It was Salahuddin Ayub, who is leading Pakatan Harapan's election machinery in Johor, who said last December that the Johor royalty's dislike of Mahathir Mohamad wasn't going to be an issue for the 14th general election. He said the Opposition's focus in Johor would be housing, education and the outflow of workers to Singapore and "whatever tension exists between Mahathir and the Sultan, let it stay between them."
On 7 April, TMJ, Johor's crown prince, wrote a long piece on FB warning Johoreans ahead of the general election "of a forked tongue individual". DAP Johor chief Liew Chin Tong wasn't the least worried also. "... based on to the responses we read (to the crown prince's post), perhaps the support for the palace cannot be transferred to Johor BN," Liew said h e r e. DAP's
Zaid Ibrahim felt that TMJ's support for BN would actually benefit Pakatan.
Today, unexpectedly, the family of Private Adam came out to apologise to Johor Royalty, hence vindicating the TMJ. The Johorean Big Dog the blogger calls it the unravelling of 30 years fake news left uncorrected.
"An urban legend about Sultan Johor Almarhum Sultan Iskandar Ibni Almarhum Sultan Ismail, pertaining to being the cause of Private Adam Jaafar went amok thirty years ago was unravelled.Private Adam’s family stepped forward to tell their side of the story believed to be inspired by Tunku Mahkota Johor Tunku Ismail Ibni Sultan Ibrahim’s posting in the Southern Tigers Facebook, warning against “The man with forked tongue”.
I wonder if Salahuddin, Liew Chin Tong or Zaid still believe that the Johore palace's feelings and views about Mahathir would not hurt Pakatan's harapan to take over the Johor state at the May 9 general election. I somehow doubt it.