Roll over Najib, The Muhyiddin Administration 2012 is already in Facebook

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Where is the pulse of Malaysian society now? In the traditional coffeeshops that dot the nation or in the social media like Twitter and Facebook? Whichever your answer, it looks like there is agreement amongst the old and the new that Muhyiddin Yassin is 'in' and his boss, Prime Minister Najib Razak, is 'out'!

It may be a spoof striking terror into hearts of the PM and his wife Rosmah Mansor, but Muhyiddin's 'Cabinet' is already making the rounds in Facebook.

In the mock-up entitled The Muhyiddin Administration 2012, his deputy is none other than Najib's cousin, Hishammuddin Hussein, who will be named Deputy Prime Minister and Education Minister.

Very noteworthy is the promotion of Mukhriz Mahathir to full-fledged Finance Minister II, with the main finance portfolio to be held by Muhyiddin himself.

But before running through the list, it must be pointed out that whatever the outcome of the UMNO presidential race, whoever wins may not become the Prime Minister at all if the Pakatan Rakyat led by Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim scores an upset victory in the next general election.

The UMNO general assembly has been fixed for early December, but the internal party polls are likely to be held in 2012.

Take a hike

The rest of the Cabinet is a mix of old and new faces, of which the most sensational are Perkasa chief Ibrahim Ali, UMNO Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin, and MCA president Chua Soi Lek. And to think that prominent activist and political scientist Wong Chin Huat had written off the 60-year-old Ibrahim Ali as a has-been!

Chin Huat had reasoned that Ibrahim was likely to lose his Pasir Mas seat after drawing national laughter when Perkasa failed to show up at the Bersih 2.0 rally despite issuing a slew of the most thundering threats to stop the march for free and fair elections.

“Who is he? How does he know that I will lose. He can go take a hike,” Malaysiakini reported Ibrahim as retorting Chin Huat's damning pronouncement.

Now, Malaysians know why Ibrahim Ali was so confident. He already has an ace up his sleeve.

Massive horse-trading going on

Be that as it may, in The Muhyiddin Administration 2012, notably absent are MIC head G Palanivel, although S Subramaniam gets the Works portfolio. Other ministers include BN stawarts, Nazri Aziz, Jamil Bahrom, Khaled Nordin, Mustapa Mohamed, Rais Yatim, Ng Yen Yen and Liow Tiong Lai.

However, the hard to accept faces include former Selangor mentri besar Khir Toyo, sodomy complainant Saiful Bukhari Azlan, Rahim Thamby Chik and Shazryl Eskay of the Datuk T sex video fame!

So, spoof it may be, but remove the'funny faces' and there is actually nothing surprising that such a list has emerged. It reflects the talk around town, the political circles and the UMNO grapevine.

To know how possible is The Muhyiddin Administration 2012 - without the 'funny faces' of course - Malaysians will have to wait until the GE-13, which is expected to be held in October/November.

However, some Pakatan leaders now think Najib has managed to convince former premier Mahathir Mohamad to agree to a later date in 2012. There are even those who believe the latest MAS-AirAsia deal was part of the horse-trading involved.