COMMENTARY, Feb 2 — Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s political future hangs in the balance as his party, Parti Pejuang Tanah Air (Pejuang), faces the very real prospect of not being able to contest the coming general election, after the Registrar of Societies (RoS) rejected its registration application.
This could see both him and Pejuang disappear from the political landscape that he has dominated since the early 80s.
As it is, the nascent party is shunned by the Opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, essentially casting it adrift in the wilderness.
In a transformed political setting, Pejuang finds itself competing with three other Malay-centric parties for the same Malay votes that are now considered the prized trophy.
Pejuang’s main problem is that its chairman, Dr Mahathir, is no longer a magnet for these coveted ballots. In short, his leadership has lost the charisma that the Malays so admired when he led Umno during his first stint as prime minister.
This is compounded by the fact PH leaders feel “cheated” and blame him for the downfall of the PH government at the end of February last year.
Malaysians too seem tired of Dr Mahathir’s antics and no longer trust him. This in turn jeopardises his son Datuk Seri Mukhriz Mahathir’s own comeback plans because he is seen as living in his father’s shadow.
Mukhriz was not a popular figure to begin with, making it even harder for Pejuang to enter the country’s bruising political arena.
For the next general election, the party had considered contesting under Parti Amanah Negara’s flag, but it was told the final decision rests with the PH leadership.
It goes without saying that the Malay vote is important for any party with aspirations of taking over Putrajaya.
Despite PH’s tacit acknowledgement, it has no choice but to continue amassing as many votes as it can in order to ensure some sort of relevance.
This would be crucial should a similar scenario as that of Perak arise, which saw Barisan Nasional (BN) successfully toppling Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu from Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) as mentri besar.
Initially, DAP was BN’s partner of choice when PAS did not support BN’s candidate for mentri besar, but the plan was abandoned when PAS and Bersatu threw their support behind BN.
The only hope for PH parties, which are all multi-racial, and thus, seen as having little chance of courting Malay voters, is for the ruling Perikatan Nasional (PN) parties and BN to split.
This may become a reality if BN contests the general election on its own, and PAS ties up with Bersatu after abandoning Muafakat Nasional (MN), which it formed with BN last year.
Then the Malay vote could split three ways — Bersatu, PAS and BN — with PH not getting any share on account of Malay voters’ general hostility towards DAP.
Should this happen, the weakest party will be Bersatu, with PAS unable to make up the shortfall and Umno amassing the greatest number of Malay votes.
But whatever the outcome, it looks like Dr Mahathir and Pejuang’s electoral ambitions have ended before they even began.
