With rising speculation that elections may be held this year, MPs and state assemblymen have been in search of their best option for success, either by sleeping with the enemy or trying to buy the trust of their president.
Political analyst Kenneth Cheng said backstabbing is to be expected as the governing Perikatan Nasional coalition holds only a wafer-thin majority in the Dewan Rakyat.
“Either side only needs to woo one or two MPs to have a majority. If the present government was strong, this would not happen,” he said.
Cheng said the betrayals are also due to seat negotiations among PPBM, PAS and Umno, stating that seat negotiations may fail as they disagree on the winnable seats.
“With several Umno MPs defecting to PPBM, Umno will say these are our seats, but PPBM will say the MP is now with us.”
Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya said elections may be held before August to avoid the possibility of having a general election before the new voting age of 18 comes into effect.
He said political heat between PPBM and Umno is rising after Umno’s decision to only work with the governing coalition until Parliament is dissolved.
Several political pundits have said that the conviction of Umno bigwigs facing corruption charges is likely, following the declaration of a state of emergency in January. The six senior Umno leaders facing trials are Najib Razak, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Ahmad Maslan, Tengku Adnan Mansor, Azeez Abdul Rahim and Bung Moktar Radin.
Awang Azman said PPBM may feel it has space to woo Umno MPs once Umno leaders are convicted. “The prime minister might instruct PAS to act as a peacemaker to get Umno to work with them.”
We don’t know who to trust
A veteran MP who wanted to remain anonymous told FMT that party members do not know who to trust after last year’s Sheraton Move, which resulted in the collapse of Pakatan Harapan and the rise to power of Perikatan Nasional.
“Some may pledge their support towards the party and the president but may be giving information to another party,” he said.
He said that before the Sheraton Move took place, politicians might backstab their colleagues as a way of securing a better seat, but there was less fear of betraying their party.
“We didn’t have to worry about our top secrets being leaked to other parties but now we do not know how the information will be manipulated,” he added. MPs may be double-dealing with other parties for a better seat while also trying to be in the good books of the president.
As political parties prepare for GE15, the veteran MP said they are weeding out the ”good from the bad by tracking down the journey of the MPs since GE14″ but since Malaysia does not have anti-hopping laws, the topic of loyalty remains subjective to some.
“For us, loyalty cannot be bought in a day or two, it is a journey. By now we are hoping we have listed the right people for the coming elections,” the MP said.
His coalition has so far listed its election candidates based on several key indicators, such as loyalty, education level, performance and grassroots support.
A PH strategist told FMT there are desperados who are willing to do anything and will continue to try and take advantage of the fragmentation and fluidity within political parties. He added that more elected representatives are likely to be offered money and positions to switch parties.