THERE is more opportunity to become an election candidate or to rise up in the ranks as a member of newly formed Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) than in Bersatu, observers said.

They told The Malaysian Insight that even though several Bersatu members were close to party leaders Mohd Azmin Ali and Zuraida Kamaruddin, these members could not see a future with the party.

As defectors from PKR, they also ran the risk of not chosen to defend the seats they had won.

Yesterday, in the first PBM general assembly, Julau lawmaker Larry Sng was elected president and Haniza Mohamed Talha his deputy.

Sng and Haniza were both PKR members aligned to Azmin, who was the party deputy president.

Last year Azmin and Zuraida, together with 9 other PKR members of parliament and assemblymen left the party to join Bersatu.

Bersatu, led by Muhyiddin Yassin, had just formed the Perikatan Nasional government after leaving Pakatan Harapan and causing its collapse.

Ilham Centre executive director Hisommudin Bakar said ex-PKR members in Bersatu were not given the opportunity to advance their careers.

“Room for them to grow is very limited. Some MPs or state lawmakers may not be picked as candidates in the coming election.”

“For their own survival, they formed or joined PBM to stay relevant but they need to align themselves with a strong coalition because if they do not, they won’t stand a chance of winning,” he said. 

On whether PBM should join Barisan Nasional, Hisommudin said BN might not want the new party

“BN will not accept PBM without first calculating the risks. Sng is an MP in Sarawak and he leads PBM; BN already has GPS as its partner in that state. GPS might be unhappy if BN takes in PBM.

“PBM must also move carefully. Individuals in this party carry a lot of baggage and it will not be easy for them to convince the voters,” he added.

Geostrategist Dr Azmi Hassan, of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia, said many of Azmin’s faction would be left out of the election if they stayed in Bersatu.

“In Bersatu there are the original members and the members who are called ‘pendatang’. The second group only joined Bersatu after it left PH to form a government with BN and PAS.”

“They know they won’t be able to survive if they stay in Bersatu therefore they create a new party.”

However, like Hisommudin, Azmi said these new PBM members will find it hard to convince the people that they are sincere about doing their job as their representatives.

“As we know, people nowadays do not accept political frogs. No matter which party you join, people will not accept you. This was clear in the Malacca elections.

“They will need a coalition to keep them going, but the question is, who will accept them?” he said.

Some other members in PBM are Tebrau MP Steven Choong Shiau Yoon and assemblymen Sivasubramaniam Athinarayanan (Buntong), Dr Daroyah Alwi (Sementa), Leong Cheok Keng (Malim Nawar) and Paul Yong Choo Kiong (Tronoh).

Sivasubramaniam, Daroyah and Yong were defectors to Bersatu. Sivasubramanim and Yong won on the DAP ticket while Daroyah was previously in PKR.

Choong is another former PKR member who left to become Independent. Leong was in DAP before he was Independents.

Zuraida had previously told the press that she would consider offers to join a new party.  However the Ampang MP said she had yet to receive any such offers.

Sources told news portal FMT that Zuraida, who is a Bersatu supreme council member, would soon be trading Bersatu for PBM, a multiracial party that aims to fight for a “moderate Malaysia”.

Azmin and Zuraida behind PBM?

Veteran political observer Sayuti Omar said he believed PBM was the brainchild of Azmin and Zuraida, but both had yet to show their hand.

He said the party was a fallback plan for the two if things did not go their way in Bersatu.

“Sooner or later there will be an internal conflict between Azmin, Hamzah Zainuddin and Ahmad Faizal Azumu. We know Hamzah is one of the senior figures in Bersatu while Faizal is the deputy president,” said Sayuti.

He said Azmin would continue to lobby Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for the position of deputy prime minister and should that fail, there was PBM to fall back on.

“By right, Faizal as the Bersatu deputy president is the man to be Ismail’s deputy but Azmin is way more capable than both Faizal and Hamzah combined.”

Sayuti doubted Sng was capable of leading PBM.

“This party is just a cover for Azmin and Zuraida. Who is Larry Sng? Do people know him? Haniza Talha – do people know her? Daroyah Alwi – do people admire her?”

“These people won elections because of their party associations not their capacity to lead,” he said.

PBM in a statement expressed its support for the ruling government and said that it would champion the interests of all races in the country.

Sng told a media conference that the party was formerly the Sarawak Workers Party, which had been rebranded with the aim of going national.

According to Sng, the party members have surpassed 100,000. – January 10, 2022.