Anwar Ibrahim's plan to take over government may fail - Analyst

KUALA LUMPUR: UMNO's stance in rejecting the PKR and DAP while forgetting the internal controversy over the idea of the Perikatan Nasional (PN) has blocked Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's plan to take over the reins of government.

Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations, Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM), Prof Dr Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani said, however, the matter may be temporary as anything can happen in the future.

"UMNO has made clear its stance that I feel is similar to the previous action, namely the ceasefire with PN.

In fact, statements from UMNO figures such as Datuk Seri Nazri Aziz and others feel that the focus now is on COVID-19 issues and the economy.

"Forget for a moment the internal dispute in PN so that the focus is given to the two issues.

“Now that they are rejecting PKR and DAP, it has made clear that it is possible that Anwar's plan to take over power from PN may fail in the near future ... because in the future I do not know what will happen," he told Astro AWANI in an interview via Skype on Tuesday.

However, he stressed that UMNO also at the same time needs to give an in-depth explanation on the reconciliation that the party is trying to bring.

"What is interesting is the mention of reconciliation in terms of party relations that UMNO is trying to bring.

However, this approach is not clear. UMNO needs to be clear whether it is only in the context of PN or it involves the opposition," added Dr Mohd Azizuddin.

In discussing the issue as well, he saw that there were two parties who have different positions.

The first group, he said, was of the Barisan Nasional (BN) stance that they should not be with PN while another group thought that BN should be in PN.

"(At the same time) the extent to which Bersatu can compromise with UMNO's demands if the negotiations continue. The suspicion is indeed happening, so the potential (for) the negotiations to fail is there," said Dr Mohd Azizuddin.