KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 14 — A Pakatan Harapan loss in the Tanjung Piai by-election would fuel the resistance of civil servants unconvinced of the coalition’s longevity, according to anonymous coalition sources.

They told The Straits Times this would worsen problems that PH already alleged it faced in gaining the support and cooperation of a civil service that had only known life under Barisan Nasional up until last May.

“They will start believing PH is a one-term government,” one unnamed senior official told the ST.

Since winning the 14th general election, PH government leaders have made complaints about the civil service that ranged from a lack of cooperation to outright sabotage.

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More conspiracy-minded personalities in the pact also bandied about terms such as the “Deep State” that was ostensibly undermining the government, but without ever defining that this meant.

The head of the disbanded Council of Eminent Persons, Tun Daim Zainuddin, previously told PH ministers to get over their suspicions of the civil service and learn to trust the officers under them.

The political confidante of Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said PH ministers who could not or would not work with the civil service were “doomed”.

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The by-election for the federal constituency in Johor is this Saturday.

It is a six-way contest between PH’s Karmaine Sardini, BN’s Datuk Seri Wee Jeck Seng, Gerakan’s Wendy Subramaniam, Berjasa’s Datuk Badhrulhisham Abdul Aziz, and two independent candidates Ang Chuan Lock and Faridah Aryani Abdul Ghaffar.