Opposition’s defeat proves PAS needs more than just Malay support

KUALA LUMPUR — The opposition’s crushing defeat in the twin by-elections proves that Parti Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) cannot hold its own with just Malay support while Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) cannot only rely on non-Malay votes, said observers.

Political analysts noted that if the Malaysian opposition continues to move forward in its fragmented state, only bad news awaits it in the upcoming general election, which has to be held by 2018.

“Nobody cares about who comes in second or third place. It just means that all the resources spent amounted to nothing for either party on election day,” said Mr Ibrahim Suffian of independent pollster Merdeka Centre to Malay Mail Online.

PAS had come in second, ahead of Amanah in Kuala Kangsar by 801 votes, while in Sungai Besar, it was Amanah ahead of PAS by 707 votes.

The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition comfortably won both seats with a 6,969 and 9,191 majority in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar, respectively. “PAS cannot move forward on its on. What the results show is that without working together, the opposition has no way to go against BN,” said Mr Ibrahim. “If they are serious about politics, they must figure out how to sit down together.”

Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia associate professor Dr Mohd Faisal Hazis concurred, adding that PAS lost its non-Malay support when it left the now-defunct Pakatan Rakyat coalition last year after a disagreement over the implementation of the Islamic penal code, or hudud, in Kelantan.

Amanah, a splinter group from PAS, is now part of the opposition Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition, together with the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).

“I don’t think Amanah managed to secure as many Malay votes as PAS. The real battle is whether Amanah can replace PAS in the opposition pact, and right now, I don’t think that it is viable,” said Dr Faisal to Malay Mail Online.

Both analysts attributed DAP’s aggressive campaigning in Sungai Besar and a pseudo “incumbency advantage” for Amanah in PKR-ruled Selangor that helped it narrowly beat PAS for second place, as opposed to the scenario in Kuala Kangsar.

Chinese-majority DAP had put up several racially provocative billboards in Sungai Besar to highlight anti-Chinese remarks by a United Malays National Organisation (Umno) politician as well as the warming ties between PAS and Umno.

Extending an olive branch, Amanah deputy president Salahuddin Ayub said late on Saturday that losses suffered by PH and PAS shows the need for an unified opposition to go toe-to-toe against the BN in the next general election. “There’s still time to fix this. We will review the decision,” he said.

“We are always open to discuss with PAS and from before, we were in that direction,” he added.

DAP’s assistant national treasurer Nga Kor Ming reportedly said that PAS should not have engaged in a multi-cornered fight if it didn’t want to lose, adding that PH is willing to review its ties with PAS.

“We are always open, but PAS must be sincere,” the Taiping lawmaker was quoted as saying.

Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) CEO Wan Saiful Wan Jan noted that should PAS continue on its own, it would only create a hard time for the rest of the opposition parties.

“If PAS continues as a spoiler, then it means the opposition will have a ... hard time. PAS’ presence is a boon to Umno and bad news for Pakatan (Harapan),” he told Malay Mail Online. MALAY MAIL ONLINE