AFTER Pakatan Harapan (PH) won federal power in May 2018, it managed to fill four senior cabinet positions within a matter of days.

But the story is unfolding very differently for Perikatan Nasional. The administration, whose leaders have said want to “save the country from PH”, has not announced a new cabinet, despite being in power for almost a week.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, however, yesterday appointed Federal Court judge Idrus Harun as attorney-general, replacing Tommy Thomas who resigned last week.

Perikatan leaders have criticised PH for not being able to govern, but have themselves approached ex-government ministers to help them.

On top of this, Bersatu reps in Penang, Selangor and Malacca do not appear to be on the same page as its national leaders and the Perikatan government.

Bersatu lawmakers in Kedah, Penang and Selangor back PH, even though the party has left the coalition.

However in Malacca, Bersatu’s two state lawmakers have been sidelined by the state Perikatan government, even when their party is part of the ruling coalition.

Political analysts said these signs point to disturbing facts about Perikatan, that:

• Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is finding it hard to form a cabinet of leaders with integrity, which he promised in his first official speech.
• Umno, and not Bersatu, which is Muhyiddin’s party, is the dominant party in the government.
• Bersatu, who cobbled together the Perikatan government, is itself splintering in a way no other political party has in Malaysian history.
• contrary to its allegations against PH, it is an even more unstable political coalition.

“Muhyiddin trapped himself in his first speech as prime minister,” said political scientist Mazlan Ali.

“He wants a government of individuals who are clean and have high integrity but he does not have much of a choice because Umno is the biggest party in the government,” said Mazlan, referring to the Malay nationalist party’s 39 parliamentary seats.  

Umno’s top leaders are currently being investigated for a litany of fraud, graft, bribery, abuse of power and corruption charges, all of which were committed under the Barisan Nasional-led administration. 

These include current Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, former secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor, ex-information chief Ahmad Maslan and ex-Sabah Umno chief and former chief minister Musa Aman. 

“At the end of the day, Perikatan is also a coalition of parties with differing ideologies. Some are okay with integrity and some are not. Not like PH where everyone was committed to integrity.  

“This makes Perikatan fragile and the possibility of it collapsing is there,” said Mazlan of the Razak Faculty of Informatics and Technology in Universiti Teknologi Malaysia.

Fragile coalition

Muhyiddin’s government is being propped up by a bloc of parties – Umno and PAS – known for their commitment to identity politics.

Both parties, part of Muafakat Nasional, contribute 57 seats to the Perikatan government.

In comparison, Muhyiddin’s Bersatu, which used to be a PH component party before it decided to quit last week, has only 30 MPs.

“Umno and PAS have the biggest bargaining chip. Together, their Muafakat Nasional can threaten to pull back their support if their demands on certain ministries are not entertained,” said Tunku Mohar Tunku Mokhtar of the International Islamic University Malaysia.

On the national level, Perikatan has started wooing PH personalities, such as Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, to take up their former cabinet positions.

“What happened in Selangor and Malacca shows that intra- and inter-party squabbles are present, and may cause instability,” said Tunku Mohar.

Even as Perikatan attempts to project itself as a united front, the reality is that it is not, he said.

“Umno and PAS leaders have started talking as though they are already in government.”

The day after Muhyiddin’s “integrity speech”, Umno secretary-general Annuar Musa warned on his Twitter that a Perikatan collapse could happen if there was a failure to reconcile the prime minister’s idealism and aspirations of individual parties.                    

“The delay in appointing cabinet ministers is symptomatic of conflicts within this new loose coalition.” – March 7, 2020.