BARISAN Nasional’s big win in Malacca may be good news for Umno but not so for Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Universiti Malaya academic Prof Hamidin Abd Hamid said today.

Hamidin, an Ilham Centre fellow, believed the prime minister and Umno vice-president was facing internal threat from the upper echelons of the party following its victory in the Malacca elections earlier this month.

“He is hanging by a thread because he is facing an internal threat from within Umno, particularly from the president’s camp.

“We will have to see if Umno will abide by the memorandum of understanding Ismail signed with the opposition or will seek early elections,” Hamidin said during a presentation on the Malacca polls this afternoon.

“Will they go for national election first or they will go ahead with party polls? That is one interesting thing to see (too).”

Hamidin predicted that Umno will be dominated by the court cluster leaders Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Najib Razak, Ahmad Maslan and Azeez Rahim, who are all facing graft charges.

While Ismail is now prime minister, he was a cabinet member in Muhyiddin Yassin’s Perikatan Nasional government.

Ismail then received the backing of the majority of MPs from the government bloc after Muhyiddin resigned.

Barisan Nasional (BN) clinched a two-thirds majority in Malacca after winning 21 of the 28 seats in the assembly.

Pakatan Harapan (PH) contested in all 28 seats, with PKR fielding 11 candidates, Amanah nine and DAP eight. PKR lost all 11 seats to BN, DAP won four and Amanah one.

Pakatan needs new Malay narrative

Commenting on PH’s poor result, Hamidin said the opposition coalition needs to do some soul searching and find a new narrative after results shown that they have lost the vote from the Malay community.

He said PKR particularly needed rebranding after not being able to secure a single seat.

“The real loser is PKR. It has been inconsistent and disorganised in Malacca, as if there is no leadership.

“PH lost the votes from the Malays, some may question PH’s direction because, at the moment, it is all over the place.

“How does PH win the Malay votes? It needs a new narrative, a narrative that is close to the Malays,” he said.

Meanwhile, he said PN could still smile despite losing.

“It shows Muhyiddin’s domination and new leadership but there are some small cracks from Mohamed Azmin Ali’s camp,” he said without elaborating. – November 29, 2021.