Wary ‘aye’ for single BN party idea

Political analysts opined that it is pointless for the ruling coalition to merge into a single party without "content and policy” changes.

PETALING JAYA: Political analysts wary of Barisan Nasional’s underlying need to rebrand itself following its drop in voter popularity have cautiously lauded calls by senior Umno politicians to merge the ruling coalition into a single party to make it relevant to all Malaysians.

Political scientist Chandra Muzaffar said the calls by Umno secretary-general Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor as well as Umno supreme council members Nazri Abdul Aziz and Saifuddin Abdullah earlier this week was “a good idea”.

“We need to have a political party in power which transcends ethnicity… a party which would accommodate all Malaysians,” he said.

Having said this he however added that merging the coalitions into a single party “itself, is not the solution.”

“DAP is multiracial but it relates and reflects the sentiments of one community, like Gerakan.

“In Malaysia, we cannot use race as a formal membership structure. We have to look at content and policies.

“Let’s say BN becomes a single, multi-ethnic party. This has to reflect in their policies and actions to have impact.

“This said, DAP also has to become multi-ethnic in content and not only in terms of their constitution,” he said.

Universiti Utara Malaysia (UUM) associate professor James Gomez agreed with Chandra.

He said the government was “making good of a bad situation” as the “BN entity has failed”, and the “major component parties imploded”.

“There is really not much apart from Umno in BN. So I suppose this is partly to rebrand Umno.

“But if they say BN would be multicultural, then it must be good,” he said.

BN, Pakatan should form ‘single entity’

Echoing Chandra’s view, he said the merger of BN component parties “should be matched with equitable multicultural-centered policy making, and not just its organisational structure”.

“(The merger) must be matched with multicultural-centered policies, which are even more important than structure.

“(So) what they are suggesting is good as long as they take a more policy-centered approach. That would be the mark of success,” he said.

Another academician, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) associate professor Andrew Aeria, took it a step further by calling both BN and opposition Pakatan Rakyat to “collapse all their component parties into a single multi-ethnic, multi-religious” entity.

“There is no lasting constructive value in clinging to ethnicity and religion as the underlying basis of any political party.

“What matters in politics today is policy, policy, policy. This unfortunately, is deeply lacking in Malaysian politics,” he added.

Earlier this week, Tengku Adnan reportedly suggested that the ruling coalition merge into a single party as part of its rebranding exercise to make it relevant to all Malaysians.

He was responding to Nazri Aziz’s call for the coalition to ‘ubah’ (change).

Nazri said BN is outdated and does not resonate with the younger voters, who emphasise on unity.

Additionally, former Temerloh MP Saifuddin said BN should try to address a newer form of politics to appeal to youths.

He believed change in BN should begin with the appointment of younger and more youth-oriented people in its leadership.