Mutual suspicion, not ‘third party’, the real threat to BN-PN pact, says analyst
PETALING JAYA: The real threat to the cooperation between Barisan Nasional and Perikatan Nasional may not be a “third party” but the fear that one partner is using the other to strengthen itself, says an analyst.
Ahmad Zaharuddin Sani Ahmad Sabri of Global Asia Consulting said while BN needs PN for its electoral strength, Umno may eventually ask whether it has helped build “the very force capable of replacing it” through their cooperation.
“PN faces the mirror image of the same dilemma. If it cooperates too closely with BN, does it strengthen its electoral prospects or dilute the very identity that made voters choose PN in the first place?” he told FMT.
Zaharuddin’s comments came after Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said any party that wishes to cooperate with Umno must be wary of being influenced by third parties.
Asyraf cited Umno’s Muafakat Nasional pact with PAS, which he said failed because of interference by another party such as Bersatu.
Zaharuddin argued that “genuinely strong” alliances should not be threatened by the presence of other political players, and that BN and PN’s vulnerability lay in their mutual suspicion.
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“Umno knows PN is no longer the political force it once could dismiss. PN, meanwhile, knows that Umno still possesses something it cannot easily manufacture overnight: a nationwide political brand, organisational machinery and decades of institutional memory.
“They need each other, which is precisely the problem. Each side needs the other, but neither wants the other to become too powerful,” he said.
Wawasan poses new threat to Umno
Political analyst Wong Chin Huat said Wawasan remained a third-party threat to Umno, with Umno “naturally seeing” Wawasan as a potential replacement for Bersatu.
“Wawasan is too ideologically similar to Umno and hence poses a direct challenge. If PAS has to support a prime ministerial candidate from Umno or Wawasan, it would certainly choose Wawasan over Umno because it is weaker and easier to control,” he told FMT.
Wong said Malay parties were competing for the same voter base and were thus “hyper-competitive and distrustful of each other”.
“They are united by external threats, as when Umno and PAS were both in the opposition, and often need culture war symbols to rally voters.
“The more players there are, the harder it is for them to maintain the narrative of Malay unity, because there is a tendency for some parties to gang up against others,” he said.
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