Mr Muhyiddin on Tuesday said he had garnered the support of 115 members of parliament, more than needed to form a majority. However, his claims were dismissed by the king.
The role of the king could prove “pivotal”, Prof Weiss said.
“That the king stepped in, (it is) good that there is a figure with stablising potential,” she said. She added, however, that it is a “fundamentally undemocratic” force by its very nature to have an unelected constitutional monarch who is making that decision rather than having the parties work that out on their own.
The king has yet to decide who would be the next prime minister, after meeting the leaders of PH and PN on Tuesday. Meanwhile, all 30 Barisan Nasional (BN) politicians who won in the election have been summoned to the palace to meet with the ruler individually.
COALITIONS WITH POWER TO BREAK STALEMATE
Sarawak’s kingmaker coalition Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) said it is going to wait for the dust to settle before making a final decision on which coalition to back, which Prof Weiss said is “extremely wise”.
“They then maintain the upper hand as being the kingmaker instead of simply one of a couple of potential kingmakers,” she said.
“Moreover, by doing so, they make sure that the specific and quite distinct interests of East Malaysia are taken into account in forming this coalition.”
BN can also potentially break the stalemate, with 30 seats to offer, but this would require the coalition to fix its leadership issues, Prof Weiss said.
Its decision to withhold support for either of the frontrunners is “quite perplexing”, Prof Weiss said, adding that it may reflect infighting within BN, which there has been speculation about.
She noted that immediately after the election, some called for Ahmad Zahid Hamidi to step down as the head of BN’s main component party United Malays National Organisation (UMNO), and by extension, as the head of BN.
“We've had really conflicting messages all through the last couple of days from BN about whether they were or were not looking for an alliance with Pakatan,” she said.
“I think it's really just a question of the BN pulling itself together and sorting out what it is that it's willing to accept.”
She added that the PH component party, Chinese-led Democratic Action Party (DAP) is a hindrance to BN working with the coalition.
“This simply reflects the extent to which BN rhetoric has demonised the DAP,” she said.
Another factor that may lead to BN breaking the stalemate is negotiating a better deal in terms of which positions they might hold in Cabinet, she said.
Prof Weiss held out hope that the coalitions would reach an agreement.
“My guess is that the BN will come around and will decide to join Pakatan as being the easiest solution,” she said.
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2022-11-23 03:45:17Z
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