WITH the Johor elections set for March 12, Anwar Ibrahim’s PKR seems to have taken a number of back steps and is looking like a loser. Strategically for Umno, this election within one of its strongholds is important to consolidate its electoral position. However, for PKR and Johor son, Muhyiddin Yassin and his party, Bersatu, this election is more about survival and maintaining some semblance of electoral relevancy.

At the time of dissolution on January 22, the state assembly was composed of Umno (14 seats), MIC (2), Bersatu (11) and PAS (1), which made up the government with 28 seats, and Pakatan Harapan, which held 27 seats through DAP (14), PKR (7) and Amanah (6).

Anwar has already irritated his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition partners DAP and Amanah with his decision to campaign under the PKR instead of the PH flag. This is being symbolically interpreted as the break up of PH. Some pundits liken this decision as having some undercurrents of arrogance, where PKR is testing the water to see how it can go alone electorally. PKR and the DAP have 25 years of political partnership, with DAP supporting Anwar during his darkest times. 

With Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman’s Malaysian United Democratic Alliance (Muda) reaching an arrangement on the sharing of constituencies with DAP and Amanah, ensuring there are no electoral clashes, to date no agreement has been reached with PKR. 

Although there is still time for an electoral agreement between all opposition parties before nomination day on February 26, the hustling and argument doesn’t look good for the opposition forces to show a united front against the government. 

This is a time where Umno, Bersatu and PAS are far from united and potentially weak electorally, if a strong and prudent opposition were the hustings united. This opportunity is likely to be completely wasted. 

There is talk that former education minister Maszlee Malik would be nominated as PKR’s MB candidate. Maszlee is currently the federal member for Simpang Renggam in northern Johor, which he won under the Bersatu banner when PH, then led by Dr Mahathir Mohamed, defeated Najib Razak’s Barisan Nasional government in 2018.

Maszlee re-joined PKR with reportedly 500 of his supporters last November. Anwar announced that Maszlee would be contesting the Layang Layang constituency, which falls within his Simpang Renggam federal constituency. In the 2018 state election, Umno’s Onn Hafiz Bin Ghazi won the seat with a 364 vote majority over the PKR candidate Murugan Muthu Samy. 

The Vibes has reported multiple sources have confirmed that Maszlee will be PKR’s candidate for the position of chief minister, if the opposition wins a majority. 

If PKR selects Maszlee as chief minister candidate, this would end up being a total disaster. Maszlee’s tenure as education minister was very controversial. He was charged with reforming the education system by focusing on STEM, but instead set about on his own rogue agenda that even then prime minister Mahathir Mohamed had to put an end to through sacking him.

Maszlee Malik is religious and arguably has some Salafi sympathies. During his tenure as education minister, he appointed more than 35 similar people to 35 top university positions. Rather than diversifying education leadership, Maszlee selected people from the same theological base. 

The recycling of Maszlee into any top political position will potentially bring religion into politics, based upon his track record. Consequently, PKR shouldn’t be seen as a party Islamising the government even more. Any announcement of Maszlee as chief ministerial candidate for PKR turns on a big red light on PKR’s policy platforms and what the party stands for. Maszlee’s poor performance as minister was a major cause of PH’s unpopularity with the electorate, where fiv by-elections were lost. 

Maszlee’s track record on corruption is also under question. While minister for education, Maszlee muzzled an investigation into alleged corruption over an RM1.0 billion project by instantly dismissing the chairman of the university board. 

Although the recent allegations of corruption against Maszlee might be politically motivated, it would only make sense that if Maszlee did become chief minister, Umno would do their best to persecute him to the point he wouldn’t be able to perform his duties. 

There are undercurrents within the local grassroots membership in Johor of dissatisfaction over the consideration of Maszlee, who appears to be dropped in by golden parachute without local consultation. Social media comments over the last couple of days are weighted against Maszlee, citing his poor performance as education minister as a major reason he shouldn’t be selected. 

There is a consensus that PKR should have other talent available for consideration for the chief minister’s position. The possible selection of Maszlee according to some comments highlights how PKR has lost its “reformasi” direction and its vision. 

The word on the ground is that Pakatan Harapan along with Bersatu and PAS are going to all find it very difficult to hold onto many of their constituencies with an Umno onslaught. If this is the case, then who will be the chief minister candidate for PKR or PH is just a moot point. It is almost impossible to see how Maszlee could reverse the momentum of the Umno momentum in Layang Layang where he is already notionally behind. Other PKR seats that may like be lost during the coming state election include, Pemanis, Bukit Naning, Semerah, and Tiram, leading to a near wipe out. 

Maszlee will even find it very difficult to hold onto his federal seat of Simpang Renggam, which he won with a majority of 3,475 in 2018, in the next general election, given the current electoral environment. This means Maszlee will need to look for a career post politics. 

As for PKR, this could be just like a small building in front of a tsunami. After the tsunami, the nature of the opposition is set for a major change. This could be without PKR playing a major role in the future. – February 16, 2022.

* Murray Hunter reads The Malaysian Insight. His blog can be accessed here.