MALAYSIA: Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government is facing more challenges lately, particularly after the chaos created in Negeri Sembilan, a small state near Kuala Lumpur, where members of his Malay ally, United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), left the state government led by his coalition.

Following the chaos, former Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin, who was a powerful youth chief in UMNO, the party allied to Anwar in the unity government, has rebuked supporters of the PKR (Anwar’s party) who condemned the political chaos in Negeri Sembilan.

The PKR elements attacked UMNO, saying they are following the path of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) that toppled the Pakatan Harapan government, then headed by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, in 2020. The PN was then labelled ‘roof digging’ or backdoor government by PKR and Pakatan.

In a series of Instagram stories, Khairy, who is now a former MP, challenged those accusing UMNO of backdoor politics to compare it with Anwar Ibrahim’s move, when he was the opposition leader in 2008.

At that time, PKR and Anwar found it legal and logical to attempt to bring down the Barisan Nasional (BN) government under Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. Tun Abdullah is the father-in-law of Khairy.

“Many shallow-minded people in PH (Team X and Team B) attack UMNO for being opportunistic and spreading backdoor politics/tebuk atap by exploiting crises to launch a power grab.

“I suggest everyone (especially the younger generation) look up what was planned to happen on September 16, 2008, to know who started tebuk atap politics in Malaysia,” he said.

After he was set free by Abdullah Badawi in 2004, Anwar returned to Parliament via a by-election victory in August 2008.

Later on, Anwar announced that Sept 16 was the deadline for him to form a new federal government. He promised voters he would seize BN’s majority by persuading its MPs to defect to the then Pakatan Rakyat coalition, Malaysiakini reported.

Like in 2021, Anwar had then claimed he had secured sufficient support with over 31 Barisan Nasional (BN) MPs backing him to topple Khairy’s father-in-law. But this attempt failed.

Khairy also noted that when Anwar tried to topple the federal government in 2008, the world was already facing one of the worst economic crises, marked by severe financial instability and global liquidity problems.

To conclude his attacks on PKR and Pakatan, Khairy added that Anwar’s party should be brave enough to face a vote in the state assembly in Negeri Sembilan to let the majority decide who will rule the state or to find out if the current PKR Chief Minister still has a majority.

Fourteen UMNO assemblymen decided to pull the plug on the Pakatan-led government in the state, but the ruler of the state has said the Chief Minister, Aminuddin Harun, will remain in post. Anwar has also declared there is no need for fresh polls in the state.

This article (Ex-minister opens old wounds between UMNO and Pakatan in fresh split) first appeared on The Independent Singapore News.

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.