More Changes Ahead

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A sea change happened two years ago, and now, rumblings of another revamp to the country’s administrative landscape is expected to keep eyeballs peeled on newsfeeds. WONG CHUN WAI, THE STAR
WITHOUT doubt, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad is the master politician! Like or loathe him, he has set a few records which no one in the world can match.
At 95 years old, he is the oldest Prime Minister in the world and his supporters, including the Opposition now, want him to remain in office. That’s unimaginable, though.
He is also the only PM in Malaysia to have been reappointed to the position for a second time, and still holds the record for being the longest serving PM in the two decades of his first tenure.
And now, he is set for another record – PAS is said to be ready to initiate a motion at the Dewan Rakyat next month to express support for Dr Mahathir.
The Islamist party, an Opposition party, is defying logic. Instead of making moves to dispose of a serving PM from the ruling party, it, in fact, wants to keep Dr Mahathir on.
There are two ways of looking at this – PAS wants to elevate Dr Mahathir to strike a deal, which could involve being in government, or, the party views the nonagenarian as such a liability to Pakatan Harapan that he could be the ultimate self-saboteur in the ruling coalition.
After all, surveys have showed that Dr Mahathir’s popularity has taken a plunge, with one study showing that Pakatan’s 87% popularity in GE14 had dropped significantly to 35% by the first half of 2019. Pakatan has also lost in four consecutive by-elections.
Since last year, PAS leaders have openly declared that its 18 MPs will back Dr Mahathir if a no confidence motion is placed on him.
This time, when the Dewan Rakyat sits from March 11, PAS wants to turn the tables and submit a vote of confidence.
For a vote of confidence to succeed in the Dewan Rakyat, it must have the support of at least 112 out of 222 MPs.
There’s another peculiarity – many PKR MPs, headed by deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali, want to retain Dr Mahathir at the helm instead of his own party chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Now, that’s also unprecedented.
Last week, Dr Mahathir said he welcomed support for him, including from Umno and PAS, saying, “Anybody supporting me, I feel like floating.”
Kuala Lumpur has been abuzz with speculation that moves are being made to create a new alignment, supposedly called Pakatan Nasional, comprising Dr Mahathir’s Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, and some MPs from PKR, PAS and Umno – leaving DAP and Anwar’s loyalists out in the cold.
DAP has struggled for acceptance in Malay politics, with Malay Pakatan politicians admitting that the DAP has been a burden for them, saying that party’s leaders suffer from image problems and the inability to be embraced by the Malay community.
It has also failed to win over the hearts and minds of senior civil servants at Putrajaya, and the lack of endearment has caused a debilitating fallout, with senior officials perceiving that they’ve been shut out.
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