I’ll begin where I left off from my last article on the sacking of Datuk Seri Tajuddin Abdul Rahman from the Prasarana chairmanship.

After all, this is part 2 of the story.

If you recall, in the last two paragraphs of that article I wrote about Tajuddin being a critic of the Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin administration despite it was the prime minister who appointed him to the Prasarana chair.

Also, I outlined Tajuddin as a strong proponent of the “cut ties with Bersatu” campaign and loyal to Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi and former party president and prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak.

Zahid and Najib, need we be reminded, are at war with Muhyiddin?

I ended that article by asking could all that (“criteria”) had somehow expedited Tajuddin’s sacking?

Now for part 2.

On the day Tajuddin’s sacking was announced, an Umno man with good ties with the Umno president responded on Facebook to say he was not defending Tajuddin but somehow had to point out that the Pasir Salak MP was sacked on a public holiday and the PM and finance minister did not call him up “just because he is from Umno, a nemesis of Bersatu in the Perikatan Nasional government”.

To the Umno operative, Tajuddin was made a scapegoat and a diversion to all the “government’s failures”.

And according to him, if Tajuddin is from Bersatu, “an apology will be sufficient”, going on to say the LRT accident (or mishap as he puts it) “was not Tajuddin’s doing but it’s easy to turn Umno into a punching bag”.

Agree or not with the Umno man’s take on the issue is another matter, albeit a personal one, if I may add. However, a number of analysts opined that Tajuddin’s handling of the LRT accident presented Bersatu a golden opportunity to put in the squeeze on Umno.

What more a day after Tajuddin was removed from Prasarana, he was arrested (later released on conditional bail) by the MACC for alleged abuse of power.

The Vibes quoted analyst Dr Oh Ei Sun describing MACC’s action against the former Prasarana chairman “as an obviously opportunistic power play on the part of Bersatu, the party is trying to cash in on public resentment against Tajuddin and show muscle to an increasingly unruly rival”.

The news portal also quoted another analyst, professor James Chin, saying Bersatu “may make an example out of Tajuddin to remind Najib-Zahid camp in Umno of who is in power”.

We know Umno is split between those wanting their party to remain friendly with Bersatu and those who want to cut all ties (which the party had decided to do) with Bersatu.

The pro Bersatu faction is made up of ministers, deputy ministers and GLC heads appointed by Muhyiddin – known as “kluster menteri”.

As expected and right on cue, Bersatu has denied of any political play.

The Malaysia Insight quoted the party’s Muhammad Faiz Na’aman as saying Tajuddin’s removal as Prasarana chairman and subsequent arrest by MACC “is not political motivated and the MACC has investigated the Pasir Salak MP from Umno Tajuddin since early last year”. 

Nonetheless , several analysts believe there are elements of power play and pressure on Umno exerted by Bersatu. But then however unhappy Umno might be, the party cannot “kick up a storm” as Tajuddin’s action, especially with regards to the LRT accident, is hard to defend and the public are obviously pleased to see him sacked.

Hence, defending Tajuddin can be seen as going against the people’s wishes, something any political party doesn’t want to be caught dead doing.

Also, the issue is beyond Tajuddin. It’s much bigger!

And Umno has taken another route to hit back. Supreme council member Razlan Rafii has lambasted ministers from Bersatu (and Gabungan Parti Sarawak added in for “good measure”) for alleged incompetence.

Without mentioning Tajuddin or Prasarana, he listed seven “ineffective” cabinet ministers – six from Bersatu and one from GPS giving “special attention” to the Bersatu ministers who he said are ineffective in seriously to resolve the COVID-19 crisis”.

Of course, there are other ways for Umno to continue their onslaught. We’ll just have to wait and see what the next steps are.

And Bersatu, on their part, will not be keeping quiet either. For one, the party surely would want the pro-Bersatu faction in Umno to “do something” from within to help their cause. 

In a nutshell, the Bersatu-Umno crisis is going from bad to worse.

(Mohsin Abdullah is a veteran journalist and now a freelancer who writes about this, that and everything else.)