PETALING JAYA: Pakatan Harapan was reminded today to focus on people’s issues rather than competing with Umno and Bersatu over racial sentiments.
Setiawangsa MP Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad of PKR said the opposition coalition’s strength lay in fighting for issues that affected the common folk, which had been proven to be the winning factor in past general elections.
“But in the recent Melaka and Johor elections, PH campaigned on the state governments’ track records and repeated how the PH federal government was betrayed.
“At the same time, former prime minister Najib Razak was going around talking about Employees’ Provident Fund withdrawals,” he said in a statement.
Nazmi said PH had been more people-centric in their campaigns during the 2013 general election, talking about free education, removal of goods and services tax, lower car prices, raising wages, and ending the debts of Felda settlers.
He said Pakatan Harapan had secured a 30% share of the total Malay vote in the 2018 general election, with Barisan Nasional scoring 40% and PAS 30%.
In Kelantan, Terengganu and Pahang, PH secured support from less than 20% of Malay voters but the coalition had a 40% share of Malay votes from Selangor to Johor.
“The question now is what is the best approach to win the Malay vote? Through negotiations or war? PKR and PH should not compete with Umno and the likes of Bersatu in fuelling racial sentiments,” he said.
Nazmi’s reference to “negotiations” appears to allude to a claim by PKR secretary-general Saifuddin Nasution Ismail that PH was ready to cooperate with any party for the 15th general election.
Nazmi is a candidate for the PKR vice-presidency in the coming party polls and is aligned with Rafizi Ramli, who is gunning for the deputy president’s post, with a straight fight against Saifuddin.
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