IDEALLY, the public wants all four parties in Pakatan Harapan to be equal but the political reality is that Malays want Malays to be dominant, Ideas chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan said at a forum in Shah Alam today.

“Malays want to see a more Malay-dominant coalition,” he said.

“Hence, Malays are willing to vote for MCA in Barisan Nasional because they know that Umno will still be dominant.

“You don’t have to say that DAP is dominant. You just have to say they are equal and they will be in trouble,” he said.

“Perhaps, PH has realised this and hence its line-up is predominantly Malay. There are so many Malays there that BN has begun to ask what happened to the Chinese representatives,” fellow panelist and International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) lecturer Dr Maszlee Malik told the forum “Pakatan Harapan vs Barisan Nasional Review” at the Karangkraf office today.

Universiti Utara Malaysia Prof Mohd Azizuddin Mohd Sani said BN’s strength lay in Umno’s dominant position within the coalition.

“It shows that it is a party that can take care of the Malays. That is why BN is very hard to beat because it is very strong with Malays,” he added.

Who’s stronger?

Mohd Azizuddin said PH was still untested, had many problems and lacked direction, while BN was very good with personalised politics.

“PH is stronger in mass-based politics, while BN and Umno have strong patronage systems, which are very hard to break because they stretch from top to bottom. As such, I’m sceptical whether PH is all that strong,” he said, responding to Maszlee’s suggestion that this was the most formidable opposition front Malaysians had seen since Barisan Alternative and Gagasan Rakyat with Semangat 46.

Gagasan Rakyat was an informal coalition formed in 1990 with parties like DAP, PBS, PRM, IPF and joined by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s Semangat 46.

Barisan Alternative was a coalition of opposition parties made up of PAS, DAP, PRM and DAP in 2004.

Maszlee said that the current opposition no longer lacked experience because it has a former PM, two former deputy prime ministers, former deputy ministers, one chief minister, one menteri besar and one former menteri besar.

“Barisan Alternative was stronger because it had two former prime ministers backing it: Tunku (Abdul Rahman) and Hussein Onn. PR too was a very strong set-up,” said Mohd Azizuddin. – July 26, 2017.