Sin Chew Daily

The race for the PM seat will conclude earliest after Merdeka and before the parliament reconvenes on Sept 6.

On the surface, this is going to be a race between the two major camps of PN and PH, but no one can rule out the possibility Umno will send a "representative" into the race out of the blue. Before the dust settles, a clash of the titans is essentially inevitable.

While we are in no position to decide who will win this time, we can only hope that this is the very last power struggle and no more in future.

PM Muhyiddin had a meeting with PN leaders on Wednesday afternoon to discuss the coalition's war plan in conjunction with the latest political developments in this country.

The Dewan Rakyat will table a confidence motion for the PM early next month. After Umno has submitted the names of the party's 14 MPs who have withdrawn their support for Muhyiddin, it appears that fewer than half of all MPs now support Muhyiddin as MP. In view of that, it is absolutely necessary for the leaders of PN component parties to meet not only to consolidate their fundamental support but also identify reps from rival parties who may be enticed into joining their fold.

As some quarters have urged Muhyiddin to prove that he indeed still has the support of majority of MPs, there is this likelihood that the confidence vote could be held earlier before Sept 6.

That said, if the PN coalition still desires to stay in power, all the allies must stand united and work together instead of letting the Big Brother do all the work to secure more support.

In the meantime, PN leaders have descended upon the capital city to map out their war plans. By comparison, Ahmad Zahid who is said to have offered himself as a PM candidate simply looks lonely.

It has been reported that when Ahmad Zahid submitted a list of Umno MPs retracting their support for Muhyiddin, he also offered himself to His Majesty as a PM candidate, with the 84-year-old party veteran Tengku Razaleigh as an alternative option . That, anyway, has been denied by the Umno president.

With only 14 MPs not supporting Muhyiddin as PM, Umno by right will not have any significant chance to claim the PM seat vis-à-vis much more powerful PN and PH.

Despite its relatively small representation in the parliament, Umno has been able to create waves in the Malaysian political ecosystem. If not for Ahmad Zahid and the 14 Umno reps, the country's political war fire would not have been reignited so fast.

If this momentous political bet is won, the "black horse" Umno may succeed in unseating Muhyiddin. If it fails, the party's unity is at stake, and we can't imagine how the pro- and anti-Muhyiddin factions within the party will get to work together again and mend the crack that has formed. And the repercussions could very well extend to the Umno-Bersatu collaboration in the next election.

As for PH, following the coalition's several failed attempts to recapture Putrajaya after the fated Sheraton Move early last year, it can no longer afford to act on the spur of the moment this time. In its stead, the component parties have only submitted the lists of their MPs rejecting Muhyiddin without proposing a PM candidate to His Majesty. Apparently, their main objective is just to state the fact that Muhyiddin no longer enjoys majority support now.

Anwar very much remains the one and only head of the PH coalition, but that does not mean he will benefit from Muhyiddin's loss of support from some of the Umno MPs because other anti-Muhyiddin reps will not support him.

Simply put, PH has driven itself to a "dead end" now. A more pragmatic approach should be to consolidate the support from the allies lest they get enticed by PN's "deals".

They can only hope that Umno will no longer work with Bersatu come the next general election, while PAS is distancing itself from Umno, thus giving PH an unexpected edge in winning over the Malay voters.

In the end, while Muhyiddin may not have the support of more than half of the elected reps, he will still have the largest support votes among the so many PM-wannabes, thus giving the King the prerogative to decide on an interim PM through the next election.