WITH former PKR vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar painting a bleak scenario over Pakatan Harapan’s electoral future, a veteran UMNO leader said that the Opposition’s woes were of its own doing.
“You guys are traumatised because of your own bad decisions. This is what happens when you pick the wrong candidate to become the head of Government.
“And it’s more damaging when the top head of the coalition himself betrays the pact’s long-time aspirations and struggles,” UMNO veteran Tan Sri Shahrir Samad said, in a Facebook post.
In an interview with Sinar Harian last week, Nurul Izzah claimed that Pakatan would need at least 10 more years or two general elections before it can capture the Federal Government again.
She also predicted Pakatan to lose many parliament and state seats in the upcoming 15th General Election.
“It won’t be easy for Pakatan to win in the next polls and we have to be prepared to lose two more rounds before people accept us again. I’m being realistic here as we will need to rebrand and differentiate ourselves from the rest to succeed.
“It is because the people, myself included, are still traumatised over what happened when Pakatan was running the Government for 22 months,” the Permatang Pauh MP was reported as saying.
It is to note that when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad became the prime minister in 2018 while leading Pakatan, he had undermined his own coalition by blocking reforms promised by the coalition.
Wan Azizah should have become PM
While he was attempting to form a unity Government with PAS and several UMNO MPs, Mahathir’s plan backfired when his own party, Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) pulled the rug from under his feet and left Pakatan to form Perikatan Nasional with the support of UMNO and PAS.
Mahathir was later dislodged by his own lieutenant, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, who then replaced the former as prime minister in February 2020.
Touching on the matter, Shahrir opined that Pakatan’s biggest mistake was to nominate the candidate from its smallest party (Bersatu) to become the prime minister (Mahathir).
“PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail should have been the prime minister. Bear in mind that Pakatan used PKR’s symbol to contest the last general election,” the former minister noted. – April 17, 2022
