Analyst: PH strategy should worry Umno

Awang Azman says the coalition's recent moves were obviously geared towards getting Malay support.

GEORGE TOWN: Is Pakatan Harapan now trying to portray itself as a Malay-dominated coalition?

It looks like it, according to political analyst Awang Azman Pawi, an associate professor at Universiti Malaysia.

He told FMT it was obvious that Pakatan had its eyes on Malay voters, particularly those suspicious of DAP, when it decided to name Mahathir Mohamad as its prime-minister-designate and Wan Azizah Ismail as his deputy.

He said it was certain that many Malays had been taken in by the Umno rhetoric about Pakatan being controlled by DAP and were therefore reluctant to support the opposition coalition.

He described the choice of Mahathir and Wan Azizah as top leaders in a Pakatan government as a credible move to counter the propaganda.

He said Umno now had reason to worry about losing its traditional supporters because it was likely that many of them still had a lot of respect for Mahathir and would find it easier to switch allegiance.

Referring to Malays who are opposed to Mahathir, he said many of them were supporters of the Reformasi movement started by Anwar Ibrahim and might be placated by Pakatan’s choice of his wife as DPM-designate.

“So the choice of Mahathir and Wan Azizah as a combination represents a new phase in PH’s attempt to get the votes needed to take it to Putrajaya,” he said.

He also noted that Pakatan’s allocation of seats to vie for in the coming general election was largely geared towards defeating Umno. PPBM has been given 52 constituencies to contest in, PKR 51, Amanah 27 and DAP 35.

He said DAP had, in any case, reached saturation point in terms of fighting for Chinese-majority seats.

“More importantly, this is the best political strategy to dispel the notion that PH is dominated by DAP or ethnic Chinese,” he added. -FMT