SHAH ALAM – Political watchdogs believe that it is not impossible for Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH) to defeat Barisan Nasional in the 15th General Election if they merge under the ‘big tent’.
The possibility was there as all political parties were constantly changing; simulating and finding the room to gain more benefits in winning the upcoming election.
PN and PH have to cooperate or else their chance to defend their existing seats won during the previous election would be difficult.
Therefore, it was not a surprise when PN’s chairman cum Bersatu president Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin recently invited all parties including PH to join forces and work together to beat BN in GE15, to avoid the latter from regaining the power to govern the country.
In fact, some believed if PN and PH had joined forces in the recent Johor state election, BN would have lost more than 22 seats of the state legislative assembly (DUN).
However, due to the opposition votes being split into groups and there were many young voters who did not come out to vote, BN and Umno won 40 out of 56 of the DUN seats in the Johor state election while PH (11), PN (three) and one each for Muda and PKR.
Although BN and Umno won the state elections in Johor and Melaka, University Teknologi Malaysia’s Razak Faculty of Technology and Informatics Senior Lecturer Dr Mazlan Ali said it does not mean that the party could win in the GE15.
He said if PN and PH joined forces, it would be a two-corner fight and BN would face stronger opposition in the GE15.
However, Dr Mazlan did not rule out the possibility that BN and Umno might have its own strategy and would hold discussions with other parties including PKR and Pas to form a new political alliance ahead of GE15 and form a new government.
"For example, right now I heard they were in the process of holding discussions with Pas to cooperate under Muafakat Nasional (MN).
"I was also made to understand several Umno leaders and PKR held discussions on the possibility of them to form a new political alliance and merge to form a government after the GE15,” he told Sinar Premium.
Commenting further, Dr Mazlan said it was hard to predict the result of GE15 as there were no indications on who the young voters wanted to vote for – either BN, PN or even PH, while their participation in state elections were really low.
"We cannot see how strong their supports are and also the on-fence voters. Perhaps they were tired and not interested in the current political situation in the country considering the endless political turmoil since GE14.
"There is not one specific study done to show which political parties these young and on-fence voters supported,” he said.
Dr Mazlan also said Pas was expected to have a problem winning back Kelantan, Terengganu and Kedah in GE15.
"I can see that Umno is determined to rule the three states. At the same time, the public is a little unsatisfied with Pas especially in Kelantan and Terengganu following the issue of clean water supply and development in the states.
"For example, when I went to the states involved and talked to the people there, many were unsatisfied with the state governments’ failure to resolve several issues, especially water supply and financial aid. This is different than when BN was ruling and they had helped the people,” he said.
Dr Mazlan added the public in the states also wondered about the direction of Pas as their fight for issues relating to the community and Islam seems to have subsided after becoming a part of the government.