Perikatan Nasional's major inroads in the recent general and state elections may have influenced PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang to decline the unity government's offer to join forces, said political analysts.
Council of Professors senior fellow Jeniri Amir said Hadi might be anticipating a victory for PN during the next general election.
This, he claimed, could be the reason why the PAS leader was willing to stay in the opposition now rather than backtrack on his criticisms against Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, Pakatan Harapan, and Umno.
“If Hadi were to accept the invitation to join Anwar's unity government, it is akin to him 'jilat ludah sendiri'. Backtracking on his principles would affect his image and PAS' in general.
“He would rather stay in the opposition than sacrifice his principles.
“Because Hadi thinks that PN will be able to form a government in the next election, seeing how they performed in the recent elections, voting trend, and that there will be more young voters by the time we go into the next general polls,” said Jeniri.
The analyst was asked to comment on Hadi’s remarks during PAS’ 69th Muktamar in Shah Alam over the weekend, where he rejected the possibility of PAS joining the Anwar-led federal government.
According to Jeniri, the anticipation is also believed to be why Hadi is now directing PAS to win over non-Muslim votes.
“He thinks that PN can win in the future, but since its recent victories were mainly contributed by the support of the Malays, Hadi now sees that the non-Malays are also important.
“This is why he made the statement in the muktamar, saying that PAS now wants to woo non-Malay voters.”
However, Jeniri believed that it would be a difficult mission for PAS given its controversial positions when it comes to the non-Muslims and their way of life.
For the Islamist party to woo the non-Malays, the analyst said, PAS will have to clean its image and explain its plans for the country.
‘Once bitten, twice shy’
Similarly, political analyst Oh Ei Sun also believed that it would be almost impossible for PAS to win back non-Malay support.
“Once bitten, twice shy. I think it would be nigh impossible for PAS to regain Chinese trust,” he told Malaysiakini when asked to comment on the matter.
According to the Singapore Institute of International Affairs senior fellow, PAS is shifting towards the non-Muslim and non-Malay communities now because they do not have much room to grow any further.
“Over three-quarters of Malay voters appear to have voted PAS or PN (in the recent polls), so it has to cultivate the non-Malay voter cohort,” he said.
However, the analyst believed that Hadi’s rejection of Anwar’s offer was not because PAS was anticipating victory in the next general election.
Instead, Oh claimed, it was only a matter of matching offers between the two sides.
He believed that PAS and the Anwar-led administration may have been engaging in negotiations for quite some time but have yet to seal the deal.
“I think the two sides have been negotiating for a long time and that their respective conditions have not been matched yet.
“Hadi’s side must have been asking for the sky, such as a DPM (deputy prime minister post). Anwar’s side, on the other hand, might have offered too few ministries to PAS. Loyalty and ideology are cheap and ephemeral nowadays.
“When the mutual conditions are ripe and matched, they can always work together in the near future,” said Oh. - Mkini
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