PH partners’ dilemma: hot young thing or old faithful?

 

Amanah and DAP campaigned under the PH flag while PKR went solo at the Johor elections.

PETALING JAYA: After a disastrous outing at the Johor elections, Pakatan Harapan allies Amanah and DAP have a choice of forming a new relationship or sticking by their old partner PKR.

Political analyst Azmi Hassan says Amanah and DAP should join forces with Muda, the new youth-based party formed by Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.

However, fellow analyst Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid says the pair should not form alliances with any new party but should carry on with their old partner.

Azmi, a senior fellow with Akademi Nusantara, said Muda had potential, going by the party’s showing in the Johor election. The party won one seat and garnered 48,072 votes or 3.46% of all ballots cast.

“Even though Muda only won one seat (in the Johor election), they did really well if you were to look at their popular vote,” he said.

“People support Muda’s political ideology,” Azmi told FMT. Muda was a breath of fresh air, a party “without any liabilities” and open to people of all races and religions, he said.

Amanah and DAP should forget about teaming up with Sabah-based Warisan and Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s party Pejuang, as voters viewed Warisan as being for Sabahans, while Pejuang suffered from a lack of grassroot support.

However, Azmi said if DAP and Amanah had to choose between PKR or teaming up with Warisan and Pejuang, it would be better off sticking with Anwar Ibrahim’s party which “still had clout – except there may just be a problem with their leader.”

PKR obtained 82,556 votes or 5.93% of all ballots cast.

Fauzi believes DAP and Amanah should stick to the status quo.

Without PKR, “DAP, as the biggest and most senior party of the new coalition, would be pushed up front to a leading position by default.”

The reality of Malaysian racial politics, he said, is that Malays won’t support a coalition they see as being led by non-Malays.

Fauzi, who is with Universiti Sains Malaysia, said PKR has a more reasonable chance of convincing Malay fence-sitters and non-committal Malay voters to come out and vote out a sitting government.

He said Amanah has an image problem among the Malays from its past association with PAS and is now perceived as being subservient to DAP.

He said PKR has a Malay leadership that exhibits traits of cosmopolitan Islam rather than the more conservative Islam championed by PAS and to a lesser extent Amanah, and the more liberal Islam of the DAP Malays.

However, PKR must consider restructuring “its upper echelons of leadership.”

Fauzi suggested that it is time for the generation of Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah, former vice-president Rafizi Ramli, and Subang MP Wong Chen to take over.

“A new breed of leaders wouldn’t have to carry the ex-Umno baggage of Anwar’s generation which ensured pro-reform elements became subservient to Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s political interests during the 22-month old PH administration.” - FMT