Will we wake-up to a Pakatan govt on May 10?

What is the current stand of MCA, MIC, Gerakan, and other non-Muslim majority parties in BN towards the idea of a unity government with PAS – if PAS does become the kingmaker and the GE14 results give no clear winner?

Come May 9, Malaysian voters will decide if they prefer to keep the present caretaker government of Barisan Nasional or go for Pakatan Harapan or even PAS (a distant possibility though).

The 14th general election, toughest of all elections in the history of the country is witnessing a first where a former premier goes head on with a sitting prime minister.

It has quickly boiled down to a Dr Mahathir Mohamad versus Najib Razak ‘war’, and less of the war of manifestos or pledges made by each contesting party.

The fight is stiff as it is an all-out election. On one hand BN needs to either maintain status quo or better their seats score in parliament from the current count, and on the other hand, it is do-or-die mission for Pakatan as it fully relies on Mahathir to deliver the Malay swing votes.

The Chinese votes that caused a ‘tsunami’ in the last general election (GE13) may not see much change this time around. Reality on the ground is that MCA is still running on thin ice and gaining extra ground this election is no easy feat.

Seen as the weakling in BN, especially compared to Umno, Pakatan’s DAP has gone all over the country bashing the Chinese-based party as being too subservient to big brother Umno. And the Chinese voters had bought that argument wholesale. Full stop.

Back to Mahathir. The very fact he making a comeback to active politics and vying to be the PM once again has got many Malaysians excited, regardless if they support his cause or not.

He was so convincing that he managed to bag the entire Pakatan into his grip without much effort actually; and that too with the blessing of the man that he literally put in prison, Anwar Ibrahim.

Cunning, conniving, slick – say what people or BN wants, Mahathir’s only objective is to ensure Najib is out of office on May 10, 2018.

Mahathir’s core arsenal used against Najib revolves around only a few issues, mainly on the 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) failure and alleged scandals, goods and services tax (GST), the RM2.6 billion donation from an Arab family and of course the much questioned close-ties and mega-projects with the government of China.

Past week since nomination day (April 28) and well before that too, Mahathir has been steadfast with the same tune and song against Najib.

In marketing, repetition and reinforcement of a seed/idea is one of the most effective tools in gaining mileage in the minds of the voters. No doubt, on this aspect Mahathir has racked up threatening points against Najib which could translate to the much needed votes to tilt the balance.

Badgering Mahathir on his age factor has no bearing. Good health, sickness and death are not necessarily age-related. Najib should focus more on other urgent salient points as time is of essence.

PAS can make Pakatan win

One other factor that BN could indirectly push more voters towards Pakatan is that the coalition is becoming uncomfortably too close to PAS since parliament was dissolved.

PAS has openly declared via its president Abdul Hadi Awang that the Islamist party has no problems forming a unity/coalition government with BN if the need arises and certain conditions fulfilled.

At the moment PAS is quite adamant that they will not work with Pakatan on any front but this statement could be detrimental to Najib as he could lose significant support from the Chinese community and the people from Sabah and Sarawak.

Najib and BN’s silence on PAS’ stand is quite telling that BN is more inclined to keep the Malay-Muslim support and willing to face the possibility of MCA, MIC, Gerakan and all the other non-Muslim based parties in Borneo facing the wrath of voters.

Though statistically the Malays make the majority voters, but not all Malay-Muslims back BN and PAS.

All the hard work put before by MCA, MIC and Gerakan has literally been poured cold water by PAS with the ‘silent’ consent of Umno.

Najib is dicing in distancing the non-Muslim voters further that could go on to punish BN by way of voting against it. This gives added advantage to Mahathir’s team.

PAS is a political hot potato in this GE. Allowing them to openly declare support for BN (to form unity government) is not that same as it did during GE13 for the then Pakatan Rakyat.

The political landscape has changed drastically with Mahathir in the forefront for Pakatan and PAS being a stand-alone party now.

Najib and team is allowing too much room to PAS to fan with and this will not go unnoticed by the non-Muslims.

The next issue is what is the current stand of MCA, MIC, Gerakan, and other non-Muslim majority parties in BN towards the idea of a unity government with PAS – if PAS does become the kingmaker and the GE14 results give no clear winner?

Postponing answering this question may be far more detrimental to Najib and team as Pakatan will use this issue to gain more voter backing as May 9 nears.

Mahathir and team has not been active in Sabah and Sarawak. While in Sabah Pakatan is banking on Warisan of Shafie Apdal to bucket in a win, Sarawak voters may just vote against BN if PAS keeps persisting on their agenda and dream of a unity government with BN.

Mahathir will eventually gain a bonus vote on this issue that Najib is seen to have soften on.

For the Sarawakians, to have PAS sharing federal power with BN could be very discomforting.

The possibility of change in federal government is no longer a distant dream for some. It could become reality. Malaysians may wake up to a Pakatan government on May 10.