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OPINION | Anwar Is Losing Control — Snap Elections Are Coming
20 May 2026 • 7:00 AM MYT
Image credit: Globalstats11 X
Early April, Anwar Ibrahim said that he won't be holding general elections in the next one or two months.
To that, I said that the very fact that he had to say that he won't be holding elections soon is a sign that elections will be held soon.
Just 3 or 4 days ago, the government spokesperson Fahmi Fadzil said that Anwar has given no indication that he wishes to call for elections soon.
To that, I said that it is not in Anwar's hands when elections will be called - Anwar doesn't have a two-thirds majority or even a simple majority in Parliament - he depends on external parties like Barisan Nasional and the Sabah and Sarawak parties to get him the minimum 50 percent of confidence in Parliament that he needs to rule the country. All of the parties that he depends on - BN, the Sarawak parties and the Sabah parties - for various reasons, are currently deeply unhappy with his administration
Worse, even his party and coalition, PKR and Pakatan Harapan, are ready to pull support for him.
As a matter of fact, pulling support from their party is exactly what two PKR MPs, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and Rafizi Ramli, have done today when they informed us today that they are joining a new party.
On July 12, DAP also looks certain to retract support from Anwar's administration as well. DAP is getting hammered left and right by its own supporters for its role in supporting Anwar's administration, which many of them find insulting and degrading to their person. Despite being the biggest component of PH, DAP has been given less important positions in the unity government than parties like UMNO, which not only has supported the unity government less than DAP, but has even been openly antagonistic towards it.
Yesterday, BN Johor declared that it is going to contest all the seats in the coming Johor state election, as though it sees absolutely no worth or value in its partnership with PH, and is looking forward to severing its ties with PH at the earliest possible time.
Just last month, Umno's 14 ADUNs in Negeri Sembilan even moved to collapse the PH-led government in Negeri Sembilan, where DAP holds 11 seats in the state assembly.
Pig farming has also received a blanket ban in the whole of Selangor.
Non-Malays and supporters of PH can't even have one day of fun in Kuala Lumpur by holding such events as the Rain Rave Water Music Festival without being labelled as holding a "pesta maksiat" or acting like "animals", while Anwar just watches and does nothing.
When DAP asked for UEC certification to be recognised last December, not only did Anwar slam the door in their face, in January, while unveiling the National Education Blueprint, he also embarrassed DAP further by making it compulsory for Malay and History to be taught in Chinese schools.
A couple of days ago, as a compromise, Anwar's administration allowed UEC graduates to apply for four insignificant bachelor degree courses in public universities - Chinese Language Studies, Chinese Language and Linguistics, Chinese Studies, and Chinese Language with Education - but even these crumbs were delivered to DAP with so much abuse and criticism that it must feel insulting for them to go through so much for so little.
Considering how DAP has been treated in the unity government, despite its contributions, sacrifice and forbearance, I doubt that the DAP delegates are going to vote for DAP to continue supporting the unity government in July - to do so would cause them to lose all self-respect.
So if not only external allies are not supporting him, but his own supporters are not supporting him, then who exactly is Anwar the leader of?
A word like "leader" can either just be a word, or it can have meaning.
To be just a word, a "leader" just needs to have a title - like Prime Minister, President of PKR, or head of PH.
But to have meaning, people actually have to follow a leader lah.
If no one is following you, but you still insist that you will be the PM, or party president, or head of your coalition, you will look like a fool who is confused, bewildered and has no self-respect.
You will look so pathetic that if you say do this or don't do that, even a kid won't listen to to you.
Anwar probably realizes this, because today, after Rafizi and Nik Nazmi announced that they would be joining a new party and made official the schism and division in PKR, Anwar announced that snap elections might be called in the future.
“At the moment the relationship at the federal level is cordial.
“But if they decide to go against the agreements, then the elections will not only just be in Johor and other states,” he said, in his keynote address at the Pakatan Convention in Johor Bahru today.
Although Anwar said "might", I don't think snap elections "might" be called in the near future - I think it WILL be called in the near future.
Anwar is just saying "might" to make it seem like he is still in charge and thus still has the capacity to decide when the general election is to be called, but I don't think his appearance of being in charge is going to last for long.
Before his appearance of still being in charge dissipates - and I think he just has a few of months before it dissipates - he better call for elections before the elections call him, and make him look absolutely impotent, weak and without weight in the process.
