BN let off the hook by opposition in disarray, analysts say
(Malay Mail Online) – The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) is under no threat despite its current crises and controversies as its rivals’ internal squabbling has left supporters dismayed and confused, according to political analysts.
Citing current public unhappiness over the Goods and Services Tax (GST) as well as state-owned 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB), they said Malaysia’s opposition parties should be well positioned to whittle away BN’s support base ahead of the next general election that must be called by 2018.
Malaysians remain opposed to the new consumption tax that they blame for exponentially rising costs while the 1MDB issue — coupled with slowing growth and depreciating ringgit — has triggered concerns over the health of the local economy.
Such topics should put a wounded BN in danger of losing its over-half-decade hold on the federal government.
Instead, the parties of PKR, PAS and DAP are now distracted by their own feuding that has stretched on for months, leaving the ruling coalition in no danger of losing power despite having lost the popular vote in Election 2013.
“It is unfortunate that the opposition is fighting among themselves when they are at an advantage now,” Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Associate Professor Ahmad Nidzamuddin Sulaiman told Singapore daily Straits Times in an article published today.
While the three main federal opposition parties had presented a united front up to the general election in 2013 — under the umbrella of the informal Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact — there are now at least two competing camps.
PR broke up earlier this year after DAP insisted that the pact was no longer operative following a breakdown in co-operation with PAS over the Islamist party’s push for hudud, the Islamic penal code, in Kelantan.
DAP and PKR, together with PAS splinter party Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah), then moved on to form Pakatan Harapan, ostensibly the replacement for the defunct PR.
Confusingly for voters, however, PAS and PKR continue to send mixed messages about the continuity of PR, with the Islamist party in particular insisting that the pact was still functional and remained so as long as the two parties remained open to cooperation.
Amanah has also wavered between being unreceptive and open to PAS’s entry into Pakatan Harapan, prompting questions about its own future should the latter party join, unlikely as it currently appears.
DAP is also now openly aggressive towards PAS, announcing last week that it plans to challenge the Islamist party directly in the eight Selangor constituencies that the latter currently holds, escalating the Islamist party’s previously veiled threats to confront the socialist democratic party in its stronghold of Penang.
The result is a support based that is left disillusioned.
“I am very much at a loss on who to vote for, what with BN seen as so corrupt and the opposition is no better because they can’t deliver to the people,” Lam Foo Tseng, a voter in Kuala Lumpur, told Straits Times.
According to the National Council of Professors’ Mohamed Mustafa Ishak, the new opposition alliance will also not have much chance of defeating BN without PAS, which he said was necessary to deliver the rural Malay vote.
His assessment matches that of some sections within PKR, chiefly deputy president Azmin Ali who secured the Selangor mentri besar’s post with PAS’s backing, which are adamant that the any opposition alliance sans the Islamist party is doomed to defeat.
“[Pakatan Harapan] needs to get PAS into its fold or it might lose support from Malay heartland voters because PAS is still a trump card,” Mohamed Mustafa was quoted as saying by the Singapore daily.
The triumvirate of PKR, PAS, and DAP first banded together after the so-called political “tsunami” of 2008 and went on to win the popular vote in Election 2013.
Since then, however, the pact stumbled from one crisis to another, culminating in the virtual disintegration over hudud in June.
The 14th general election is due no later than August of 2018.
