Rafizi too optimistic of PKR’s chances in Sabah, say analysts

 

Rafizi Ramli speaking at a rally held for his campaign to be elected PKR deputy president in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, over the weekend. (Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: Analysts have scoffed at Rafizi Ramli’s prediction that a “PKR tsunami” will hit Sabah in the 16th general election.

Tony Paridi Bagang of Sabah UiTM said the former Pandan MP appeared to be too optimistic, and Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs said he was “baffled” by the show of confidence considering PKR’s dismal performance in the most recent election in Sabah.

Bagang asked whether Rafizi was banking on the support of young voters over the next decade and said there was no assurance that they would choose PKR out of the many parties active in the state.

“If we look at PKR’s performance in GE14 and the last Sabah election, it did not perform well,” he told FMT, adding that the party had grassroots support only in a few constituencies in Sabah.

Oh described PKR as a party that had traditionally been treated as “more or less a party of convenience for many ambitious politicians to temporarily park themselves in” when they had nowhere else to go “before hopping mercilessly to greener political pastures”.

“Unless PKR can come up with the kind of resources that have proven indispensable to winning rural constituencies, as well as the machinery to distribute these resources, it is unlikely to stake an effective claim in the vast rural constituencies of Sabah,” he said.

He also said PKR would have to compete with DAP and Warisan for opposition votes in urban and suburban constituencies.

PKR currently holds two of the 73 Sabah state legislative assembly seats and two of the 25 Sabah federal constituencies. It contested for seven seats in the last Sabah election.

Arnold Puyok of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak said PKR, if it wished to make an impact in Sabah, would have to be led by new, progressive and capable leaders.

He said the party should reach out to the “many young people” who were attracted to its “progressive policies and multiracial outlook”.

He told FMT he believed PKR had the support it needed but its leaders must “go to the ground and rejuvenate its machinery”. - FMT