PH blames election defeat on racial rhetoric

 The coalition's election director Amirudin Shari also says the coalition will revise its political messaging ahead of the next general election.

Pakatan Harapan election director Amirudin Shari said the racial rhetoric in the election campaign led to unease among Malays and non-Malays.

SEREMBAN:

Pakatan Harapan election director Amirudin Shari blamed the PH defeat at the Negeri Sembilan polls tonight on the exploitation of identity politics by its rivals.

“There was a lot of racial rhetoric (leading up to the polls). I believe that it led to unease among Malays and non-Malays,” he said at a press conference here, also attended by Amanah communications director Khalid Samad and Amanah secretary-general Faiz Fadzil.

Amirudin said PH will revise its political messaging ahead of the next general election.

When asked how PH was going to manage the “green” and “blue” wave of PAS and Barisan Nasional, Amirudin dismissed it as a matter of political identity.

For the Negeri Sembilan polls, BN and the PAS-led PN established an informal understanding under which BN contested 25 state seats and the remaining 11 by PN.

To a question if PH was prepared for the coming Melaka polls – which must be held by late February at the latest – Amirudin said: “Like it or not we have to”.

Last night, think tank Ilham Centre predicted that BN-PN would receive greater Malay support than what BN garnered in the Johor polls last month, largely due to the use of identity politics on the campaign trail.

On a related matter, Amirudin said it was up to PKR president and PH chairman Anwar Ibrahim to decide on whether there was now a need to reshuffle the coalition’s leadership in Negeri Sembilan. “Both Loke and Aminuddin remain as MPs,” he said, referring to DAP secretary-general and state chief Loke Siew Fook and PH state chief Aminuddin Harun.

Loke, who is Seremban MP, was defeated in the Chennah state seat, where he had sought a third term, while Aminuddin, MP for Port Dickson, lost in the BN stronghold of Linggi, where he had moved after four terms in Sikamat. - FMT