PAS is willing to play second fiddle to Umno in the Melaka election because its bigger priority is returning to federal power, even if this means making concessions during seat negotiations, analysts say.
James Chin of the University of Tasmania said PAS, which was part of the federal administration from 2020 to 2022, was eager to bring down Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s government and regain power in Putrajaya.
He said the party was therefore prepared to accommodate Umno rather than risk jeopardising their cooperation over seat allocations in state elections.
“PAS doesn’t have a problem with accommodating Umno because it knows that even if they win the state election, if they form what I call the ‘Malay tsunami’, PAS still has more (parliamentary) seats.
“So even if it concedes state seats to Umno, it’s not going to change the fact that PAS has 43 seats in the Dewan Rakyat,” Chin told FMT, comparing this with Umno’s 26 seats.
Prime minister’s post matters more than seat numbers
Chin said the number of parliamentary seats held by a party would not necessarily determine which partner became dominant in a government.
“In the Malaysian context, our dominant partner is whoever holds the office of the prime minister. It’s not the number of parliamentary seats you have.
“If you count the number of seats, then DAP should be the dominant party since it is the biggest bloc, but it’s not.”
Last week, PAS information chief Ahmad Fadhli Shaari said the party had learnt from its mistakes in seat negotiations with Umno and was now taking a more pragmatic approach.
Speaking on the Keluar Sekejap podcast, Fadhli said PAS had learnt that taking an uncompromising position on seat allocations could push Barisan Nasional (BN) towards working with Pakatan Harapan (PH).
He cited how BN appeared to keep its options open by engaging with both Perikatan Nasional (PN) and PH ahead of the Melaka polls.
BN eventually agreed to cooperate with PN for the Nov 14 election, with the Umno-led coalition contesting 23 seats while PN vies for the remaining five.
PAS’s concessions may be strategic
However, Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said PAS’s apparent concessions in Melaka should not necessarily be interpreted as the party becoming more accommodating towards Umno.
He said the seats given to BN and MCA were DAP strongholds which PN would struggle to win.
“I don’t think PAS is being very compromising. PAS can say no to this. But I think PAS is saying, let MCA lose these two particular seats because they are DAP strongholds,” he said.
Azmi agreed that Umno had used the possibility of working with PH as leverage in its negotiations with PAS, allowing it to project itself as being in control of the partnership.
However, he said the bargaining power Umno enjoyed in Melaka might not extend to other states, including Pahang and Perak, where BN leads the state governments.
“When it comes to seat allocations in Pahang or Perak, I think PAS will be able to dictate terms to BN, not the other way around, because PAS is much stronger in these two states,” he said.
