PETALING JAYA: The political rivalry between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) will go on for years to come, analysts said.
Political analyst Azmil Tayeb from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) believes that the healthy competition between the two main coalitions will lead to political stability, The Malaysian Insight reports.
“The one-on-one match-up is very good. For now, the competition we see is between PN and PH
“Besides being able to stabilise Malaysia’s political landscape, it also reduces the focus on racial and religious sentiments,” he told The Malaysian Insight.
Meanwhile, political lecturer at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) Mazlan Ali saw the co-operation between BN and PH as more beneficial to both coalitions.
Mazlan said that voter support, especially in rural areas and Malay majority areas, would lean towards PH and BN if Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s administration can fulfil the people’s wishes and resolve their issues.
Ilham Centre executive director Hisommudin Bakar said BN, for example, needs to co-operate with PH and can no longer compete as a third block.
“If BN approaches the elections as it did in November, it will lose. The option it has is to have an understanding with PH to realise this one-on-one approach.
“We can see the synergy of this co-operation in the state elections or the next general election,” he said.
In November, PH won 82 seats and PN 74, or 156 of the 222 seats in the Dewan Rakyat.
Barisan Nasional (BN) – which was the traditional superpower in the house until it was first ousted from government in 2018 – only won 30 seats.