Will another third force be one to reckon with?

 Like many before it, Bersama has styled itself as an alternative to the big boys, but riding on Rafizi Ramli’s back to electoral success seems a little too ambitious.

Until last week few, if any, would have heard of Parti Bersama Malaysia (Bersama).

The Penang-based party was founded in 2016 by businessman Tan Gin Theam to offer voters an alternative to the big boys, namely Barisan Nasional (BN), Pakatan Harapan (PH) and PAS.

The party contested in only one election — the 2018 polls.

Back then, it fielded candidates in five parliamentary and 20 state constituencies, all of which were in Penang. Tan himself stood in the Bukit Bendera parliamentary constituency and Air Putih state seat.

All Bersama candidates lost their deposits. It chose to skip the 2022 election. Once bitten twice shy perhaps.

Will the entry of Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad make a difference?

A look at the fortunes of other parties that have styled themselves as the “third force” may give us a clue.

For a start, even by their own reckoning, they are third rate at best.

The path to third force status is well-trodden, paved by parties that have little to nothing to show.

From Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM) to Muda, the Malaysian political landscape is littered with parties that have sold themselves as alternatives to the ruling coalition or the opposition.

They had hoped to woo voters in the middle ground by adopting a multiracial and multi-religious approach, a change from those grounded on religious ideology, mainly PAS, or ethnic interests, like Umno for the Malays, MCA for the Chinese and MIC for the Indian community.

PSM, which was formed in 1998 but only registered 10 years later, won a parliamentary seat through Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj in Sungai Siput and a state seat through Nasir Hashim in Kota Damansara in the 2008 polls.

But both contested under the PH banner. The party has never won any election on its own steam.

Muda acting president Amira Aisya Abdul Aziz won the Puteri Wangsa seat in the Johor state polls in March 2022. That, it turned out, would be the only electoral success the party has achieved without the help of others.

Its founding president Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman retained his Muar parliamentary constituency in the 2022 general election on the back of PH’s strength.

In 2016, PAS teamed up with Ikatan and Berjasa as yet another “third force” but never made any headway at the ballot box.

Even Pejuang, with two-time prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad behind it, failed to impress. Mahathir himself also lost his deposit when he contested in the polls under his party’s banner.

Will Bersama be any different? Going by the records, unlikely.

Some may argue that the party could ride on Rafizi’s “star power” to capture the voters’ imagination. His willingness to take on the powers-that-be has won him some plaudits, too.

On the other hand, his performance as economy minister and constant attacks on PKR, even while he was still in the party, have left many harbouring doubts about his abilities and intentions.

Many would even argue that his “star power” is more perceived than real.

Even Rafizi himself seems more defeated than upbeat. At the ceremony to announce his and Nik Nazmi’s entry into the party, he himself said Bersama may not win elections for now.

And when Nurul Izzah Anwar announced her decision to take him on for the PKR deputy president’s post, he asked his supporters to vote for her, on the excuse that her defeat would embarrass her father.

He probably knew then that he would lose.

In a landscape where parties styled as the third force have yet to make inroads, will Rafizi’s presence help Bersama rewrite the script?

It is hard to say, but chances are many will put their money on the party emerging third in a three-way fight. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.