.png)
SHAH ALAM - Pakatan Harapan (PH) has run out of time to convince voters that its partnership with Barisan Nasional (BN) has not come at the cost of its reform principles, with the coalition needing to focus on strengthening itself rather than relying on others, says a Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) lawmaker.
Petaling Jaya Member of Parliament Lee Chean Chung said the question of whether working with BN had compromised PH's founding ideals was no longer just theoretical, it had played out visibly on the ground.
He said the reality of all-out competition between the two coalition partners in Johor and Negeri Sembilan had made continued talk of cooperation increasingly difficult to defend.
"Is it still valid to discuss the cooperation where you see the backstabbing, you see really an all-out competition in Johor and Negeri Sembilan?" he said during a sideline interview after appearing on Sinar Daily's Top News Podcast, Time to Fix the System.
Lee, who also sits on the Parliamentary Special Select Committee on Finance and Economy, said the issue was not whether PH should or should not work with BN, but whether the coalition had done enough to rebuild itself from within, and in his view, it had not.
"In my opinion, it's really not about leveraging others, but it's about self-strengthening. The way I look at it, it's very little self-strengthening, and probably too late now," he added.
He said the upcoming party congress, which he described as coming too late in the day, would do little to shift the narrative if the coalition continued to frame its survival around its partnerships rather than its own renewal.
"They only talk about having a congress this weekend and all that. They shouldn't really keep talking about being willing to work with BN or whoever. The time has passed. I think we have crossed that," he said.
Lee’s remarks come as PH continues to navigate its partnership with BN in the unity government, a cooperation that brought former political rivals together after the 15th General Election produced a hung Parliament.
The partnership has allowed PH and BN to jointly form the federal government under Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, but it has also created challenges for PH in maintaining its reformist identity and distinguishing itself from its coalition partners.
For voters who previously backed PH on promises of institutional reform, governance and political change, the challenge now lies in whether the coalition can demonstrate that its participation in the unity government has not diluted those commitments.
Lee’s comments suggest that PH’s priority should be to establish a stronger political identity of its own rather than depend on continued cooperation with former rivals to maintain its position in government.