Azmi Hassan, a former lecturer with Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said a unity government, by definition, would need to be composed of all parties that have representation in Parliament.
“There are still sentiments in Umno that Tun can’t be trusted and this feeling also runs in PKR,” he told FMT.
He said “that’s the very reason” he believed a unity government with Mahathir at the helm would be difficult to establish.
Azmi said Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin was likely to seek to stabilise the current administration rather than join a unity government because it would be difficult for him to surrender the administration he had worked so hard to establish.
“Theoretically, he should support any form of government that is more stable than the current government, but this is easier said than done,” he said.
Talk of a unity government, first mooted by Mahathir in February, resurfaced after the former prime minister met MPs in the government and opposition blocs as well as a federal minister.
Sources told FMT Mahathir had met with Umno advisory board chairman Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu on separate occasions.
Azmi said it did not matter, in these unstable times, whether the country was administered by a unity or interim government as long as the person at the helm had a solid majority.
He said the people wanted one individual who could reconcile the warring parties temporarily so that the nation could be well governed until the next general election.
Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs told FMT that forming a unity government would be one way of restoring stability in the government.
Another option, he said, would be for Muhyiddin to step down as his choice to fight and stay in power would only prolong the political instability.
However, Oh warned that any unity government configuration should not be like the one proposed by Mahathir in February.
“Mahathir was proposing to have a government in which all members would be responsible only to him and not their respective parties,” he noted. “I think that’s very dangerous because it will have a dictatorial tendency.”
He said having Mahathir lead the country again would be reassuring, describing him as a “steady pair of hands” with a proven track record.
However, he added that Mahathir was not the only one capable of leading a unity government. He mentioned Tengku Razaleigh and opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as among veteran politicians who could also fit the bill.
He said these figures would go down well with the people for the most part but probably not with some politicians.
“The people may want someone like Anwar or Mahathir, but politicians don’t like them, probably because they’re too smart or too capable.
“In a sense, they don’t want people of that calibre because then their own turn won’t come.”
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