Former academic Azmi Hassan said a hashtag would go viral only if it resonated with social media users and Putrajaya should not dismiss the criticism as “just an online trend that will go away”.

“The government must address this particular matter,” he told FMT. “There must be dissatisfaction among the people for this hashtag to have gained prominence so quickly.

“#TamatDarurat also gained prominence in the last few weeks. So there must be something to this.”

Senior minister for economy Azmin Ali brushed off #KerajaanGagal as “just a sentiment” two days ago and said the government would not judge itself by looking at comments from people using the hashtag.

He also tried to explain why Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin rarely talked about politics, saying he had his focus on issues related to Covid-19 and the economy.

Azmi described Azmin’s statement as an attempt to “camouflage a bigger problem”, saying most economic, social and environmental issues were linked to politics.

“There are other ways to defend the prime minister. Azmin’s words will only hurt him more,” he said.

Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs said the hashtags likely resonated more with urban and middle-to-high-income voters since they tended to support the opposition.

He said such sentiments could more or less be neutralised if additional socio-economic aid and resources were given to the public.

He also said Muhyiddin’s decision to focus on the pandemic and economy were definitely intertwined with the political interest of ensuring long-term survival in Putrajaya.

These included gaining grassroots support for his party, Bersatu.

“That would require further disbursement of aid and resources which, by his own admission, are getting increasingly scarce,” he said.

Syed Arabi Idid of the International Islamic University Malaysia said Muhyiddin had not ignored political topics altogether.

He said the prime minister’s recent trips to Sabah and Sarawak were political visits, during which he sought to strengthen ties between the two states and the federal government.

But he also said it was likely that Muhyiddin was, for now, playing down politics to prevent negative responses from other political parties.