Bersatu supreme council member Maszlee Malik said his party may end up as merely “machinery” for Umno-PAS in the next general election if they continue to work with them under the Perikatan Nasional (PN) cooperation.
He also said not only will Bersatu not get to contest in any new seats in the 15th general election (GE15), they may not even be able to retain their current 25 seats.
“The most important question we should be asking ourselves is, is this all we want?
“Are we satisfied with the 25 parliamentary seats that we have currently – 12 which were originally won by Bersatu and 13 from those who have jumped to Bersatu?
“Even then, that is only if we can achieve an agreement for the seats to remain with Bersatu, which from my observations, seems quite impossible,” Maszlee said in a statement posted on his Facebook today.
He explained that logically, Bersatu will only compete in seats which have a Malay-majority, but now with PN, they cannot contest in the constituencies which have been won by Umno and PAS.
“What is certain is that if Bersatu truly wants to stay with Umno and PAS in PN during the 15th general election, (Umno president) Ahmad Zahid Hamidi will not be challenged by Bersatu, (former prime minister) Najib Abdul Razak will remain in Pekan, Abdul Azeez Abdul Rahim will stay in Baling and Tengku Adnan Tengku Mansor will still be in Putrajaya.
“What is the relevance of the Bersatu divisions in those areas then? Will they merely become machinery to help Zahid, Najib, Azeez and Tengku Adnan win in GE15?” he said.
Based on this same logic, he said Bersatu will also become irrelevant in Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu.
Bersatu members in those states can forget about their hopes to become lawmakers if they are not allowed to contest in Umno and PAS seats, he added.
“They can only prepare themselves to become machinery for Umno and PAS without a chance to become part of the ruling government,” he stressed.
“Are the (Bersatu) members and division chiefs satisfied with the 25 parliamentary seats and the lack of opportunities for them to win new parliament or state seats for Bersatu?” he added later.
Unless Umno and PAS are willing to hand over some of the seats to Bersatu, the same will happen in all the other states, he warned.
“But are (Federal Territories Minister) Annuar Musa, Zahid, Najib, Azeez, Tengku Adnan and other Umno and PAS leaders willing to ‘donate’ their seats to Bersatu?” Mazslee questioned.
As things are now, Bersatu will not be able to rule any of the states after GE15 as that is the current status quo, he said.
Maszlee also cited data from the 14th general election (GE14), saying that Bersatu contested in 52 parliamentary seats then and managed to win 13 seats. This includes Tanjung Piai which has since been won by BN in the by-election.
The former education minister said Bersatu garnered a total of 718,648 votes from those 52 seats, which is only 28 percent of the total voters who turned out in those same seats.
“The conclusion is, while ‘borrowing the PKR flag’, Bersatu only managed to attract a maximum of 28 percent of the rakyat’s support,” he said.
Most of this support for Bersatu, he reminded, came from PKR’s voter base and only partly from Umno, with the rest coming from Amanah and DAP’s supporters.
If Bersatu is not with Pakatan Harapan anymore, the party will lose at least 80 percent of the 718,648 voters, Maszlee said.
While if Bersatu continues to work with PN, he said they will only be relying on the strength of Umno and PAS.
Even then, that is only if Umno and PAS want to work with Bersatu “en bloc”, and not merely with certain individuals in Bersatu such as Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin only, he added.
He also noted that with all the ministerial and GLC positions given to Umno, Umno will only become stronger and more prepared to return to its dominant position in Malaysian politics in the next general election.
Maszlee ended his lengthy statement by posing several questions to Bersatu grassroots leaders and members.
“My question is simple: is this what we want? Is this why we formed Bersatu?
“Did we all join this parti keramat (glorious party) in order to return Umno to power?
“Tepuk dada, tanyalah selera (Consider the situation thoroughly first before making a decision),” he said.
Previously on May 13, Maszlee had said he expected Bersatu to become the “most marginalised” party in the next general election.
He had said Umno had made it clear that their cooperation with Bersatu will not last until the next general election and questioned where Bersatu will stand when that time comes.
Following the "Sheraton Move" in late February, Bersatu withdrew from Harapan to form a new federal government with Umno, PAS, Gabungan Parti Sarawak and other minor parties.
Despite being second to Umno in terms of seats on the government bench, Bersatu president Muhyiddin was made prime minister and his party controls key cabinet positions.
This has led to disgruntlement among Umno leaders who believe that the distribution of positions was not equitable while the party's supreme council had decided that they do not want the party to officially be in a coalition with Bersatu. - Mkini
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