The real threat to cooperation between Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN) may not come from a “third party”, but from fears that one side could use the other to strengthen itself, an analyst said.
Ahmad Zaharuddin Sani Ahmad Sabri of Global Asia Consulting said BN needed PN for its electoral strength, but Umno could eventually question whether cooperation was helping to build “the very force capable of replacing it”.
“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 was commenting after Umno secretary-general Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki said parties seeking cooperation with Umno should be wary of being influenced by third parties.
Asyraf cited Umno’s Muafakat Nasional pact with PAS, which he said failed due to interference by another party, such as Bersatu.
Mutual suspicion remains a key obstacle
Zaharuddin said genuinely strong alliances should not be threatened by the presence of other political players.
Instead, he said, the vulnerability of BN and PN lay in the mutual suspicion between the two sides.
“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 seen as another challenge for 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 therefore “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.
