Is Pakatan too afraid of taking chances?
Sheith Khidhir Abu Bakar, FMT
Many pundits seem to believe that Barisan Nasional will remain entrenched in power through several elections if it is not defeated in the coming polls.
They say the opposition has never been stronger than it is now. They see the combined opposition support for former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, jailed opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang as presenting the most formidable challenge BN has ever faced.
As one pundit has put it, “If the opposition, led by these three giants, can’t stop BN now, it never will be able to.”
If this is so, then Pakatan Harapan must pull out all stops if it ever intends to win Putrajaya. There’s just one snag. At this point, so much seems to be at stake that Pakatan may be too afraid to take necessary risks.
One such risk involves pulling out consistent victors from constituencies they have been winning in past elections and placing them in contests that other Pakatan candidates might not win.
It’s likely that Pakatan fears losing its safe seats if it shuffles off the consistent winners to other constituencies.
It’s an understandable worry, but then again, the risk may be worth it. Indeed, such a risk did pay off for the opposition coalition in the 2013 general election.
In 2013, DAP fielded Kit Siang in BN-stronghold Gelang Patah against the then Johor menteri besar, Abdul Ghani Othman, and the DAP strongman romped home with 54,284 votes against Ghani’s 39,522.
In order to fight in Gelang Patah, Kit Siang had to leave his secure Ipoh Timor seat, which he won in 2008 with 70% of the votes. Su Keong Siong retained the Ipoh Timor seat for DAP with an even bigger victory. He won 75% of the votes.
In another case, DAP’s M Manogaran was pulled out from Teluk Intan, which he had won marginally in 2008, and placed to contest in Cameron Highlands. He didn’t win, but managed to get closer to victory than any opposition candidate before him, losing to the then MIC president, G Palanivel, by only 462 votes.
Manogaran says he could have beaten Palanivel if DAP had told him earlier that he would be moved to Cameron Highlands.
Seah Leong Peng retained the Teluk Intan seat for DAP.
Pakatan needs to ask itself what good DAP vice-chair Teresa Kok, for instance, will be doing in Seputeh, which DAP has consistently won since the constituency was created in 1986. Wouldn’t her popularity be better taken advantage of in a marginal seat or even a BN stronghold? After all, there’s no real danger that DAP will lose Seputeh, no matter whom it places there.
Similarly, what of PKR vice-president Xavier Jayakumar? Is he truly serving his full potential in the Seri Andalas state seat? Given his popularity and political skill, would he not serve a better purpose for the coalition by contesting for a parliamentary seat?
The same questions can be asked with regard to PKR president Wan Azizah Ismail and her Permatang Pauh seat. Some say that Azizah’s strength lies only in being a seat-warmer for her husband, but she has never truly been given a chance to prove that she can be something more than that.
There are, of course, no guarantees. Even a seat as secure as Seputeh could end up in BN hands. But in order to win big, Pakatan must not be shy of making big moves.
