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The Malay Mail
Chin Tong: Now in Perikatan, will Bersatu be eaten alive by new allies Umno, PAS?
Thursday, 05 Mar 2020 05:49 PM MYT
BY EMMANUEL SANTA MARIA CHIN
KUALA LUMPUR, March 5 — Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia can expect a bumpy ride ahead with lines set to be drawn in the sand between the party and new Perikatan Nasional (PN) allies Umno and PAS, DAP senator Liew Chin Tong suggested today.
Liew explained that Bersatu, being the smallest among the three Malay-based parties and with a far inferior infrastructure and grassroots support network, could easily be “eaten alive” by Umno and PAS given the similarity in political ideologies which serves to cater to similar demographics.
The Johor DAP chairman revealed that he had made this calculated fact known to Bersatu president and Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin when they met last month, to which he said the latter conceded and agreed with Liew.
Liew also took aim at the other components parties within PN, accusing the coalition of Umno, PAS, MCA and MIC of not having any proper electoral policies and were only good at fanning racial tensions among the people.
“It is just a ‘scorched earth’ strategy with Umno-PAS fanning Malay/Muslim anxieties while MCA/MIC raising non-Malay unhappiness towards Pakatan Harapan.
“The aim is to raise the racial temperature to break up Pakatan and to enable [Datuk Seri] Najib Razak and his cohorts to ‘steal’ the government during mid-term without having to go through elections,” Liew alleged.
The former deputy minister of defence also expressed his worries towards the influence Muhyiddin might receive from Umno and PAS, who he alleged were even open to outlawing elections altogether with hopes of keeping them in power permanently.
“I worry if the Umno-PAS coalition, which dominate Muhyiddin’s fledgling Bersatu, ever have any intention to call for elections.
“They may even ban elections if they think they can’t win power through democracy,” he said.
Liew however backed down saying such an eventuality still seemed unlikely, saying infighting among the Malay parties would happen first with signs of it already starting to show.
“They are already at odds with each other.
“It seems that if Umno and PAS leaders don’t get what they want from Muhyiddin, they prefer to trigger snap polls which by then the Muhyiddin-led Bersatu would very likely to be ‘eaten up alive’,” he said.
Liew also spoke about how the any party looking to win an election must ensure they bag the votes of the urban Malays, something Pakatan Harapan succeed in doing in 2018, while managing to win over the non-Malays at the same time.
He said come an election, the three Malay parties would find it hard to avoid stepping on each others’ toes with their overlapping ideologies and could prove to be fatal in their pursuit.
Liew also noted that PAS had gone on the anti-Najib route for their election campaign trail in 2018, making material for the future campaigns slightly more limited considering their newfound cooperation with Umno.
“But the Muhyiddin wing of Bersatu, unfortunately, succumbed to the race talk which would see Bersatu cannibalised by Umno and PAS.
“It is very important to note that most of the key swing seats in Peninsula are Malay-majority mixed seats with sizeable non-Malay population.
Given his observations, Liew said if Pakatan Harapan is looking to return to Putrajaya, they would have to put in double the effort to win over the Malay and non-Malay voters.
“Pakatan Harapan has to work doubly hard now to debunk the myth surrounding the Malay voters and build upon solid support from all voters to ensure that the reform agenda is secured and protected.
“It will give Pakatan another opportunity to return to office, this time with lessons learnt,” he said.
* A previous version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.
weehingthong 