As MCO eases, Perikatan back in hot seat, say analysts
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PERIKATAN Nasional’s performance will be scrutinised again as the fight against the coronavirus winds down and the economy faces an uneven restart because of the contentious conditional movement-control order (CMCO), said pollsters and analysts.
As the two-month old administration struggles to revive an economy battered by the coronavirus, it again faces questions of legitimacy after it came to power without a general election, they said.
They told The Malaysian Insight public sentiment towards the informal coalition, which many tolerated during the early stages of the fight against Covid-19, will sour depending on how deep and prolonged the impending recession will be.
As it is, several ministers have already chalked up gaffes despite only being in Putrajaya for two months.
And despite its top leaders insisting that it is “not playing politics”, PN’s actions during the MCO show that it is fortifying its political position.
“First, if it was so confident in its position, the prime minister would not have admitted that his government was not chosen by voters,” said Mohd Azlan Zainal of polling outfit Ilham Centre.
In a March 27 live address to Malaysians to announce his RM250 billion stimulus package, Muhyiddin Yassin said: “This government may not be the government you voted for, but I want all of you to know that this government cares for you.”
It is understood that Muhyiddin was addressing voters angry over the decision to pull his party, Bersatu, out of the Pakatan Harapan government in late February, which triggered its collapse.
Muhyiddin’s Bersatu MPs then joined up with 10 MPs who defected from another PH party PKR to form a government with former rivals Umno, PAS and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
“The prime minister said it because he wanted to gain the sympathy and support from all Malaysians at a time when his government’s legitimacy was still being questioned,” said Azlan, Ilham Centre’s executive director.
Even while it was battling the coronavirus, the administration appointed MPs from Umno and PAS to plum positions in government-linked companies, statutory bodies and ministerial-level envoy posts, said Azlan.
“Why not let Dewan Rakyat sit as it was supposed to? If the coalition really has the support of the majority of MPs as they say they do, they should just let Dewan Rakyat sit for a longer period.”
PH leaders and civil society groups have widely criticised PN for holding a one-day Dewan Rakyat session on May 18.
It is widely believed that the one-day session is to prevent PH from tabling a no-confidence motion against Muhyiddin.
Snowball effect
On May 1, Muhyiddin said most sectors of the economy would be allowed to resume on Monday after being shuttered for seven weeks under the MCO.
This was after several days in which new Covid-19 infections dropped below 60 and director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia has “flattened the curve” of infections.
The MCO was initially enforced on March 18 to break the chain of Covid-19 infections. As at yesterday, Malaysia recorded 6,467 cases and 107 deaths.
However, some states rejected the CMCO over fears that looser restrictions would lead to crowds and a resurgence of the virus.
Businesses have protested against the decision, saying that it hobbled efforts to restart the economy.
Another pollster, Ibrahim Suffian said there will be pockets of dissatisfaction towards individual state governments which decided to postpone implementing the CMCO.
“But the overall impact is small because the delay is only about one week as the MCO as a whole ends on May 12,” said Ibrahim, executive director of the Merdeka Centre.
“The biggest concern is actually down the road, when the full impact of the recession is going to be felt most probably after Hari Raya Aidilfitri.”
Economists have warned that a recession is in the horizon for Malaysia as well as the rest of the world due to the fact that almost the whole planet is undergoing some form of lockdown to fight the coronavirus.
“The wider and deeper the impact, the bigger the political fallout for Perikatan,” said Ibrahim.
Ilham Centre believes the wave of discontent towards PN has always been there even throughout the MCO as seen in how ministers Dr Adham Baba, Zuraida Kamaruddin, Rina Omar and Noraini Ahmad were denigrated.
“Even if you look at senior minister Azmin Ali’s first live speech, he only received angry emoticons from people tuning into the Facebook live feed. After that, he never made a live speech ever again.
“All these things, the ministerial mistakes, the questions of legitimacy, the anger over insufficient aid will snowball against PN,” said Azlan. – May 10, 2020.