GE15: sequel or remake?

 

In a matter of weeks, the country will head to the polls for the fifteenth time in what is shaping up to be one of the most consequential elections in recent memory.

Barisan Nasional, humiliated by its first ever election loss in 2018, looks primed for a comeback while Pakatan Harapan, the outfit behind that embarrassment, appears as fractured as ever.

And then you have Perikatan Nasional, made up of the pair’s discarded former allies, which will be contesting in its first general election as a coalition. It may not have a shot at forming the government on its own but that won’t matter if nobody else can. This sets up a post-election scramble for cooperation the likes of which we’ve never seen, with PN at the centre of negotiations.

Then there are the also-rans like Muda, fronted by Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman, and the Mahathir Mohamad-led Gerakan Tanah Air, which will similarly hope to win enough seats to tempt one of the major coalitions into bringing them into its fold.

With an economy still struggling post-pandemic and a cost-of-living crisis that’s enveloped the whole world, there’s much at stake this November. Whoever wins will get the opportunity to return the country to its former glories and chart its course towards prosperity. After years of uncertainty, the winner will get to restore the political stability that’s underpinned so many of Malaysia’s recent failures.

What then, does each side bring to the party? And where are the shortcomings?

Starting with the incumbent BN, we find the promise of a steady hand. Nobody else comes close to matching its decades of experience and it biggest names are all holdovers from administrations of old. It boasts the most members with cabinet experience and can point to a proven track record of navigating the country through crises, like it did in 1997 and 2008.

And, with the newly inducted Tunku Zafrul Aziz and former second finance minister Johari Abdul Ghani within its ranks, BN has the most impressive lineup of possible finance ministers. The country cannot afford mistakes. Just ask the Brits.

Continuity, however, can be both a strength and a weakness. Those veterans of previous reigns have blocked younger, more progressive candidates from rising through the ranks and modernising the party. As much as it may brag that it orchestrated the implementation of Undi18 and the passing of an anti-hopping bill, one could argue it has pursued a progressive agenda only in order to appease the opposition and remain in Putrajaya.

There are also the corruption cases involving some of the bloc’s most senior members. Najib Razak may need to campaign via Zoom from his Kajang jail cell and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi still faces trial over accusations he misappropriated tens of millions from his own charity. The same folks the country rejected en masse last time out for being corrupt are the ones asking for our forgiveness.

Then we have PH, which in comparison brings less than a full term of experience, having seen its administration collapse in 2020. As any PH detractor will tell you, little was done in the two years it did spend in power and moves to abolish GST and halt large infrastructure projects did more harm than good.

The coalition also appears fractured and disorganised, publicly protesting in recent months against early polls. It has, after all, suffered heavy losses to BN in three state elections.

However, perhaps its early ousting was a blessing in disguise, as the timing just before the pandemic struck meant it didn’t have to face the biggest global crisis in a century. Instead, it was able to watch the economy crumble from afar, all the while leveraging the government’s slim majority to push through its own progressive agenda.

It is the only truly diverse coalition as well. Both BN and PN have only a mere handful of non-Malay MPs while PH’s two largest components, DAP and PKR, are both non-racial parties. Absorbing Muda this week also lends PH credibility among the youth and activists, widening its appeal even further.

So the question becomes: do we need a remake or a sequel? With BN, we know what we’re going to get. Its next government would follow the same script as those past. With PH, we would get a bloc intent on finishing what it had started in 2018, building upon the foundations it laid during its first term with its follow up.

Regardless of who gets cast in the next government, there’s one thing we can know for certain: as is always the case with Malaysian politics, we’re in for a hell of a show. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.