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By Mihar Dias (C) Copyright April 2023
In what appears to be an early sign of a possible rift in the relationship between DAP and UMNO, the latter's supreme council member Nur Jazlan alleged that the earlier is making it hard for his party to regain Malay support, eventually votes, in the coming state elections.
According to news reports, Nur Jazlan Mohamed has labelled DAP a "liability" that is affecting UMNO’s efforts to regain its Malay base.
Nur Jazlan told Utusan Malaysia that it is already challenging enough for UMNO to regain the confidence of Malays in next state elections but with DAP being distrusted by the community it is making it even more difficult.
He said DAP is not helping either when its Perak vice-chairman Abdul Aziz Bari who commented that Malay support has shifted from UMNO to Perikatan Nasional (PN).
From our perspective, Abdul Aziz is merely making an observation on what really happened in the GE15. Malays have more or less abandoned UMNO since then because its president loudly proclaimed that it would not partner with PH, Anwar or DAP. But Zahid broke the promise when he teamed up with them to form the current government. As a result, the majority of Malay votes went to Perikatan Nasional instead.
But Nur Jazlan on the other hand, rebutted the argument saying that "DAP is one of the reasons why we are finding it hard to gain back Malay support. Because Malays do not trust them". He was quoted by Utusan in response to Abdul Aziz who said that UMNO’s role with the Malays is now unclear as PN gains more support and assumes the role once played by UMNO.
In other words, UMNO is no longer a viable Malay based party like it has been since independence. It is actually a negative comment by a fellow component party member. So, it obviously hurts everyone in UMNO and Nur Jazlan is the one who dared voice his displeasure.
In addition, Abdul Aziz alleged that Umno is now in survival mode, having to rely on PH for positions of power.
This must have bruised some egos in UMNO. For a DAP leader to say that UMNO a once mighty party has to rely on PH for positions is just rubbing salt into the wound. The supporters of DAP are probably clapping in the gallery.
Besides, UMNO is also facing public backlash as a result of its persistence lobbying to pardon its former president Najib, now serving a 12 year prison term for corruption. Netizens are already up in arms against such moves by PMX and the PH led government.
The blaming game has already started and is not likely to die down any time soon. It'll drag on way past state elections. Perhaps even leading to a split up of this most unlikely marriage of convenience.
We expect DAP to be more alarmed when PH loses badly in coming state elections should UMNO fail to deliver seats in critical state assemblies. UMNO will blame DAP as a cause for Malays to withdraw their support as observed by Nur Jazlan.
People like DAP's leader in Perak may aggravate the situation by repeating the allegation that UMNO has lost its grassroots support. That the old party is no longer trusted for obvious reasons. But we all know that DAP itself is a cause celebre.
Malays, by and large, do not trust DAP so the voters will more than likely switch loyalties, with PN being the major beneficiary.
The spat between the two components of the PH "not-so-unified" government may likely result in further cracks should Najib be freed and cases against Zahid are dropped.
In fact, speculations are rife that non-Malays may even withdraw their support for PH in state election as much as their Malay counterparts because of their dissatisfaction with the PH coalition for jumping into bed with the "not-so-clean party" that it had toppled previously in 2018.
The wrath of the voters will be reflected in the ballot boxes this July/August. Just wait and see.
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