MALAYSIA: PM Anwar Ibrahim is well seen by some analysts within Malaysia and outside the country, and they believe he can retain his post as Prime Minister after the next general elections.

But the internet, with social media buzzing about Anwar daily, seems to disagree with analysts. And in Malaysia, if one wants a barometer to gauge what’s up with local politics, social media platforms seem to be the norm.

Before the 2022 elections, there was a massive trend on social media with intense criticism of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government. They were called all sorts of names by pro-PH and pro-Anwar supporters.

One popular name given to PN and its leaders was ‘roof diggers’ and leaders from the ‘Satan move’, which is another name given to the ‘Sheraton move’ of 2020.

During the Sheraton move, many MPs left Anwar’s party to join Muhyiddin Yassin in a new government after the collapse of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s PH-led government.

PH turned out to be the most popular coalition, winning more seats, but not capturing Putrajaya, the government seat, on its own.

The Barisan Nasional had a relatively limited presence on social media. It was already clear in 2022 that BN would not win the elections, and they barely scratched the surface, ending as the fourth group in the running.

The Islamist PAS also had a lot of support on some social media platforms, particularly on TikTok. This translated into a big win for them. They became the biggest single party in the country, winning 44 seats. That was unprecedented;

The current landscape suggests a different ball game for some parties, especially Pakatan Harapan, with parties like PKR drawing more criticism online

Slow reforms, a massive divide in Anwar’s party, and the ‘prestations’ of Anwar as PM have dampened the party’s popularity.

One can say that Anwar and his party have never been that unpopular online. From TikTok to Facebook, the ball has turned against them.

Meanwhile, in June last year, Merdeka Centre gave Anwar an unexpected boost. It said the Unity Government has strong potential to remain in power in the new term after the 16th General Election (GE16).

Merdeka Centre Program Director, Ibrahim Suffian, said this would be the case if there are no major shocks to the country’s economy or political landscape in the near future.

He added that economic issues have remained the focus of the people for the past two decades and are expected to be the determining factor of support for the MADANI administration.

However, the Internet seems unforgiving towards Anwar for basically dropping his reform promises as soon as he became PM.

On Facebook, one commenter had this to say: “His supporters have begun to get angry at how the Madani government is managing the economy while they are struggling.

“Do you think they will vote again in silence? There are Malay candidates from other parties too. PN doesn’t need to worry — global issues are enough to make the people reject PH.”

What’s more interesting is that on the same post on Facebook, there were more than 3000 likes. But more than two-thirds of these likes were laughing emojis.

The users were laughing at the post’s suggestion that:

“Public Support for Anwar Increases. Anwar Could Become Prime Minister Again Even if GE16 Is Held at the End of This Year – Analyst”

This led another Facebook user to say that laughing emojis are plenty, but like emojis are very little.

But some made it clear they have little choice but to vote for Anwar in a fresh election because they do not see good choices from other parties.

“Simply put, it’s like this… If we don’t vote for Anwar, then who are we supposed to vote for? I’m also confused with Malaysian politics,” one noted.

This article (Perceptions of Malaysian PM now differs from analysts to online users) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.