Opposition holds advantage in multi-cornered fights? Yes they do

UMNO-BN and PAS are fighting for the same pool of voters which are 20% bottom of the barrel voters which were never in the mainstream. Both parties will be hardest hit in a 3 cornered fight.


By John Chin 40

Last Updated 14th May, 2017, 2:26 AM
Some in Opposition feel they can ride on people’s dislike of Najib Razak no matter what, but others say a free for all will help BN

KOTA BARU: There are two sets of conclusions drawn among the Opposition when it comes to addressing the possibility of squaring off in three- or four-cornered fights in the next general election, said a former PAS secretary-general.

The first consensus among them is that the Opposition can prevail in such an event as there is now anguish towards the leadership of Prime Minister Najib Razak, said Kamaruddin Jaafar, the Tumpat member of parliament.

Kamaruddin, who joined PKR after exiting PAS, said some leaders in Pakatan Harapan believed that the hatred towards Najib is intense and that Najib’s unpopularity will be the undoing of the BN coalition which he leads.

Such a scenario assumes that voters will strictly stick by the Opposition, ignoring BN and the others when casting their ballots.

“So even if there are no straight fights, the Opposition stands to win as the pendulum swing may have fully tilted towards Pakatan Harapan,” he said.

But there is another theory that multi-cornered fights would doom the Opposition to another round of failure in its attempt to capture Putrajaya despite the poor economic performance of the country since 2013.

For starters, opposition parties have become their own worst enemies, quarrelling among themselves and PAS and DAP have even become bitter rivals since 2014.

Every opposition party has its own strengths and strongholds, particularly PAS which has close to one million members, said Kamaruddin.

And if there are multi–cornered fights in many seats, the opposition parties would end up neutralising each other rather than challenging BN, he noted.

Kamaruddin said the split among the opposition is a major slap in the face of discerning voters, who want Pakatan Harapan to offer a sincere and united front to show they are ready to govern the country.

“I happen to share the opinion of those in the second category, which is BN will enjoy the advantage in the event of a multi-cornered fight,” he said.

Kamaruddin said Malaysia is a different proposition when it comes to championing the Commonwealth parliamentary democracy principle.

Unlike Britain where the political parties campaign on their own before forming alliances upon the outcome of an election, in Malaysia the parties tend to be part of a group first as voters here opt for security and certainty, said Kamaruddin.

But it may slightly change with PAS preferring to go it alone, perhaps acting like a kingmaker as both sides of the divide may need the Islamist party, he added.

If everybody can cast aside their personal objectives and focus on what the country really needs, only then can Malaysia emerge stronger after this latest round of elections, Kamaruddin said.

Otherwise it is likely to be status quo.