1. At the risk of stating the obvious, Pakatan Harapan’s standing with the public is in rapid decline. And increasingly, its greatest liability is not the opposition, but the sitting Prime Minister himself and the party he leads, PKR.
2. As I warned in my earlier articles, the Prime Minister’s increasingly aggressive rhetoric and campaign-rally outbursts in Johor and Negeri Sembilan have backfired spectacularly. PH paid the price at the ballot box.
3. Johor may have been a BN state to begin with, but Negeri Sembilan was an altogether different humiliation. PH was flipped out of government, while the defeats of the incumbent Menteri Besar and DAP Secretary-General provided an almost irresistible political bonus.
4. Now comes the reported resignation offer by PKR’s Deputy President, reportedly attributed to her desire to pursue her education.
5. But politically, it can hardly be ignored that this is also the party’s Deputy President stepping away at a critical moment and doing so from a party led by her own father.
6. Rafizi Ramli and his influential faction have already left PKR to form a rival political vehicle. Combine that with the reported departure of its Deputy President and PKR is no longer the political machine it once was.
7. The uncomfortable truth is that the only thing keeping PKR politically afloat is the Prime Minister’s occupation of the Prime Minister’s Office. And even that lifeline is hanging on a thread.
8. The latest blow came earlier this evening with the resignation of YB Wong Chen from his parliamentary seat in Subang. And if the political whispers are correct, he may not be the last. For a government already battling questions of internal cohesion, every resignation is another drip from a rapidly emptying political blood bank.
9. DAP is now allowing its delegates to decide this month whether the party should remain in government. If DAP genuinely wants to preserve whatever remains of its public support before the next General Election, perhaps it should consider leaving the Cabinet now and become what I would call the “Opposition in Residence”, close enough to scrutinise the government, but far enough away to avoid being held responsible for its failures.
10. UMNO however should remain in the administration to save this Nation yet again from certain disaster. Otherwise this government will be left in the hands of incompetent Ministers running this country to the ground.
11. We should hold the Nation together and let the clock run out. Let the people observe the form of service we provide and hopefully, will us back in the the next GE as the primary force leading this Nation.
12. The problem for PH is that it may no longer have enough time to repair the damage. With roughly a year and a half remaining in the current term, the political haemorrhage may simply be too severe. Its leadership credibility is weakened. Its political narrative is losing oxygen.
13. At this stage, one would be forgiven for describing PH’s political health as terminal.
14. So perhaps PH now has only two choices: Palliative care or euthanasia.
15. The only sensible way forward for them is to be put on palliative care and play nice with BN until they expire.
