WITH Pakatan Harapan (Pakatan) divided over the “big tent” approach to take on a resurgent Barisan Nasional (BN), another senior leader joined the foray to question its need.
PKR organising secretary Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad said that while such a move makes sense in terms of statistics, he queried Pakatan leadership whether such strategy was needed at the expense of incurring the wrath of their ardent supporters.
Taking his views to Twitter, Nik Nazmi said that the “big tent” approach was mooted to allow Pakatan to seek cooperation with allies and adversaries alike to ensure UMNO-Barisan Nasional goes not win federal power in the next general election, including talking to Perikatan Nasional (Perikatan).
“Perikatan is now part of the administration. Many used the statistics from the Johor state election to validate the need for a ‘big tent’. For example, BN only won slightly more than 40% of the votes while Pakatan and Perikatan collectively obtained over 50% of the votes.
“But electoral maths is not the same with primary school arithmetic. The question is whether our die-hard supporters will accept Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) and PAS?
“And would Bersatu and PAS’ ardent supporters accept us?” the Setiawangsa MP asked.
Ever since Pakatan massively lost the four state elections, several Pakatan leaders have mooted the idea of a “big tent” approach to take on BN.
Among those in support of such a move were former ministers Datuk Seri Saifuddin Nasution Ismail (PKR) and Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub (Amanah).
However, leaders such as former minister Lim Guan Eng and PKR vice president Rafizi Ramli are opposed to it, adding it was ludicrous for Pakatan leaders to just forget Bersatu’s treachery, which ousted them from Putrajaya in February 2020.
Sentiments do matter
Elaborating on PAS and Bersatu’s strength, Nik Nazmi said that no doubt the former was strong in certain areas but the same cannot be said about the latter.
He added that Bersatu’s grassroots’ strength was abysmal, given the party was made up of former UMNO and PKR leaders.
“I agree we cannot harp on the Sheraton Move and must look forward. However, must we ignore the sentiments of our grassroot members who stayed with us through thick and thin?
“And why should we work with those who are opposed to our ideology and betrayed us in the process? Just for a low probability in winning?” Nik Nazmi noted. – May 7, 2022
