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Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said the open attack, especially on economic policies, was unusual.
He told FMT that such issues would normally be left on the back burner, unlike the bickering between PN and Barisan Nasional.
He said PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin, in openly admonishing Ismail, was insinuating that the current administration was incompetent.
“Muhyiddin is trying to attract more voters to his side and push for an early election,” he said. “This means GE15 is very close.”
Azmi also sees Muhyiddin’s outburst as a swipe at Umno since Ismail is a vice-president of the party.
He said Muhyiddin was putting both Ismail and Umno in a tough spot when he claimed that the recommendations of the National Recovery Council, which he chairs, were not followed through.
“It will be hard for Ismail and Umno to defend themselves as the economy is not in good shape,” Azmi said.
Yesterday, Muhyiddin said the council had submitted 95 recommendations to the Cabinet – 69 on socio-economic issues and 26 related to governance.
He said only 16 of the 69 had been fully implemented while 30 were in the pipeline, 14 yet to be implemented, and nine awaiting the Cabinet’s decision.
Muhyiddin’s latest attack on Ismail comes more than a week after he said a general election should be held if the prime minister could not manage the economy and country well.
Ismail shot back, saying Muhyiddin, as his predecessor, was just as responsible for any of the government’s shortcomings.
Another analyst, Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said Muhyiddin was being “politically optimistic” in attacking Ismail in the open.
“But there are genuine frustrations among the business community though,” he added.
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