Battle of Malay parties ‘could make DAP the kingmaker’

If an electoral agreement was not reached, Umno and Barisan Nasional are likely to clash with PPBM and Perikatan Nasional in Malay constituencies, with DAP likely to retain the Chinese-majority or urban seats.

(FMT) – A political analyst foresees DAP being a kingmaker after the next general election should the battle for Malay votes between Umno and PPBM go down to the wire.

James Chin, of the University of Tasmania’s Asia Institute, said if an electoral agreement was not reached, Umno and Barisan Nasional are likely to clash with PPBM and Perikatan Nasional in Malay constituencies, with DAP likely to retain the Chinese-majority or urban seats.

If the elections were held now, it is likely that PPBM will be wiped out by Umno and PAS, he said.

“If PAS was forced to choose between Umno and PPBM, I believe they will side with Umno, owing to the party’s strength. But the longer it takes to go to polls, the stronger PPBM will get, improving their chances of getting a chunk of Umno seats,” Chin said.

Several Umno leaders including its former president Najib Razak and Padang Rengas MP Nazri Aziz have voiced concern that Umno will be weakened the longer it waits to cut ties with PPBM.

Chin said if the Malay vote went down to the wire, DAP, currently the party with the most seats in the Dewan Rakyat, could become the kingmaker.

He said an Umno-DAP alliance would not be possible given that their ideologies are incompatible. DAP may consider working with PPBM because they were previously in the Pakatan Harapan government and have a short history together, while Sabah and Sarawak parties were likely to “go with the flow”.”

Universiti Malaya socio-political analyst Awang Azman Pawi said Malaysian politics is filled with ironies and paradoxes and an alliance of Umno, GPS, DAP and PKR could not be ruled out.

If PAS could previously work with DAP, Umno could very well work with DAP. “Even PPBM leaders, while they were in Umno, were at one point enemies with PKR and DAP. Then they became allies and now they are enemies again.”

Awang Azman said the way forward for the country is for all political parties to engage in a free-for-all in the next election. “After that, they can all sit down and work together to form a strong government until the next election,” he said.