BN must secure Malay support before going solo, says think tank head

 Ilham Centre's Hisommudin Bakar says BN's challenge is wooing young Malays – a segment from which PN has enjoyed strong support.

Ilham Centre executive director Hisommudin Bakar said BN should assess its strength at both the parliamentary and state levels, including Malay support in individual constituencies.

PETALING JAYA:

Barisan Nasional (BN) must make sure that it has regained Malay support, particularly in the seats it lost to Perikatan Nasional (PN), before deciding whether to go solo or work with the opposition coalition, the head of a think tank says.

Hisommudin Bakar, executive director of Ilham Centre, said BN’s challenge was wooing young Malays – a segment from which PN has enjoyed strong support.

“If BN is unable to determine this (whether the Malay vote has swung back in its favour), then they have no choice but to give way to PN (in seat negotiations), since PN won the seats (in the last polls),” he said at a BN forum titled “Post-Johor and Negeri Sembilan: A new dynamic in Malaysian politics?” last night.

He also said that BN should assess its strength at both the parliamentary and state levels, including Malay support in individual constituencies.

The Negeri Sembilan election, at which BN and PN worked together, saw the coalitions winning 18 and seven seats respectively – enough for a two-thirds majority to form the state government.

It was the first victory for the BN-PN alliance, under which the coalitions had agreed not to contest against each other. They also told their supporters and members to vote for each other’s candidates.

On a related matter, Hisommudin said that Pakatan Harapan (PH), BN’s ally in the federal unity government, was a “liability” amid growing Malay-Muslim sentiment.

“So there is some baggage that comes with being part of the unity government,” he said.

Syaza Shukri of International Islamic University Malaysia said working with PH allowed BN to appeal to different voter segments, with BN drawing Malay support and PH attracting non-Malay voters.

She said the main challenge for the coalitions was getting their supporters to vote for each other’s candidates.

“When BN works with PH, they can draw support from two segments: the Malays and non-Malays. But the problem is that vote transferability is very weak.” - FMT