Guan Eng says three-corner fights good for Pakatan

(MMO) – Lim Guan Eng today reiterated a DAP lawmaker’s assertion that Barisan Nasional (BN) and PAS may be the actual losers from Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) decision to not seek the Islamist party’s cooperation.

Despite the evidence of last year’s Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections that were won by BN in three-cornered contests involving PAS and Amanah, Lim claimed voters would disregard PAS as the party did not aspire to rule Malaysia.

“They are only contesting for the sake of contesting, so voters will be given a clear choice of whether they want BN or they want a change, a new Malaysia and a fresh hope for their children with PH,” he said in a press conference at his office today.

The DAP secretary-general said PH’s only challenge now is to get this message out.

Lim added that his party’s analysis concluded that PAS was losing support “everywhere” and was even at risk of losing Kelantan.

Echoing Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong’s assertion from yesterday, Lim said it was not certain that multi-cornered clashes in the general election would benefit BN.

“BN will not increase their votes, they will lose more votes. And in the previous election, Umno only has 58 per cent of the Malay vote, so clearly, they will not get the same number now after Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed has formed Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia,” he claimed.

PPBM was set up by former Umno leaders and had been expected to trigger an exodus of malcontents from the older Malay nationalist party, although this never materialised.

Lim further claimed that Umno was targeting Dr Mahathir to defuse the possible threat that is PPBM.

He then said he concurred with PPBM that said supporting PAS was no different from backing BN.

Despite PH only deciding last week to stop seeking cooperation with PAS — after more than a year of hostilities — Lim claimed its leaders knew that the Islamist party has chosen to work with BN instead.

Prior to the PH presidential council decision last week, PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali had courted PAS for over a year. Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim revealed during the weekend that this was on his instructions.

Lim said today he will do a “detailed analysis” showing that not co-operating with PAS was beneficial for PH.

“If we look at numbers, it’s clear, we have everything to play for,” he said.