PAS confirms no united Opposition front in GE14

PAS is confirmed out of this common platform. So is the DAP? What about dark horse Islamist Amanah?

PAS confirms no united Opposition front in GE14

A vote for BN-Umno or PAS is a vote for the content of the above two video clips:

“KANGAR: The new PAS spiritual leader, Hashim Jasin, stressed that the party would never cooperate with DAP again and is willing to face a three-cornered fight in the coming 14th General Election (GE14).”

The above is politically very telling indeed. Malaysians can almost for certain rule out any possibility of a united Opposition front to square off with 1Malaysia Development Berhad (1MDB) Prime Minister Najib Razak’s Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) in the next general election or a snap GE14.

This means the Islamist PAS, led by the Umno-loving Hadi Awang, is likely to go solo into GE14. If not, it will rejoin BN. Either way, it makes no difference - Najib and Umno have already won GE14 even before the first ballot is cast.

Malaysians going to the polls can expect a majority of three-cornered electoral battles in the Peninsula, if not nationwide.

And the fact and irony is this: If PAS goes solo into GE14, it is going to lose big time to Umno, and most definitely winning fewer parliamentary seats than it did in GE13. But the biggest casualty are likely to be PKR and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Pribumi) - unless the three Opposition Malay parties strike an electoral pact to ensure straight contests with BN-Umno. What about the Islamist Amanah, the splinter party of PAS dissidents or Muslim liberals? This is the dark horse of Malay politics as they can combine with DAP to be a reasonably Third Force to be reckon with. This was proven in the June 2016 Sungai Besar (Selangor) and Kuala Kangsar (Perak) twin by-elections.

 
Clearly, the results show how the Opposition Malay votes are critically split to give the advantage to BN-Umno to win big in GE14.

Political observers and pundits also believe that Amanah’s strong showing is due to the DAP and Chinese and Indian acceptance of Amanah. The result is still a loss for the Opposition. The Amanah-DAP combo is still not strong enough to beat BN-Umno, unless Amanah manages to do the impossible or miracle of winning over a significant percentage of traditional and hardcore PAS supporters. This means Amanah may be able to win in Malay majority seats with high percentage of Chinese and Indian voters. But such seats will also be eyed by PKR and Pribumi. So, four-cornered electoral battles? The Opposition is confirmed dead.

If PAS rejoins BN, the end result is still the same - BN Umno will still win big.

Thus far, what can one conclude? PAS just don’t have enough harcore Malay supporters to win big in GE14 but it has enough supporters to give BN (not necessary Umno) the advantage in Malay majority seats.

Isn’t that politically ironic?

Also, what further conclusions can we draw?

That Umno is set to win big in GE14 while the DAP will still win in all the Chinese majority seats but likely to lose in constituencies where there is a significant high percentage of Malay voters.

Whether the Amanah-DAP Third Force combo features in GE14 will depend on the horse-trading of seats for contest with PKR and Pribumi.

And, of course other surprised or shocking political realignments for and after GE14 can also be expected because in Malaysian politics, there are no permanent friends and no permanent enemies.

(Read these No News Is Bad News earlier postings for context: http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/10/dr-m-its-difficult-to-topple-1mdb-bn.html, http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/10/yes-1mdb-pm-najibs-snap-ge14-is-on.html, http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/10/what-heck-1mdb-pm-najib-has-already-won.html, http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/10/pribumi-pkr-pas-negotiating-to.html, http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/10/dap-suspiciously-quiet-over-opposition.html, http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/10/no-permanent-friends-no-permanent.html, http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/09/1mdb-pm-najib-proving-to-be-more-master.html and http://victorlim2016.blogspot.my/2016/09/dap-to-plunge-into-leadership-dilemma.html)

And this is PAS’ almost certain stand into GE14:

"‘PAS will never work with DAP again’

Bernama

October 13, 2016

PAS Spiritual Leader Hashim Jasin also says its cooperation with Umno is on the basis of Islamic unity.


KANGAR: The new PAS spiritual leader, Hashim Jasin, stressed that the party would never cooperate with DAP again and is willing to face a three-cornered fight in the coming 14th General Election (GE14).

He regarded the PAS-DAP split as beyond reconciliation because DAP reneged on its agreement to cooperate with PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang.

He said the cooperation with DAP in GE13 was based on a conditional political approach while its cooperation with Umno was on the basis of Islamic unity.

“We do not want to repeat our mistakes and be bitten twice on the same spot for resuming ties with DAP,” Hashim told a press conference, here, today.

The former Perlis PAS commissioner for more than 20 years was appointed recently to replace the late Haron Din, who died in California, United States, last month.

According to him, PAS was not bothered if three-cornered contests took place involving Barisan Nasional and other Opposition pact parties in the coming general election.

Hashim said the friendly overture towards Umno was not because PAS was seen as weak following internal bickering which led to the creation of Amanah.

“It was different in the past (era of the late Nik Aziz) but the basis of PAS’ struggle to uphold Islam has never waned.”

Hashim said cooperation with PKR and Amanah would be decided at the Central PAS Committee meeting on Oct 22-23 at its headquarters in the federal capital.
The meeting would also table a study on political cooperation with the Opposition parties.

He said PAS was now practising mature politics and not politics of seeking sustenance (cari makan) or merely just to win the general election.

On the PKR and Amanah pleas for PAS to join them to stand a better chance of winning the general election, Hashim said PAS was able to visualise that goal."