AT the age of 96, former prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad still holds clout over the nation’s political scene by virtue of his legacy, political observers have said.

While the opposition has blamed him for the failure of Pakatan Harapan, despite working with him in 2018, they said the two-time former prime minister’s words still carry weight.

Although his influence may be diminishing, the fact that he was able to corral Malay voters in the 2018 general election means that parties will still want input from him, they said.

Professor James Chin of the University of Tasmania said Dr Mahathir, despite his past mistakes, is still a force to be reckoned with.

“People still listen to what he says because he is still a political icon. Whatever he does will attract a lot of media coverage, that’s why people always react to him,” Chin told The Malaysian Insight.

“The problem is for the political class, they have washed their hands of him completely. There is a consensus that he is more disruptive to Malaysian politics rather than being helpful.

“While he made Malaysia a modern society, he made too many mistakes after that.

“Basically, although you can’t erase his legacy, it will become increasingly negative.”

Dr Mahathir led the PH coalition to a win in the 2018 general election, ousting Barisan Nasional for the first time in 60 years.

However, after 22 months in power, the new liberal government collapsed due to the Sheraton Move.

“The opposition gave him credit as he was one of the main figures behind Malaysia’s regime change, but they blame him for two things: the Sheraton move in 2020, there is plenty of evidence to suggest that he triggered the process.

“The second thing that they blame him for is he did not bring in reforms after the 2018 win. He was basically running a Mahathir 2.0 government, like his BN or Umno days,” Chin said.

Is Dr Mahathir to blame for PH’s failure?

International Islamic University of Malaysia’s Tunku Mohar Tunku Mohd Mokhtar said the opposition was playing the blame game because they were upset with Dr Mahathir.

“I think they were upset that the hope and initiatives they started when they won the last elections fell through when Dr Mahathir stepped down,” he said.

“The problem lies also with the question of who should take credit for PH’s victory in the last elections.

“Dr Mahathir thought his Malay-led Bersatu had helped PH, but other components of PH also claimed they helped Bersatu win the elections.

“The fact remains one couldn’t have won without the support of the other.”

The opposition, Tunku Mohar said, more than anything, wants to set the record straight now.

“It knew what went wrong, and it should now work to win back support from the electorate. The mistakes of the past cannot be placed on only one person.”

Meanwhile, political analyst Oh Ei Sun said that while parties want to blame Dr Mahathir for things that went wrong, they cannot afford to enrage him because if he turns on them, they will have no chance of winning the Malay vote.

“Nowadays, he may not rake in a significant volume of votes for whichever opposition party or coalition that he chances to besmooch.

“If he happens to detest and thus malign that party or coalition, it would detract an appreciable amount of especially Malay votes, which the party could hardly woo in the first place.

“Therefore, they cannot afford to enrage him,” Oh said.

Without Dr Mahathir in 2018, the opposition would not have made any inroads to Malay voters, Oh said.

“They understandably harbour the fantasy that if Dr Mahathir were to somehow favour them, they could perhaps get a small number of Malay votes that could hopefully carry them over the top to win some seats.”

Dr Mahathir’s two-year-old party, Pejuang, has indicated that it would form its own alliances for the next general election. – June 13, 2022.