Why won’t PPBM back Anwar for PM? Because he can’t be, say analysts
(MMO) – Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) leaders’ refusal to endorse the jailed Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to be prime minister is simple pragmatism, according to political analysts.
While there are legal gymnastics that make it possible for the PKR de facto leader to become prime minister in the event Pakatan Harapan wins federal power, they said the implausibility made it pointless to contemplate.
Anwar is serving the third year of his five-year sentence for sodomy. Without a royal pardon or an early release, he is just under eight years away from eligibility to stand for an election, which he must first win in order to be PM.
“In the current political situation, it is impossible for Anwar to be PM. PPBM knows this,” Universiti Utara Malaysia associate professor Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani told Malay Mail Online when contacted.
At the PKR annual congress on Sunday, the party’s leaders as well as some from Pakatan Harapan such as Lim Kit Siang and Mohamad Sabu held up placards saying “Anwar as the 7th PM”.
However, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin both refused to do so.
Although Dr Mahathir did not state his refusal, he had once been adamant that Anwar must never rise to the post.
