THE general election was not so much won by Pakatan Harapan as it was lost by Barisan Nasional, thanks largely to senior Umno leaders HIshammuddin Hussein and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, said Liew Chin Tong.
DAP’s Liew, who was one of the architects of PH’s handsome win, particularly in Johor, said the two men were mainly responsible for BN’s defeat.
“There were two fools who caused structural damage to Umno. It began with Hishammuddin and ended with Zahid, ” said Liew, in his first exclusive interview with The Malaysian Insight on Friday, at his office in the Defence Ministry.
“In the 2004 elections, more than 60% of non-Malays supported Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, giving BN its biggest ever electoral win. But immediately after that, Hishammuddin, who was then Umno Youth chief, waved the keris at the 2005 Umno general assembly.
“This tilted the non-Malay support and cut off one limb for BN.”
The deputy defence minister said this spelt the beginning of the end of BN as non-Malays began to question the coalition’s commitment to non-Malay interests.
The second “fool”, said Liew, was Zahid, who had advocated for collaboration with PAS since 2014, which had confused the supporters.
“Umno’s downfall was caused by these two culprits who failed to understand the voters and the needs of BN,” said Liew, who on May 9 stood for election but lost in Ayer Hitam. He was appointed senator and handed the deputy minister’s post when the voters swept PH into Putrajaya.
Liew said while BN was hurt by the issues surrounding Najib Razak and his wife Rosmah Mansor, Hishammuddin and Zahid did most damage in the last 10 years.
According to Umno’s data, Chinese support for BN in the last elections was only 2.4% while PAS practically had none. Among Indian voters, BN could only muster 26%, compared to the high 70% range it used to receive.
Liew said the spoiler role that Zahid had PAS play in GE14 didn’t help BN either.
Although the former Kluang MP lost in Ayer Hitam because of the three-corner strategy, BN ended up losing more three-cornered battles to PAS and PH. Of the 77 such contests on the peninsula, BN won only 32 while PH took 22 and PAS, 23.
The 40-year-old Liew said he does not regret his defeat as PH broke the Umno fortress to win big in Johor.
In the lead-up to the elections, Liew had predicted that the fall of BN would begin in the southern state with a 15% swing of Malay voters to PH.
In Johor, PH won 13 additional parliament seats to make it 18 out of 26 while doubling its state seats from 16 to 36 to form the state government. BN could only manage 19 where it previously won 37 seats, while PAS took one.
PH ended up sweeping Malacca (15/28 state seats) and Negri Sembilan (20/36). It also doubled its seats in parliament in Malacca to four and picked up two more to make it five in Negri Sembilan.
Liew said Malay voters made the difference when they went for PH in the west coast and PAS in the east coast.
Hard for BN to come back
Moving forward, Liew said it was important for PH to recognise that it did not so much win the general election as Najib and Rosmah lost it for BN.
“As such, PH has to be humble and work towards winning the next round in its own right.
“I’m not sure if BN can win the next round. I believe PH will only be defeated by a better alternative. It cannot be defeated by the past.”
He added that the Umno-led BN cannot mount a serious comeback without cutting ties with Najib.
“Only when Umno reaches a stage where it has no more ties with Najib, or it apologises or changes its whole line-up of leaders can it then come back.”
Liew said that the current strategies of MCA and Umno do not seem to be helping BN either.
“MCA is attacking DAP by alleging that it is out to kill the Chinese while Umno is saying the Malay leaders (in Bersatu and Amanah) are selling out the Malays. They are attacking from the flanks and hoping that the centre (middle ground voters) will crumble.
“But this is not an election strategy. It may cause some problems for PH but overall it is not enough to win the next elections.”
Like any middle ground group, the voters there are more concerned about economical issues.
But BN has not been able to articulate the solutions as yet, said Liew.
“They cannot just hope for PH to break. If they don’t come up with an election strategy by GE15, Pakatan would win by default.
“This means that there may be unhappy people (who are dissatisfied with PH) but there’s no better alternative. It’s not something we want as we want to win because we are the best choice, not by default.”
But Liew said it could boil down to that.
National narrative
On PH’s part, it needs to realign and rebuild its position following the May 9 “earthquake”, he said.
“We are still in the rebuilding phase which will end when people know that Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Anwar Ibrahim are committed to the transition.”
He said the “transition” signal has been pretty clear from both leaders over the past week or so.
“If both can show they are committed, it will clear up other options.”
In last few months, it has emerged that factions within Umno had tried to “negotiate” with Dr Mahathir and Anwar to get back into government.
Liew is hopeful PH will end its realignment phase “soon” to move on to rebuilding the economy, democratic institutions and party structures to support democracy.
PH will also need to present a national narrative that can reassure everyone, he said.
“It has to reassure Malays and non-Malays alike; like Vision 2020, a Malaysia Baru narrative will prevent us from being pulled apart by the racial attacks.”
– https://www.themalaysianinsight.com
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