PETALING JAYA, Feb 1 — The clock is ticking for Pakatan Harapan (PH) and its chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as they wait for the Registrar of Societies (RoS) to recognise Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia’s (PPBM) maiden annual general meeting before the 14th general elections.
PPBM faces deregistration if RoS finds the party has contravened its own constitution by not holding branch and division AGMs to choose the delegates to attend its national level AGM held on December 30, 2017.
And if PPBM’s AGM is voided, Dr Mahathir and party president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin will have to find a quick solution so that their party would not be left out of contesting in the coming elections and to achieve their dream of unseating Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and ousting his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition from government.
For the PH Opposition pact, its leaders would be forced back to the drawing board where they would have to come up with a new “blueprint” on their attempt to take federal power minus Dr Mahathir and any one of the leaders from PPBM.
If this were to happen, PH can just forget its aim of capturing Putrajaya and instead focus on securing the seats they currently have as voters may abandon them.
PPBM is not the only PH component party at risk of deregistration as new ally DAP is also waiting for word from the RoS concerning the predominantly Chinese party’s new central working committee line-up post re-election.
With the legal status of both PPBM and DAP under question, their two PH allies, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara, may have to step up and see how they can tackle the elections effectively.
There is also the question of a common logo for all parties in the PH pact to use in the elections, to which the RoS has yet to respond for all Dr Mahathir’s call for them to do so.
If PH is not allowed to use the common logo on any technical grounds, then its efforts to present itself as a united group to take on the ruling BN will be wasted.
With reports of the party’s divisions and branches being dissolved due to mass resignations and criticisms of anomalies by those who resigned, PPBM is under heavy pressure to present a solid position.
That had probably convinced DAP to allow PPBM to stand out, above loyal partner PKR.
This can be seen in the PH top leadership’s choice of Dr Mahathir as its prime ministerial candidate, superseding de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim who is supposed to be out of jail by mid June.
While there is a deal for Dr Mahathir will work to obtain a royal pardon for Anwar that will enable the latter to take over as prime minister if PH wins the 14th general elections, PKR has yet to formally agree to it.
This is probably because PKR is still sceptical of Dr Mahathir’s sincerity; after all, the former prime minister who had sacked Anwar from his government in the late 1990s only said he would would towards Anwar’s pardon after many months and much evasion of questions.
But after the internal discord appeared to have been resolved, PPBM’s sole obstacle now appears to be the one they least anticipated — the much needed recognition from RoS over its AGM and the common PH logo.
The quickest way out of this conundrum would be for Dr Mahathir and PPBM members to be absorbed into the only other fully Malay party in PH — Amanah. But would voters take them seriously?
Only time will tell, but time is also what Dr Mahathir needs now to see his dream come true.
