Bersama should refrain from entering Melaka polls

 Should it contest Bersama will take votes away from Pakatan Harapan parties, damaging the prospects of Rafizi Ramli gaining the post-Anwar succession.

From Terence Netto

You need not be a Rafizi Ramli enthusiast to accept that after Anwar Ibrahim vacates the role of Pakatan Harapan (PH) supremo or is obliged to do so from GE16 failure, there is no one else to take up the position.

This point is best made by former PKR youth religious leader Wan Ji Wan Hussin who in recent remarks opined that there is a void in PKR (and by extension, PH) as to who should re-take the reins of leading the movement for reform in the country.

Wan Ji held that prior to his leaving PKR last May, Rafizi provided the analytical framework and political messaging for PKR and, by implication, for PH.

He observed that Rafizi’s energy and ability to simplify complex matters equipped him for the role of standard bearer of the reformasi movement.

As the Bersama leader it will take two more general elections before he is accepted as the supremo of the reformasi movement.

He will get to that position as head of Bersama in a shorter span if he and his cohort presently avoid taking away votes which would otherwise go to PH parties in the upcoming Melaka polls.

Bersama performed poorly in their inaugural electoral foray in Johor and then wisely decided to skip the Negri Sembilan polls to re-gather their strength for a Melaka outing.

Wong Chen, the former PKR MP for Subang who has since joined Bersama, declared that the party wants to garner 12% of the vote in Melaka in comparison to the six percent it took in Johor.

This would be a negligible increase if realised and would almost certainly come from votes that would otherwise go to DAP, PKR and Amanah, the tripartite combine that composes PH.

A wiser trajectory in the prelude to GE16 which must be held by February 2028, would be for Bersama, which is actually a splinter party of PKR, to concentrate on the 10 seats (of the overall 31 seats) that PKR won in GE15.

These seats are quite easily identifiable as seats that the Rafizi cohort occupies in PKR.

Some of the occupants have already come out in support of Bersama while others presumably would wait for the dissolution of Parliament before declaring so.

This strategy is wise because Bersama would avoid incurring the resentment of PKR, DAP and Amanah in the current phase of choosing to politic without actual electoral participation.

Bersama should just wait until GE16 is announced and then go for the seats PKR won in GE15 that are held by Rafizi’s tacit supporters who are just biding their time in PKR.

It’s not that PKR does not know who these tacit supporters are. Just look at what the party leadership has recently done by allowing former PKR MPs Edmund Santhara (Segamat), Kamaruddin Jaafar (Bandar Tun Razak), and Steven Choong (Tebrau) to return to the fold.

The trio were elected in GE14 but abandoned PKR for Muhyiddin Yassin’s Bersatu in early 2020 to enable Muhyiddin to become prime minister.

That foray ended in a dead-end.

Bersama would be better off by holding to what it can reasonably hold instead of looking for what may be prospectively — but not actually — theirs.

Patience and realism are key for Bersama. - FMT

Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.

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