Barisan Nasional must first determine whether it has regained Malay support, particularly in constituencies it lost to Perikatan Nasional, before deciding whether to contest on its own or cooperate with the opposition coalition, according to a think tank head.
Ilham Centre executive director Hisommudin Bakar said BN’s main challenge was winning over young Malays, a voter segment in which PN has enjoyed strong support.
‘If BN is unable to determine this, whether the Malay vote has swung back in its favour, then they have no choice but to give way to PN in seat negotiations, since PN won the seats in the last polls,’ he said at a BN forum titled ‘Post-Johor and Negeri Sembilan: A new dynamic in Malaysian politics?’ last night.
Assessing strength at every level
Hisommudin said BN should assess its strength at both the parliamentary and state levels, including the level of Malay support in individual constituencies.
He pointed to the Negeri Sembilan election, where BN and PN worked together and won 18 and seven seats respectively, giving them a two-thirds majority to form the state government.
It was the first victory for the BN-PN alliance, under which both coalitions agreed not to contest against each other.
They had also urged their supporters and members to vote for each other’s candidates.
PH a challenge amid Malay-Muslim sentiment
On a related matter, Hisommudin described Pakatan Harapan, BN’s ally in the federal unity government, as a ‘liability’ amid growing Malay-Muslim sentiment.
‘So there is some baggage that comes with being part of the unity government,’ he said.
International Islamic University Malaysia’s Syaza Shukri, meanwhile, said cooperation with PH allowed BN to appeal to different voter segments, with BN drawing Malay support while PH attracted non-Malay voters.
Weak vote transfer remains a hurdle
However, she said the main challenge for the coalitions was persuading their respective supporters to vote for each other’s candidates.
‘When BN works with PH, they can draw support from two segments: the Malays and non-Malays. But the problem is that vote transferability is very weak,’ she said.
