the voice recording that has since spoiled everything.

The legitimacy of Zahid as Umno president, already marred by his many court cases, is taking yet another major beating.

Rival factions within the party will not let go of such an opportunity to unseat the president. Several Umno divisions in Johor have taken the lead by asking Zahid to quit. Other central party leaders, including those in the "minister cluster", are expected to follow suit soon.

The thing is, Muhyiddin and his Bersatu remain the biggest enemy of Umno, and taking out Zahid at this juncture will only benefit Bersatu and give the PM the much needed sigh of relief.

Having weighed the pros and cons, perhaps they will just give Zahid a little more time. If the grassroots have reacted too aggressively, the rival factions may need to strike a consensus to get Zahid to go on leave while his deputy Mohamad Hasan relieves him of his presidential duties, or make a decision not to defer the party elections  in a bid to force out Zahid.

Anyway, Zahid's political career is nearing the end.

As for Anwar, his plan to join hands with Umno to topple the sitting government will run aground without Zahid.