SHAH ALAM - From making sure there is food on the table, to political and economic stability, the right poster boy for the prime minister candidate has become a hot topic in Malaysia, especially after experiencing the changes of incumbent prime ministers three times in just one parliamentary term.
National Council of Professors chairman Professor Datuk Dr Shamsul Amri Baharuddin said political parties usually announce their poster boy or a prime minister candidate because they wanted voters to know who will be leading the county, should the party win in the election.
"This will allow each political party to stop quibbling internally about its leaders. It gives them stability.
"The other reason is due to economy. Foreign and local investors need to know what to expect from the future leaders of Malaysia who could bring stability to the country.
"In the current context, changes of governments and leaders are viewed as disadvantageous to the economic stability and growth,” he explained.
As for members of the public or "fence-sitters”, he said this does not matter to them as they only care about whether there is food on their plates, a roof over their heads, and clothes on their backs.
Citing PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as an example, he said revealing the prime minister candidate will not backfire on any parties.
"Anwar has been the poster boy for PKR and then Pakatan Harapan (PH) since the 2008 general election. He is still the poster boy for PH until today, though the support may not be as enthusiastic as before, or his influence is waning.
"PH voters still generally trust him to lead. His only problem is that he likes to claim and make public announcements that he has the majority support to run the country,” Shamsul Amri told Sinar Daily.
Asked who he thinks will be the candidates to look out for, he said former prime minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin (Perikatan Nasional), Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob (Barisan Nasional), and Anwar (PH).
He also mentioned Warisan’s Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal whom he said "dreams of being a Prime Minister”, despite it being "most unlikely to be fulfilled".
The poster boys, he said, needed to prove their leadership skills, whether within the party or as a government leader.
Besides that, their political record, character, and mannerisms must be acceptable and not border on the extremes.
Most importantly, they must garner support from grassroots across different classes and ethnicities by adopting a viable and popular slogan as well as policies and manifestos that are achievable, Shamsul Amri added.
Senior fellow at Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research Political analyst Dr Azmi Hassan on the other hand said announcing the prime minister candidate can backfire if it was an unacceptable candidate, or one that was involved in corruption or embroiled in a scandal during the election campaign.
However, he said political parties should announce their candidates as soon as possible as the 15th General Election (GE15) will be held soon.
"When the voters go out to polling stations, they would not only choose a party, but they also would like to know the Prime Minister they are lending their support to," he said.
He said it would be tough for a party not to announce their candidate if their aim is to form a federal government as voters would not be able to make an informed decision.
He then said it will entice voters, which was a critical part of the process, however, it should be known that there is a distinction between a poster boy and a prime minister candidate.
According to Azmi, as seen in BN where the state elections heavily depended on former primer Datuk Seri Najib Razak as the poster boy, GE15 was a different story entirely with Ismail Sabri being named the candidate for Prime Minister.
PN might need to make adjustments on its own candidate as it did not go well for Muhyiddin during the Melaka and Johor state elections.
"In PH, there seems to be a tug of war. Anwar is the de facto Prime Minister for PH but you will never know.
"For other parties, I don't think that they want to form a federal government at all. They might not even have the confidence to do so. They are there just to act as the opposition, which is why there is no need to rely on the prime minister candidates,” Azmi said.