BARISAN Nasional and PAS needs to contest under a common symbol in order to complete its transformation to become a viable challenger to Pakatan Harapan in GE15, said the Ilham Centre.

“BN and PAS have already achieved two of the four conditions needed to become a true challenger to PH.

“All they need now to complete the BN-PAS unity is to first have a common symbol and form unity governments in Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perlis,” said Ilham’s head of research Dr Mohd Yusri Ibrahim during the P165: Tg Piai seminar at Universiti Malaya (UM) yesterday.

Yusri said that PAS could join BN and contest under the BN scales logo or start a new political coalition with its own branding and symbol.

“However, to prove to the public that their unity is really serious and that they are capable of ruling federal government together, Umno and PAS needs to form a unity government in the four states.

“This will raise the confidence levels of voters towards their bid to replace PH in Putrajaya,” said Yusri, who teaches political science in Universiti Malaysia (Terengganu).

BN currently controls the Perlis and Pahang state governments, while PAS heads Kelantan and Terengganu.

BN has nine out of 15 assemblymen in Perlis, while PAS has two. The remaining four are from PH.

In Pahang, BN has 25 out of 42 assemblymen, while PAS has eight. The remainder are with PH.

On the PAS side, the Islamists have 37 out of 45 assemblymen in Kelantan, with BN seven and PH one state seat respectively.

In Terengganu, PAS has 23 seats out of 33, with 10 BN representatives making up the numbers.

The situation is more delicate in Perak, where PH only has 30 state seats.

BN holds 25 and PAS has three, with one independent.

With Perak exco Paul Yong facing a rape trial, any change could trigger a hung assembly.

By fielding MCA’s Wee Jeck Seng in the Tanjung Piai by-election, Umno and PAS have already demonstrated that there is room for non-Malays in their coalition, said Yusri.

UM’s Prof Dr Hamidin Abd Razak agreed and said Wee was a good choice for BN in Tanjung Piai.

“By choosing MCA instead of Umno, they are trying to show that BN’s brand of multiracial politics is still alive. This is a kind of revivalism for them.”

Yusri said the third condition BN and PAS needs to fulfil in order to beat PH are the acceptance of non-Malay parties into their coalition.

“If the partnership is just among Umno and PAS, they can only strengthen in states such as Kedah and Perak, but it will still be hard to take over Putrajaya.”

The last condition, said Yusri, was that the new BN-PAS alliance would need to be supported by core parties in Sabah and Sarawak. – November 5, 2019.