Parti Pribumi would lose pull without Dr M, analysts believe
(MMO) – Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia may survive the possible loss of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad but would lose its appeal without the former prime minister, according to political watchers.
Parti Pribumi may officially be led by Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, but Dr Mahathir who is currently hospitalised with a chest infection is seen as the main driver of the Umno splinter party, they noted.
Muhyiddin and former Kedah mentri besar Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir could carry the party in the 91-year-old former prime minister’s absence, but the two and other junior leaders in its line-up will not bring the same attention to the Bumiputera-centric party, they said.
“Yes, the party will survive without Dr Mahathir but it will surely lose some of its glitter because the former prime minister has been in the forefront in calling for the ouster of (Prime Minister Datuk Seri) Najib (Razak),” said independent political analyst Khoo Kay Peng.
Parti Pribumi has been variously called “Dr Mahathir’s party” and “Muhyiddin’s party”, but who holds the reins is not immediately clear. The former prime minister is to be the chairman of the party while the sacked deputy prime minister will be its president.
Muhyiddin was the one who submitted the application to register Parti Pribumi on the same day that Dr Mahathir was warded in the National Heart Institute (IJN), although it is unclear if the latter would have otherwise been present at the Registrar of Societies.
Doctors at the nation’s premier heart centre have restricted Dr Mahathir to receiving only family members and visitors for the duration of his stay, citing a need for the former Umno president to recuperate.
“Dr Mahathir is behind the formation of Pribumi but Muhyiddin as the president and Mukhriz as the vice president are the main players,” Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani of Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) told Malay Mail Online.
More worryingly for Parti Pribumi, however, is that the political analysts were unenthused about its prospects with or without Dr Mahathir.
Mohd Azizudin and Khoo both highlighted the lacklustre reception that Parti Pribumi has received from Umno members that it hopes to poach, as well as the lack of senior leaders from the Malay nationalist party defecting to its cause.
“Pribumi will only climb to a certain height because Najib has bagged the support of Umno division heads and that leaves this new party to rummage for support from grassroots,” Khoo told Malay Mail Online.
When contacted, Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Professor Dr Sivamurugan Pandian also expected that Parti Pribumi could go on in the event that Dr Mahathir could not, but was downbeat about the party’s chances with just Muhyiddin and Mukhriz as the remaining stars.
“Division heads in Umno are supporting their leader or at least a big chunk of them are, so those who would support Muhyiddin’s party will be ordinary members, fence sitters and non-governmental groups that neither support Umno nor Pakatan Harapan,” he said.
Dr Mahathir has a long history of heart problems and first suffered a heart attack in 1989, after which he underwent a bypass operation.
He subsequently experienced several more cardiac arrests and received a second bypass in 2007.
The former Umno president has also come down with several chest infections since the second bypass, the most recent reported in 2013.