Early April, Anwar Ibrahim said that he won't be holding general elections in the next one or two months.
To that, I said that the very fact that he had to say that he won't be holding elections soon is a sign that elections will be held soon.
Just 3 or 4 days ago, the government spokesperson Fahmi Fadzil said that Anwar has given no indication that he wishes to call for elections soon.
To that, I said that it is not in Anwar's hands when elections will be called - Anwar doesn't have a two-thirds majority or even a simple majority in Parliament - he depends on external parties like Barisan Nasional and the Sabah and Sarawak parties to get him the minimum 50 percent of confidence in Parliament that he needs to rule the country. All of the parties that he depends on - BN, the Sarawak parties and the Sabah parties - for various reasons, are currently deeply unhappy with his administration
Worse, even his party and coalition, PKR and Pakatan Harapan, are ready to pull support for him.
As a matter of fact, pulling support from their party is exactly what two PKR MPs, Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad and Rafizi Ramli, have done today when they informed us today that they are joining a new party.
On July 12, DAP also looks certain to retract support from Anwar's administration as well. DAP is getting hammered left and right by its own supporters for its role in supporting Anwar's administration, which many of them find insulting and degrading to their person. Despite being the biggest component of PH, DAP has been given less important positions in the unity government than parties like UMNO, which not only has supported the unity government less than DAP, but has even been openly antagonistic towards it.
Yesterday, BN Johor declared that it is going to contest all the seats in the coming Johor state election, as though it sees absolutely no worth or value in its partnership with PH, and is looking forward to severing its ties with PH at the earliest possible time.
Just last month, Umno's 14 ADUNs in Negeri Sembilan even moved to collapse the PH-led government in Negeri Sembilan, where DAP holds 11 seats in the state assembly.
Pig farming has also received a blanket ban in the whole of Selangor.
Non-Malays and supporters of PH can't even have one day of fun in Kuala Lumpur by holding such events as the Rain Rave Water Music Festival without being labelled as holding a "pesta maksiat" or acting like "animals", while Anwar just watches and does nothing.
When DAP asked for UEC certification to be recognised last December, not only did Anwar slam the door in their face, in January, while unveiling the National Education Blueprint, he also embarrassed DAP further by making it compulsory for Malay and History to be taught in Chinese schools.
A couple of days ago, as a compromise, Anwar's administration allowed UEC graduates to apply for four insignificant bachelor degree courses in public universities - Chinese Language Studies, Chinese Language and Linguistics, Chinese Studies, and Chinese Language with Education - but even these crumbs were delivered to DAP with so much abuse and criticism that it must feel insulting for them to go through so much for so little.
Considering how DAP has been treated in the unity government, despite its contributions, sacrifice and forbearance, I doubt that the DAP delegates are going to vote for DAP to continue supporting the unity government in July - to do so would cause them to lose all self-respect.
So if not only external allies are not supporting him, but his own supporters are not supporting him, then who exactly is Anwar the leader of?
A word like "leader" can either just be a word, or it can have meaning.
To be just a word, a "leader" just needs to have a title - like Prime Minister, President of PKR, or head of PH.
But to have meaning, people actually have to follow a leader lah.
If no one is following you, but you still insist that you will be the PM, or party president, or head of your coalition, you will look like a fool who is confused, bewildered and has no self-respect.
You will look so pathetic that if you say do this or don't do that, even a kid won't listen to to you.
Anwar probably realizes this, because today, after Rafizi and Nik Nazmi announced that they would be joining a new party and made official the schism and division in PKR, Anwar announced that snap elections might be called in the future.
“At the moment the relationship at the federal level is cordial.
“But if they decide to go against the agreements, then the elections will not only just be in Johor and other states,” he said, in his keynote address at the Pakatan Convention in Johor Bahru today.
Although Anwar said "might", I don't think snap elections "might" be called in the near future - I think it WILL be called in the near future.
Anwar is just saying "might" to make it seem like he is still in charge and thus still has the capacity to decide when the general election is to be called, but I don't think his appearance of being in charge is going to last for long.
Before his appearance of still being in charge dissipates - and I think he just has a few of months before it dissipates - he better call for elections before the elections call him, and make him look absolutely impotent, weak and without weight in the process.
An increasing number of Penangites may now be open to supporting Gerakan again.
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