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SHAH ALAM – Umno has increasingly become a convenient scapegoat for Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) whenever the pace of institutional reform slows, political analysts say.
International Islamic University Malaysia associate professor Dr Syaza Shukri said the narrative that delayed reforms stem largely from the constraints of governing with Barisan Nasional (BN) oversimplifies the political reality.
She pointed to decisions surrounding the Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCI) into Lembaga Tabung Haji (TH), where political considerations were often framed as necessary to preserve coalition stability.
"In a way, BN became the scapegoat. Every time they couldn't move ahead with reform, they gave the excuse of BN.
"So it's not just about working with Umno but also how Umno has been framed in this government as well," she said.
Her remarks challenge a view held by some PH supporters that the coalition's reform agenda has been slowed primarily by its partnership with BN.
The TH RCI report, released on July 29, found that the fund's recovery plan had addressed RM12.6 billion in investment losses but recommended further improvements in governance, risk management and regulation. A special Dewan Rakyat sitting was convened on Aug 11 to debate the findings.
O2 Research head Anis Anwar Suhaimi similarly rejected the notion that Umno alone is responsible for slower reform progress, noting that several institutional reform initiatives have been championed by Umno leaders, including Minister in the Prime Minister's Department (Law and Institutional Reform) Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said.
"The more fundamental difficulty lies in the reform agenda itself, which contains areas where the aspirations of Malay and non-Malay constituencies do not always align," he said.
Anis said this makes reform politically delicate for Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who must avoid perceptions that institutional changes come at the expense of Malay interests, constitutional arrangements or social stability.
"The reform process is like pulling a strand of hair out of flour, where the objective is to extract it without disturbing the surrounding structure," he said.
He argued that the administration's cautious approach is partly shaped by lessons from PH 1.0, when some reforms generated public anxiety and political backlash.
More importantly, Anis said, PH now faces a growing credibility challenge as voters increasingly judge the coalition not by the reforms it promises, but by whether its actions in government reflect the principles it championed while in opposition.
Among the key reforms still pending is the long-promised separation of the attorney-general and public prosecutor roles, a PH manifesto pledge that remains unfulfilled.
Fuel subsidy rationalisation has also drawn criticism, particularly in Johor, where PH has been blamed for rising living and business costs despite federal efforts to boost investment through initiatives such as the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone.
That credibility gap has already been tested at the ballot box. PH lost Negeri Sembilan after two terms in government when the BN-PN alliance secured 25 of the state's 36 seats in the Aug 1 election. The coalition also suffered a heavy defeat in Johor on July 11, winning just eight of 56 seats compared with BN's 48.
Questions over political appointments, constituency allocations, institutional appointments and equal parliamentary funding have further fuelled perceptions of inconsistency between what PH once demanded as the opposition and what it now practises in government.
For Anis, such contradictions pose a greater threat to PH's Reformasi identity than its cooperation with Umno, particularly if voters conclude that the coalition's conduct in power no longer matches the standards it once demanded of others.
