THE “big-tent” approach among opposition parties would most likely not work considering recent political developments, which have revealed competing interests that cannot be reconciled, political analysts said.

For one, existing mutual suspicions make negotiating difficult, said International Islamic University of Malaysia’s Tunku Mohar Tunku Mohd Mokhtar.

“Everyone seems to be on different pages. Apparently, even a common enemy in Barisan Nasional (BN) does not seem to be enough to bring the opposition parties together into a big tent,” he said. 

Another development is party-hopping among opposition parties, such as two former DAP representatives who joined Warisan recently – Sri Tanjong and Elopura assemblymen Justin Wong and Calvin Chong.

Tunku Mohar said this fuelled mutual distrust among the opposition parties, especially when the receiving party chose to take in defecting members from an ally.

Both Wong and Chong resigned from Sabah DAP in January and joined Warisan this month.

Political analyst Professor Wong Chin Huat, meanwhile, highlighted the issue of overlapping electoral markets.

He said youth-based party Muda and Pakatan Harapan (PH) would have to strike deals as both appeal to the same type of voters.

For PH and Warisan in Sabah, such cooperation is unlikely for two reasons. 

“First, Warisan has now indicated its willingness to join the big tent of Gabungan Rakyat Sabah (GRS) or BN. Second, DAP won’t give up the seats held by the two defectors to Warisan,” Wong said. 

“A big tent between PH, Warisan and Pejuang in Peninsular Malaysia is irrelevant because all the Warisan and Pejuang candidates lost their deposits in the Johor elections,” he added. 

In the Johor polls on March 12, PH was hapless in the face of a resurgent BN, which won by a supermajority.

Dr Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, said the defection of the two Sabah DAP representatives to Warisan is a sign that the big-tent concept, while sounding good in theory, is most likely not workable in practice. 

“This is because most of the major opposition parties are of the mindset of strengthening their respective selves at the expense of other opposition parties,” he said. 

“At the very least, they will fight over who is going to lead such a big tent. I don’t think serious negotiations on big tents are underway,” he said.

“More likely they will slaughter each other in an electoral bloodbath and try to get seats on the negotiation table to form a ruling coalition after the election,” he said. 

James Chin of University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute said the big-tent concept between PH and other opposition parties will depend on who the opposition leader is at the time of negotiations. 

This, he said, is due to sentiments that if Anwar Ibrahim is chosen by PH as prime minister candidate, other parties might not be keen to join the big tent. 

Criticism and calls for him to step down have been voiced against Anwar over PKR’s disastrous election results in Malacca and Johor recently. His decision to have PKR use its own logo instead of the PH logo is also seen as a stubbornness to repeat the same mistake twice.

On negotiations between PH and Warisan, Chin said there may be bad feelings but these would not be enough to destroy any chance of negotiation between the two groups.

“As the 15th general election gets closer, things will change,” he said. 

Social activist Hishamuddin Rais said it is now imperative for the opposition parties to work together and have a united front. 

“They must create a coalition involving all opposition parties, and if that fails, then they must have an electoral pact with one another, but if that fails too, then a common understanding among them is needed,” he said. 

He said now is the time for them to identify their common enemy before the general election is called. 

On Warisan’s move to accept the two former DAP assemblymen, Hishamuddin said it was normal for representatives to change political parties and that it will not affect negotiations. 

“For assemblymen to move parties, it is a normal thing to practise in a parliamentary democracy,” he said. – March 29, 2022.