KUCHING: Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin appears to be gearing up for a snap general election (GE) to end doubts over his mandate amid accusations his Perikatan Nasional (PN) government is ‘backdoor’ and lacks parliamentary majority.
Political observer Datuk Peter Minos predicted that the general election could be held as early as this year, possibly in September or October.
He said many factors contributed to the possibility of a snap general election, among them the constant attacks and criticisms from Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
“They keep on harping that Muhyiddin became the prime minister through the ‘back door’ even though we all know that Muhyiddin was properly and constitutionally appointed by the King after Dr Mahathir resigned abruptly,” he said in a statement on Sunday.
He was commenting on a report carried by Singapore Straits Times entitled ‘Malaysia PM Muhyiddin Yassin looks to snap polls to end battle with predecessor Mahathir’.
Minos said among the other reasons was the Pakatan Harapan (PH) group was actively enticing MPs from PN to defect knowing that Muhyiddin has a very slim majority in Parliament.
“I am sure Muhyiddin knows he cannot go on with the slim majority and the threat of defections. So, he has no choice but to go back to the people and get their mandate,” he said.
He noted that Dr Mahathir, Anwar and others in PH were ‘on the rampage’ against Muhyiddin, “obviously out of spite, personal anger, vengeance and thereby endlessly creating political chaos and crisis in Malaysia”.
“This bad and negative politics must end. Thus, an early general election is absolutely necessary to spare Malaysia the political pains from getting bad to worse,” he pointed out.
Minos also viewed that Muhyiddin knew that if the GE is held soon, Malaysians would fully support him because of his calm, decisive and effective leadership.
“The way he handled the coronavirus crisis was smart. While showing much compassion and concern to the suffering Malaysians, he had simultaneously made sure that the national economy was not going under as evidenced by the economic stimulus packages he implemented,” he said.
He believed that if the general election is held soon, Muhyiddin and PN would get solid support from Malaysians and triumph well.
“I can feel and sense the Malaysian political current. People are very tired, sick and totally fed up with what Dr Mahathir, Anwar and PH have been doing. Malaysians will punish them,” he enthused.
