This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 18, 2020 - May 24, 2020

THE Bersatu supreme council meeting of May 11, during which party chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his son Datuk Seri Mukhriz were to be sacked, was called off at the last minute apparently because its legality was in question.

In a Facebook post, lawyer Mohamad Haniff Khatri Abdulla had warned that the meeting would have been invalid. He had written his legal opinion about the constitutionality of the meeting a day before it was to be held and circulated it to several party supreme council members as well.

So why did Bersatu send out an invitation for the meeting in the first place? Was it not aware of the legality issue? Was calling off the meeting an afterthought? Or did the person responsible for calling the meeting only know about the legal aspect after sending out the invitation?

“I think the president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin is surrounded by people who, perhaps because of their own interests, want Mahathir out,” says a political observer. “I suspect Muhyiddin himself got cold feet and needed to be sure the sacking is within his powers. It was a blunder not to invite Mahathir and Mukhriz to the meeting. That itself, I think, is wrong according to the law,” he says.

According to the Bersatu constitution, the party chairman is the No 1 leader. The president is No 2. There is no deputy chairman’s position in Bersatu.

For some reason, Bersatu opted to have the chairman’s and president’s posts instead of president and deputy president as in other political parties. In all probability, out of respect for Mahathir as a statesman and Muhyiddin for his seniority, they were made chairman and president respectively. Probably, the party felt that the president and deputy president titles were a bit too “small” for the two leaders respectively.

The Bersatu constitution states that the function of the chairman as the supreme leader (pemimpin utama) is to ensure the overall efficiency of the administration and party policies.

The chairman is empowered to call and chair meetings of the supreme council or Majlis Pimpinan Tertinggi (MPT).

However, the president is empowered to call for presidential council meetings. But for supreme council meetings, the president can only call for them should the chairman be unavailable. In the case of the intended May 11 meeting, the chairman was available but not invited. Nor was he involved in calling for the meeting.

The constitution provides for the president to appoint the party secretary-general, treasurer and information chief after consulting with the chairman. As Mahathir sees it, this applies to their termination as well.

When Muhyiddin sacked Datuk Marzuki Yahya as party secretary-general in March, Mahathir said, “Articles 13.9 and 16.3.3 of the Bersatu constitution provide for the party president to appoint the secretary-general, treasurer and information chief.

“However, in appointing the top officials of the party, it is dependent on the provision ‘after discussions with the party chairman’.”

On the sacking of Marzuki, there was never any discussion “between Muhyiddin and me as the chairman”.

As Muhyiddin had appointed Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainuddin as his secretary-general and Mahathir has stood firm on Marzuki’s status, Bersatu has two secretaries-general.

We have heard views from Muhyiddin’s side that Mahathir is not chairman anymore and Muhyiddin is acting chairman. This has been refuted by Team Mahathir.

During the political turmoil in February, Mahathir quit as Bersatu chairman following his resignation as prime minister. However, his resignation as chairman was rejected by the party.

Now, a purported audio recording of Bersatu’s final meeting before it exited Pakatan Harapan has been leaked online. In the recoding, a man sounding like Muhyiddin is heard telling the council to entrust Mahathir with the mandate to decide whether or not Bersatu is to leave Harapan.

However, the infamous Sheraton Move took place after that. At the time of writing, no denial has been issued by Muhyiddin or his aides.

In mid-March, when nominations closed for the Bersatu party election, it was announced that Mahathir had been returned unopposed as Bersatu chairman.

But Muhyiddin is being challenged by Mukhriz for the presidency.

Muhyiddin may be prime minister yielding power and authority while Mahathir could very well be lacking supporters in the party. But based on the hierarchy stipulated in the Bersatu constitution, Muhyiddin is still No 2 to the chairman, and it can frustrate him from carrying out certain actions.

To be in control, Muhyiddin obviously needs to remove Mahathir from Bersatu. But how does he do that? Based on the provisions in the party constitution, that is no easy feat, if not almost impossible.

He could quit the party, leaving Mahathir with a smaller Bersatu, one which is outside the government.

But where could he go then?

As rumour has it, one way is for Muhyiddin to form a new party. He could bring along Datuk Seri Azmin Ali and his supporters, who only joined Bersatu recently. With a new outfit, Muhyiddin will naturally be president and Azmin his deputy. Azmin is currently an ordinary member in Bersatu despite being a senior minister in the Muhyiddin administration, and seen as the de facto deputy prime minister.

A new party would enable Azmin to accommodate his supporters, especially the non-Malays who are stranded in PKR. But that would mean Muhyiddin’s new party would be in the mould of PKR, that is, one with a multi-racial outlook. This will not be politically palatable as, like Mahathir, ­Muhyiddin believes the prime minister has to come from a Malay-based party.

That leaves him the option of joining PAS. Many observers, myself included, do not see that happening despite the well-known view that politics is the art of the possible.

Another option for Muhyiddin, which many people are now suggesting, is for him to rejoin Umno. The party’s supreme council member Datuk Seri Tajuddin Rahman is on record as saying that Muhyiddin will remain prime minister should he join Umno. Tajuddin has also invited Bersatu members to join Umno, saying problems between them would be resolved if that happens.

Being a former Umno deputy president, Muhyiddin could blend in should he rejoin the party. But the same may not apply to his supporters in Bersatu although most of them are former Umno members. They would be uncomfortable as their political careers in Umno look bleak and their chances of being picked as candidates in the 15th general election are slim.

That aside, Umno is no big fan of Azmin while Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein, although he is in Umno and in Muhyiddin’s cabinet, is not in the good books of the Umno leadership.

Muhyiddin is carrying a big load on his shoulders, and as the saying goes, is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Rather, it may be between a hard place and a harder place.

Mohsin Abdullah is a contributing editor at The Edge. He has covered politics for more than four decades.

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