Can the people bring regime change with snap elections?
There are many reasons for Malaysia to hold snap elections but there is one hurdle stopping it: The new COVID-19 outbreak.
The lessons learned from the failures by many to observe the strict pandemic SOP in the Sabah elections is an example.
After the elections, Malaysia is registering record infection levels nationwide. Though most of the infections are in Sabah, the states of Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are also hit.
The infected individuals from Sabah brought it to the peninsula, so we are told.
TURNING TIDES
Last week we saw a flurry of activities in politics. Anwar Ibrahim was called by the Palace and the police.
The Palace meet went on well for Anwar who delivered his documents as promised.
But Anwar was soon on the defensive with accusations of lying to the King from trolls on Social Media.
Nevertheless, Anwar’s attempt is to bring back the GE14 mandate given by the people to the PH.
This is plan and simple. It is not about power hungry MPs. These MPs already snatched power in Febuary.
In fact, if Anwar fails in his bid to retake power that was stolen with the help of Umno and the PAS, it will send a wrong signal for democracy.
As for the snap polls, we have seen the result in several by-elections and that of the Sabah elections.
While the Sabah elections shows a change of tide against Shafie Apdal, it did not give a clean slate win to the PN.
This is getting the PN to rethink its idea of going for a snap poll to win big.
Results can be unpredictable and the peninsular is not like Sabah. Though the Sabah win for the PN-MN etc could help them garner some additional votes.
But that is not a certainty as things are changing in the political arena.
With Anwar’s push to become PM, Keadilan is getting support from various sources.
Can Malaysia hold an election in this COVID crisis? It does not look like a good idea.
It might look like an attempt by some to manipulate the poll results if elections were held now.
VOTE BUYING FEARS
There are many unscrupulous MPs who are out there to do the bidding for some. The PN may not also win with a big margin. it is now under fire on social media for the mishandling of the COVID-19 during the Sabah polls.
If the social media is of any standards for benchmarking, we can say things does not look good for PN.
But there are also fears of manipulations and vote buying which may become very rampant. With COVID, many people lost their jobs. Some may resort to buying their votes!
KARMA?
PM Muhyiddin Yassin got a shot in the arm after the slim victory in the Sabah elections. But it quickly turned into a nightmare.
His political allies in the Umno are now making demands. They want the Deputy Prime Minister post in Malaysia.
This is ruffling some very important people in the Perikatan Nasional government in Putrajaya.
Many see their posts at stake and this is not acceptable after their successful plot in February.
For foreign readers, Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation in February brought a new government.
The regime is called the Perikatan Nasional. It is made of the Bersatu (Muhyiddin’s party), the Umno, the Islamists from the PAS and the GPS in Sarawak.
The leaders and MPs of the new government formed in February brought the downfall of the Pakatan Harapan.
The PH was the elected government in 2018 but a few of its MPs decided to back the Muhyiddin regime.
This left the PH in the opposition. But now, Anwar Ibrahim is on the move and has secured a majority in Parliament.
Muhyiddin has a slim 114 v/s 108 majority among the 222 MPs in the Parliament.
Anwar’s move is a sort of Karma for the people who betrayed his party and for those who backstabbed the PH. Anwar says he secured the support of more than 120 MPs in Parliament.
The country is waiting for a response from the Palace after the King’s audience with Anwar.