Tun M’s Absence Proves PH Cannot Penetrate The Malay Heartland

Former Pakatan Harapan (PH) Chairman, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad’s has proven his clout among the Malays, by simply doing nothing in Melaka.

Strong, Formidable And Convincing

Since Pakatan Harapan Chairman, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s release from prison in 2018, he has never stopped claiming to have the numbers to form the government.

”I have a strong, formidable and convincing majority,” he said in 2020.

His supporters to date, also argue that Anwar has sufficient Malay support to win a General Election, enabling Anwar to fulfil his obsession of being PM of Malaysia.

Sometimes, his supporters would go as far as to claim that Anwar could have won the 14th General Election without Mahathir’s help.

So Mahathir gave Anwar a chance to prove his mantle. Twice.

A Chance Given

In the first chance in August 2021, Mahathir and his 3 MPs from Pejuang supported Anwar as PH’s sole PM candidate.

Warisan President, Datuk Seri Shafie Apdal and his party’s 8 MPs also gave their vote to Anwar.

Thus the issue of Anwar failing to become PM as a result of Mahathir’s doing did not arise, because Mahathir and his allies did cast their votes for Anwar.

When met asked by his allies at the National Palace, Anwar’s men even said that Anwar has convinced 7 MPs to crossover.

But when it was time to show-hand, not a single MP crossed over.

Anwar ended up with only 105 votes, 6 short of the required 111 votes.

Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN)’s candidate, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob in-turn, received 115 votes and was installed as Malaysia’s 9th PM.

Second Chance

The second chance came in the recent Melaka State Election.

BN’s resounding two-thirds victory saw UMNO capturing 18 seats, while MCA and MIC won 2 seats and 1 seat respectively.

PN won two seats, leaving PH to lick its wounds with merely 5 seats.

In other words, this meant that PH under Anwar’s leadership could only retain a third of the 15 seats the coalition won under Mahathir’s leadership in 2018.

All 21 seats won by BN has a Malay-majority electorate.

As for the 5 seats PH retained, 4 are Chinese-majority seats won by DAP while the other seat was won by Amanah’s Adly Zahari.

PKR was completely wiped out this round.

So this begs the question of how PH would fare in the GE15, when it is proven that the coalition has near to zero Malay support.

Will Anwar’s supporters continue to curse and blame the Old Man?

Perhaps. But for what this time, since Mahathir did not even do anything.

Whatever it is, the Old Man has proven his clout among the Malays, by simply doing nothing.

PH simply cannot win the Malay votes without him.