PETALING JAYA: PKR leaders must be realistic about working with other opposition parties in the 15th general election (GE15), even if its members are unwilling to do so, say political analysts.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Prof Azmi Hassan said PKR, and by extension Pakatan Harapan (PH), need all the help they can get if they want to defeat Barisan Nasional (BN).
“PH can’t go it alone because the coalition is not very strong at present. PKR members may not want to work with Bersatu as they feel the party betrayed PH.
“But they should not mind working with other opposition parties such as Muda, Warisan and Pejuang, and this is still a viable option for PKR,” Azmi told theSun.
He said PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli is not being realistic when he said he was willing to lose seats rather than work with Bersatu.
“The objective is to defeat BN in the coming general election.”
Azmi said political principles are important, but for now Rafizi should put the party’s objective first, which is to defeat BN.
“It can later work out the issues it has with Bersatu. PKR is not in a very strong position now. It is trying to get its act together after voting in a new group of leaders. Although they are putting together a strong team, it will take some time before they make any impact.
“The most important thing for PKR is for the top two leaders to work together to take the party to the next level. The problem at the moment is the unwillingness to compromise on the ‘big tent’ issue because Rafizi does not want ‘traitors’.”
He said if the Opposition comes together, it can be much stronger than BN, therefore some PKR leaders need to mellow down in terms of working with Bersatu.
He added that Bersatu is strong in the number of members of Parliament they have, although most of them had jumped ship to join the party after GE14.
Azmi said BN knows if the Opposition fails to work together, this would be the best time to wipe them out as seen in the coalition’s wins in the Malacca and Johor state elections against PH and Perikatan Nasional.
In Sarawak, PH suffered a major setback, winning just two seats in the 82-seat state assembly.
National Council of Professors senior fellow Dr Jeniri Amir said it is very hard to blame PKR members and leaders like Rafizi for turning their backs on the big tent idea.
He said to put it simply, it is a once bitten, twice shy view, after the role Bersatu and some of the ex-PKR leaders now in Bersatu played in the downfall of the PH government.
“The big tent idea is seen by PKR members as trying to collaborate with the ‘enemy’ – this being Bersatu. It is also very unlikely they will work with Pejuang because of their distrust of some of the party’s leaders.
“PH could consider working with Muda and Warisan, which have not been part of any plot to hurt the coalition.”
Azmi said PH cannot contest in the next general election alone because the coalition is not very strong at present.