GEORGE TOWN: The natives of Australia are fully aware that when they throw the boomerang at a prey or an enemy, they ensure that they are not clobbered upon the weapon's return.
Penang Deputy Chief Minister II Dr P. Ramasamy said this "boomerang" metaphor fits the predicament faced by the top leadership of Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) following the arrest of three of its leaders for corruption, money laundering and abuse of power recently.
The latest to be arrested and charged was Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin.
The DAP leader said the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) had cast its net wide and others in Perikatan Nasional (PN) might be charged and arrested, including the "never do wrong" "sanctimonious" Pas leaders.
He said the "green wave", propelled by the PN coalition in the last general election, was predicated on the use of the corruption weapon against the Umno leadership.
He added that this "boomerang" was the principal reason that Umno lost the Malay support, especially in the north and east of the country.
"As the state elections are fast approaching, the PN leadership are so sure that such a weapon could be used in these elections to make further inroads in the Malay heartland.
"But the unexpected happened. History is full of turns and twists. Something that the PN coalition did not anticipate.
"Even if there were allegations floated about PN leaders, there was no concrete proof that they had indeed indulged in the nefarious acts of corruption. They just thought that unity government was just going for a big bluff without evidence.
"But then, the government of (Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Anwar (Ibrahim), despite its oscillations on some matters, was dead serious about stopping corruption in its tracks. It was just matter of time before the MACC was emboldened to swing into action to make their arrests," he said in his latest Facebook posting this morning.
Ramasamy said the third arrest was the biggest and was none other than the netting of Muhyiddin, who was charged and released on a RM2 million bail.
He said Muhyiddin and his ardent supporters could claim that they were being punished by the Anwar government for political reasons.
Ramasamy pointed out that it was on the matter of corruption and the bad publicity provided by the PN, that robbed Umno of its crucial Malay support.
He stressed that what was thrown at Umno, the "boomerang", has now come in full circle to hit and haunt the PN leaders.
Muhyiddin, according to Ramasamy, after being charged, had said that the recent arrests would only further embolden the PN leaders to go for the political kill, meaning that whatever Malay support that the present government has will vanish.
"I think that the 'green wave' has been checkmated to some extent by the arrests of Bersatu leaders. It is still there.
"Anwar might be described as a populist prime minister without an effective political strategy, but in the nabbing of some of the Bersatu leaders, he has demonstrated effectiveness to show that he means business'.
"Anwar might have demonstrated that only when the top leadership is clean, then only it is possible to move effectively against the scourge of corruption." he said.