PARTI Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) will lose badly in the next general election as the party, which is made up of PKR defectors, is incapable of getting supporters or convincing people to vote for its candidates, political observers said.

PBM was established by former PKR lawmakers last year, following an internal dispute with the Bersatu leadership, led by former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin.

It has applied to join Barisan Nasional (BN) ahead of the general election, widely expected to be held next month – nine months before the mandate expires in July 2023.

Political observers told The Malaysian Insight that PBM’s image has been tarnished by lawmakers who jumped from one party to another only to form the party after not being able to secure positions in Bersatu.

Many have considered the ex-PKR leaders as political “frogs” for ditching Pakatan Harapan (PH) in the Sheraton Move, which caused the fall of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s administration.

They consist of Zuraida Kamaruddin (Ampang), Larry Sng (Julau), Willie Mongin (Puncak Borneo), Steven Chong (Tebrau), Xavier Jayakumar (Kuala Langat) and Edmund Santhara (Segamat).

Sng is currently the party president while Zuraida is president-designate.

Ilham Centre executive director Hisomuddin Bakar said if PBM fails to obtain an official partnership with either Perikatan Nasional (PN) or BN, it has no hope of winning anything in the polls.

He said the PBM lawmakers will face an uphill task to even defend the seats that they won previously under the PH banner.

“If they are not accepted by BN or PN, they will not win a single seat, even the seats that they had previously won. They won previously because of PH and votes from the non-Malays,” Hisomuddin said.

“We know that the non-Malays are serious about party hopping and will not accept traitors.

“These politicians’ chances of losing are very high. The ‘frog’ label is enough to prevent people from voting for them.”

Over the weekend, Xavier and Santhara were unveiled as the newest MPs to join PBM at the end of the party’s annual general meeting in Shah Alam.

Zuraida said PBM is in the process of vetting two Negri Sembilan assemblymen who applied to join the party.

PBM’s assemblymen, also gained through party-hopping, are A. Sivasubramaniam (Buntong), Paul Yong Choo Kiong (Tronoh), Leong Cheok Keng (Malim Nawar), Haniza Mohamed Talha (Lembah Jaya) and Daroyah Alwi (Sementa).

Launched last December, PBM was rebranded from Sarawak Workers Party to turn it into a national-level party. The application for name change was approved by the Registrar of Societies on October 27 last year.

Dr Mazlan Ali of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said PBM’s image will be a huge obstacle for the party to move forward.

He said Amanah, a party formed by ex-PAS leaders, gained acceptance by the people because those who left the Islamist party stuck to its principle that Umno is the enemy.

“For PBM, they chose to leave PKR not because of ideology but due to power. That is why people will find it hard to accept the party,” said Mazlan.

“Furthermore, PH was chosen by the people and these lawmakers betrayed the mandate.”

The academic said PBM is also lacking in its objectives.

“What are they going to do for Malaysia? What are the struggles that they are willing to fight for? There is no clear indication,” he said.

“I don’t see how PBM is going to win any seats in the election.”

In August, PBM announced that it will be working with so-called “left-leaning” Parti Kuasa Rakyat in the general election.

According to Sng, both parties made the decision to be strategic partners, and PBM will soon update its constitution to reflect some of Kuasa’s ideas.

Kuasa, headed by Kamarazaman Yaakob, the brother of Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, is a party claiming to hold socialist ideas but supports the current federal government.

Both PBM and Kuasa are friendly towards BN and have indicated a desire to join the coalition, which lost the federal government in 2018 after six decades.

Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Azmi Hassan mirrored the sentiments of Hisomuddin and Mazlan.

Azmi said Zuraida, as party leader, will also find it difficult to defend her Ampang seat.

“Can PBM win any seats? It is hard to tell because we don’t know how many grassroots members it has,” he said.

“For me, it is hard for them, even for Zuraida. I don’t see how she is going to defend her seat.

“PH supporters won’t vote for them, that’s for sure. And fence sitters will prefer well-established coalitions like PH or BN.” – October 4, 2022.