THE Pakatan Harapan (PH) brand will not take off if all the candidates in the opposition coalition use the PKR logo in the next election, said analysts.

In addition, the two other multi-racial parties in the coalition, DAP and Amanah, will lose out in the long run, they added.

“It is true that the PKR logo is more widely accepted than PH’s as it is still new and unproven,” said Universiti Malaya’s Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi.

“As such, there are some merits to PKR youth’s proposal to use their own logo in the next general election.”

Awang Azman was commenting on PKR youth chief Akmal Nasir’s suggestion for PH to contest the 15th general election using the PKR logo as it did in 2018.

International Islamic University of Malaysia political science lecturer Dr Lau Zhe Wei also agreed that the PH logo is less popular compared to that of PKR and DAP.

But Lau said this is PH’s failure in promoting its own brand.

“Have they done enough to popularise the PH logo? I don’t think so,” said Lau.

He said PH parties even used different logos when it contested the Sabah elections last year.

“DAP and Amanah used the Warisan logo while PKR used their own. There was no effort to use the PH logo in Sabah.”

Lau said that the logo dispute is unhelpful for PH in the long run.

“While PKR can say PH’s logo is weak, DAP can also claim PKR’s logo is tainted due to the high number of defections. Hence this argument will go nowhere,” said Lau.

Ilham Centre director Hisommudin Bakar also blamed PH’s leaders for the branding weakness.

“The PH brand is weak because they did not do enough to promote it when they were in government. As such, the brand and logo are very weak.

“PKR’s suggestion highlights how poorly its own component parties view the coalition,” said Hisommudin.

Internal rivalries

The logo dispute has also shown how fragile the relationship among PH parties have become after winning the 2018 election, said Hisommudin.

“Perikatan Nasional also used a new logo in the Sabah elections but there was no argument there and they even won,” he said.

This dispute, said Hisommudin, only goes to show how the PH component parties have lost their chemistry.

“PKR is trying to further its own interests and feel they are stronger and want to push the other two parties into submission.

“But it’s unfortunate and unhelpful. Worst yet, PH chairman Anwar Ibrahim does not seem confident of the PH brand.”

Lau and Awang Azman said it would be political suicide for DAP and Amanah to contest the next election under the PKR logo.

“I am not surprised that DAP insists on using the PH logo. PKR’s request is akin to asking MCA to use the Umno logo in an election. I don’t think it is fair to them,” said Lau.

Awang Azman said that DAP is against the idea as it would popularise PKR at the expense of the other two multi-racial parties.

“DAP and Amanah will be buried in the long run if they allow this to happen. They would prefer using the PH logo, which is more neutral, instead of losing out to PKR,” said the UM Centre for Democracy and Elections member.  

PH leaders have declined to comment on the issue. – June 11, 2021.