Ariff details Zahid’s meet with ‘chief plotter’

The issue is that Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak no longer commands the confidence of the majority of MPs in Parliament and that’s not a plot or conspiracy.

KUALA LUMPUR: Raub MP Ariff Sabri Abdul Aziz says that his intelligence sources, which are as good as that of Home Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, told him that only two people have the instruments to secure allegiance from the MPs. “The instruments are the statutory declarations and the list containing the MPs — all from Umno — who want to do the right thing by removing the chief menace to our country’s health, that bogus Dear Leader and Bugis Warrior.”

“In the absence of a confidence motion, for no confidence or confidence, we can also play the numbers game when Parliament sits in October. We can vote out the Budget. If less than 112 MPs vote for the Budget, what does Najib then do?”

The MP said that on the evening Zahid met Mahathir alone, he in fact sat in the meeting with the chief plotter. “So, Zahid must have been the co-plotter,” ventures Ariff. “If we indulge Zahid and start glossing and mulling over the plot, very soon it becomes a self-fulfilling flight of fancy.”

Indeed, he added, we have to tampal (stick) koyok and salonpas on our foreheads. “Let us remain calm and collected. No need to pull our hair or roll over the floor with legs flailing. That would be discriminatory to my colleagues from Serdang and Segambut. They have no hair to pull.”

He advises against rolling up the sleeves like Umno Wanita Chief Sharizat Abdul Jalil once attempted to do. “What if some ladies get carried away and roll up their sarongs and skirts too?”

“I am afraid small children will get nightmares. Spare our children.”

Ariff noted that when reminded of Perak in 2009, Zahid added a “racial twist” to it by claiming that the Nizar Government “was controlled by the evil DAP made up of ungrateful Chinese. Apa lagi Cina mahu?” (What else do the Chinese want?).

“So, lets us ask him: of the 88 Opposition MPs, how many are Malays? The majority are. The Umno MPs who want Najib out are all Malays.”

The MP also begs to differ with Zahid that voting out the Prime Minister in Parliament or taking up the matter with the Agong to appoint a new Prime Minister was “somehow wrong, even criminal” and that those against Najib should wait until the next General Election “since he has been elected Prime Minister by the people”.

Najib was not elected as Prime Minister by the people, points out Ariff. “He was only elected as MP for Pekan in Pahang.”

“To continue to be Prime Minister, he must continue to command the confidence of the majority of MPs in Parliament. There’s a question mark over that.”

Ariff reiterated that moving a no confidence motion in Parliament, and the MPs discussing with each other on many issues including dismissing the Prime Minister, “was not criminal”, as Zahid has made them out to be in public. “That’s balderdash!”

There’s no law, he stressed, preventing MPs from coming together from both sides of the divide, in a common cause. “Of course, the scenario assumes that all 88 Opposition MPs will vote out Najib in Parliament or agree if the matter is taken up with the Agong.”