After eight months of taking over federal power, a political analyst today noted that there has a general sense of disappointment with the performance of the Pakatan Harapan government.
Associate Profesor Bridget Welsh said with race relations continuing to be an underlying factor in the Malaysian political landscape, Harapan has indirectly sidelined some of its existing support base.
"Unlike US President Donald Trump who had responded to his political base and hold on to power, in Malaysia we don't see that.
"So all sides are somewhat disappointed," Welsh said at a forum organised as part of Help University's Conversation on National Issues series themed "Building a New Malaysia: Agendas and Aspirations".
Despite Harapan's long list of promises, Welsh likened the country's current state to the situation in Myanmar where expected democratic reforms have slowed down to almost a halt.
Welsh, who described the situation as being deeply worrying, attributed the general public disappointment to an overall fragmentation of the society and Harapan government's perceived focus on attempts to increase Malay representation in Parliament.
In the ongoing nation-building process in a new Malaysia, Welsh noted that it is important to resolve the issue of leadership and move towards a peaceful transition of power from Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad to PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, as has been reportedly planned.
"We have a power struggle going on for the succession between Mahathir and Anwar.
"This is one which has been going on and being fueled largely by people around them," she said.
"It is a product of lack of trust between individuals within the system and this has actually been quite destabilising for the nation," she noted.
Mahathir had repeatedly reassured that he would honour his "promise" to handover powers to Anwar.
The Port Dickson MP, meanwhile, had similarly called for an end to speculations of a rift between him and Mahathir.
Commenting further, Welsh projected possible scenarios of how the succession could play out, including a "numbers game" situation where she said both Mahathir and Anwar are currently at a stalemate.
"They will have to work together as neither individuals have enough numbers on their own. They are dependent on each other.
"But unfortunately the situation is fluid, many people don't see that," she said.
"Efforts to win people to different sides is ongoing and a lot of 'frogging' is ongoing," said Welsh in reference to a spike in post-GE14 crossovers, mostly from Umno to Bersatu.
Responding to rumours of alleged attempts to boost Bersatu's strength against other Harapan parties, its' deputy president Mukhriz Mahathir had previously stressed that the party will not open its doors to Umno lawmakers looking to cause a rift within Harapan.
On the role of Umno and PAS as part of the opposition front, Welsh said the former has been rendered unviable following its election loss, while the latter's Islamist stand is untenable as a national party.
Former G25 member Tawfik Ismail, who was also on discussion panel, expressed similar concerns on the "shared Umno genes" within Bersatu and other Malay-based parties in Malaysia.
"By accepting Umno into Bersatu you get the ghosts of Umno haunting you," said the former Umno Sungai Benut MP, who noted that it would be very difficult to break apart culture of political patronage long associated with the largest Malay-party in Malaysia.
The first session of its kind to be organised by Help University, the panel also featured former ambassador Redzuan Kushairi, G25 member Sheriff Mohd Kassim, HELP University deputy vice-chancellor Prof Dr Zakaria Ahmad and Price Water House Coopers Malaysia partner Patrick Tay. - Mkini
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