PERIKATAN Basional (PN) can forget about wanting to topple Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim by staging political rallies in the likes of “Turun Anwar” at this midway juncture of the Madani administration.
For now, the only way for the various Anti-Anwar groups to bring success to their “Turun Anwar” campaign is to deprive PMX of the support in the Dewan Rakyat, according to veteran journalists and blogger Datuk A. Kadir Jasin.
“Only through a vote of no confidence in the House could they hope to remove him,” insisted the National Journalism laureate in a Facebook post. “The practice of signing statutory declarations may not anymore find traction or be recognised.”
Delving farther, Kadir said a PM – theoretically – can be removed through either a formal vote of no confidence or by losing a vote on a crucial government bill.
“A vote of no confidence explicitly tests the government’s support in Parliament while losing a key bill can also be a de facto vote of no confidence,” opined the former group editor-in-chief of mainstream New Straits Times.
“Faling which the opposition have to wait for a general election (GE) to be held. That would be another three years should Anwar decide to stretch parliamentary term to February 2028.”
‘Reformasi rallies didn’t bring down TunM’
In the meantime, assuming that PMX is done with as a result of the recent implosion of PKR and the consolidation of the Opposition, Kadir wondered who would lead the country?
“In the opposition camp, the jury is still out on whether it would be Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Bersatu president and PN chairman) once more or the Opposition leader (and Bersatu secretary-general) Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin,” revealed the former media adviser to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad during his second premiership tenure.
“It’s rumoured that PAS who’s the senior PN coalition member is in favour of Hamzah while. Bersatu is split between Muhyiddin and Hamzah.
“But there’re those who think that PAS being the biggest PN member and with the most number of seats in the Parliament should vie for the top job. They pointed to such personalities as Datuk Seri Takiyuddin Hassan (PAS secretary-general) and Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar (Terengganu Menteri Besar).”
Earlier, Kadir reminded Malaysians that the Refornasi rallies staged in the late 1990s “didn’t bring down their most hated enemies in Dr Mahathir and the Barisan Nasional (BN).
“Instead, it was Dr Mahathir who in the 2018 General Election led the Pakatan Harapan (PH) to defeat the BN,” recounted the veteran journo.
“When it was his turn to lead the PH in the 2022 GE, Anwar failed to achieve victory. He only managed to claw his way to Putrajaya via a backdoor marriage with the BN with the courtesy of his old UMNO protégé Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi.” – Aug 29, 2025
