PAKATAN Harapan (Pakatan) will not work alongside Perikatan Nasional (PN) to fight Barisan Nasional (BN) in the 15th General Elections (GE15).
According to PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli, the decision was made at a meeting by Pakatan top guns last Wednesday (Aug 24).
“Pakatan… made a final decision last Wednesday, which means we will campaign in GE15 as Pakatan,” Bernama quoted Rafizi as saying on the sidelines of the Ayuh Malaysia roadshow in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, last night (Aug 28).
He added that “win or lose”, PKR, as the “backbone” of Pakatan, wants to defend its idealism of fighting for all races – as opposed to single-race parties.
As such, PKR and Pakatan cannot work with PN because their “directions” are too different.
“But I cannot speak on behalf of DAP and Amanah,” he clarified. “They have senior leaders with decades of experience. It’s up to them.
“I only stick to the decision at the Pakatan level, which is, full stop (no cooperation with PN).”
“Intention must be right”
He also said if the intention to cooperate with PN is only to topple BN in the polls, then the subsequent Pakatan-PN Government will be an unstable one.
“We are used to being in the opposition,” Malaysiakini reported him as saying. “It is not a problem for us. It’s not just about who is the prime minister or who forms the Government (for us).
“The ones who are not used to (being in the opposition) are those who were suddenly made ministers,” he claimed. “They are afraid.”
Last night, PN chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin called for a political ceasefire among the opposition to fight the common enemy – BN – in GE15, which may be held sooner than later.
“Prior to this, I talked to a few parties about possible cooperation. However, they might have thought that the election is probably still far away, and that’s why they decided to leave it be,” Malay Mail reported the former prime minister as saying.
“But if they think that the election is near, I’m open to discussion. We know that our main rival is BN. All the corruption (and) power abuse from BN is not good for the country.
“If we want to achieve our goal to prevent the country from falling into an even worse state, other leaders should think about how we want to avoid that.”
It is ironic that Muhyiddin expects opposition parties like PKR, DAP and Amanah to work alongside PN when Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) left Pakatan in 2020 and caused the Pakatan Government to fall.
Despite forming the Government with BN after that, PN, comprising pro-Muslim and pro-Bumiputera parties PPBM and PAS, can no longer work with UMNO-BN, with both coalitions set to go against each other in GE15.
However, it would appear that PN (PPBM in particular) has no choice but to make this last-ditch appeal as without being part of BN, it will not bag the popular vote or even the Malay vote, and its political relevance may be in tatters soon after. – Aug 29, 2022
Main pic credit: Harian Metro
