KUALA LUMPUR – Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s parliamentary majority might be teetering on the brink but Malaysia’s two opposition stalwarts seem unable to see eye-to-eye – even literally.

Leaders of the Pakatan Harapan-led (PH) opposition are having to meet with former premier Mahathir Mohamad separately from his protege-turned-nemesis-turned-uneasy-ally Anwar Ibrahim in their bid to reclaim power after their sudden ouster in February.

It is an open secret that both men believe they should be PM should the Muhyiddin administration fall, although publicly, neither are committing either way.

Tun Dr Mahathir is bidding to be premier for the third time ahead of his 95th birthday next month while Datuk Seri Anwar is still awaiting his chance to govern Malaysia 22 years since last being in Cabinet.

But the fact that they have not met since Tan Sri Muhyiddin was sworn in on March 1 is telling, especially as PKR president Anwar has met the Prime Minister – who defected with about 40 other MPs to topple the PH government – in that time.

Asked about their relationship on Friday, Tun Dr Mahathir insisted: “I have no problem with Anwar.

“Maybe he has a problem with me. That I don’t know. You will have to ask him,” he said of the man who was supposed to replace him as premier mid-term under a transition deal brokered prior to ending Umno’s six-decade rule at the May 2018 election.

It might as well have been 1998 again. When he announced capital controls to tackle the fallout of the Asian financial crisis that September, Dr Mahathir – still in his 22-year-long first run as PM – was asked about his relationship with Datuk Seri Anwar.

He mouthed the words “very good” and gave a thumbs up. The next day he sacked the deputy premier, igniting 18 years of enmity before coming together to defeat the Najib Razak regime.

PH chief Anwar, for his part, had said last month it was his duty as Opposition Leader to ensure they remained united when addressing criticism over his continued cooperation with his former mentor.

“Without Mahathir and Anwar working in unison, the opposition’s 109 seats will be fragmented and Muhyiddin will be the biggest winner. Refusing to join forces is akin to giving a free passage to Muhyiddin’s rule,” Senator Liew Chin Tong, a strategist from PH component DAP, wrote on Saturday (June 6).

PH, made up of the Malay-led multiracial PKR, Chinese-dominated DAP and Islamic Parti Amanah Negara, have 91 MPs, with another 18 pro-Mahathir MPs ensuring that Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia president Muhyiddin is barely above water in the 222-strong legislature.

On Thursday, fresh from Deputy Works Minister Shahruddin Salleh’s decision to quit his mentor Muhyiddin’s government – leaving Perikatan Nasional (PN) with the bare minimum 112 MPs needed for simple majority – opposition leaders assembled to discuss further plans with Dr Mahathir but without Mr Anwar.

PKR was conspicuous by their absence at the meeting of what is now termed PH Plus – including Sabah’s ruling Warisan led by chief minister Shafie Apdal and Dr Mahathir’s faction of Bersatu that has refused to back Mr Muhyiddin.

More so as the same group of PH leaders who met with Dr Mahathir had to later convene with Datuk Seri Anwar the same night.

It was a repeat of May 18 when Parliament sat for just 45 minutes before adjourning to July 13 – fulfilling a constitutional requirement to meet within six months of the last sitting – to ensure Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) majority was not tested. Only PKR was absent while other PH Plus chiefs joined Dr Mahathir at his office that afternoon in a press conference to allege that the national legislature had become a “silent house”.

And while the opposition’s momentum stalls due to the internal bickering, Mr Muhyiddin is moving to stabilise his government. Late on Friday, he immediately struck back by winning over a PKR vice president from the eastern state Sarawak, bringing his numbers back to 113.

It was also a psychological blow to PH, whose leaders, including DAP secretary general and former finance minister Lim Guan Eng, had been posting pictures of hornbills, the official bird of Sarawak, on social media – thinly veiled suggestions that ruling pact MPs from the state were ready to defect.

“Hoping for the hornbill to land on Harapan, turns out the hornbill is loyal to Perikatan,” tweeted Senior Minister for the Economy Azmin Ali, who was PKR deputy president before leaving in February.

More defections are being planned, in what has become a see-saw battle between the two sides. But for PM Muhyiddin, just as important as ensuring the numbers on the government bench, is setting the cat among the pigeons in the opposition while knitting together his own informal alliance.

The Straits Times understands that as reconciliation with Bersatu co-founder Mahathir is at a dead-end, the premier has kept lines open with Mr Anwar via intermediaries. The PKR president claimed last week he was offered the deputy premiership while chief whip Johari Abdul said on behalf of the party’s now 38 MPs that “we note that negotiations and discussions with all parties will proceed”.

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