Pn Will Lose Conservative Vote By Going Moderate Says Analyst

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 Coalition partners Bersatu and PAS, in their rivalry with parties such as Umno, are seen as always being centred on which party is more Malay and Islamic.
A political analyst has questioned whether the alliance between Bersatu and PAS will hold. (Facebook pic)PETALING JAYA: A political analyst has played down Perikatan Nasional’s willingness to work with moderate parties to form the next government as mere talk, as long as its dominant parties PAS and Bersatu do not practise moderation themselves
Political scientist Lau Zhe Wei of International Islamic University Malaysia said the coalition partners’ battles with key rivals such as Umno would always revolve around which party was more Malay and Islamic.
Because of that, he said, PN could not afford to move towards the middle ground as it risked losing the conservative vote which makes up the bulk of its support base.
“Does PN practise political moderation? My answer is no. If PN does so, how will it fare against its rivals? If they were to become more moderate, not only will they lose the conservative votes, but they will also fail to win the moderate votes,” he told FMT.
Bersatu Supreme Council member Saifuddin Abdullah recently said in an FMT interview that PN was open to working with moderate parties to form the next federal government.
He said he was confident PN could retain its 74 parliamentary seats in the next general election, but conceded that the coalition needed to look to allies to achieve a simple majority.
The 2022 general election resulted in a hung Parliament, with no coalition winning a simple majority.
Lau said PN should look to form future alliances with parties currently in the unity government, but believed that DAP and PKR, in particular, were out of the picture.
Separately, Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said Bersatu and PAS appeared to be floundering in preparing for the general election. He questioned if Saifuddin’s talk of moderation belied tensions with PAS.
“The mention of ‘moderate parties’ seems to be hinting that Bersatu’s cooperation with PAS isn’t working,” he said.
Azmi said Bersatu should consider forming alliances outside of PN if it really wanted to go down the moderate path, as other moderate parties would not want to have anything to do with PAS.
Reports of frosty ties between Bersatu and PAS have consistently surfaced, with Bersatu said to be wary of the Islamic party’s growing dominance within PN.
PAS spiritual leader Hashim Jasin had called for a PAS leader to lead the opposition coalition and denied that PN chairman Muhyiddin Yassin was its prime minister candidate for GE16, drawing backlash from Gerakan and Bersatu leaders. - FMT

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