Old hands ready to pounce
If not for the Covid-19 pandemic, according to him, there are factions in Umno raring to force a snap poll. They are confident that Muafakat Nasional (the Umno-PAS alliance) and its allies could win enough seats in GE15 to form a government with an Umno MP as Prime Minister.
Philip Golingai, The Star
WHO can make a political comeback?
A) Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad
B) Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim
C) Datuk Seri Najib Razak
D) None of the above
I posed this question to two political analysts. I was curious to know whether Dr Mahathir could make a second comeback as Prime Minister. The first was when he did the near-impossible and became PM again in 2018.
Anwar was a heartbeat from becoming PM in the 1990s when he was Deputy Prime Minister to then fourth PM Dr Mahathir. He then failed to become the fifth and eighth PM. Could he become Malaysia’s ninth PM?
Can Najib do a Dr Mahathir and come back as our next PM?
Universiti Utara Malaysia political lecturer Prof Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani pointed out that we shouldn’t disregard these seasoned leaders: “Anything can happen in our politics. Things can change quickly. There could be a snap election around the corner. That is the reality of Malaysian politics now. (Politicians) could pull something to bring them back as the top leadership of our country, ” he said.
All of them, according to Universiti Malaya sociopolitics professor Awang Azman Awang Pawi, have a 50/50 chance of making a political comeback.
But many Malaysians are not aware that the trio is still in the political game, he observed. The Covid-19 pandemic has the rakyat less focused on politics and more worried about their health and financial wellbeing.
