Two Pakatan Pacts too Tricky, Analysts Tell PKR

Malay Mail Online (Malaysia)

05 December 2015

Political analysts have cast doubt on the virtues of PKR’s proposal for the opposition to contest the next general election as two separate alliances, noting that there are two rival Islamist parties now, unlike in 1990.

Independent analyst Khoo Kay Peng said PAS splinter group Amanah, whose leaders are mostly based in western peninsular and urban areas, would want to defend the seats they had initially contested under the PAS banner, while the Islamist party would naturally want to recoup those same seats.

… Dr Oh Ei Sun, a senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University, said PKR was banking on getting the votes of both PAS and DAP supporters in its contested seats, but noted that PAS supporters would likely not support PKR’s alliance with the secular DAP.

“Frankly, I think DAP’s supporters who are usually more pragmatically-minded with the end goal of ending Umno’s hegemony will mostly still support PKR, despite the latter’s alliance with the dogmatically hudud-pursuing PAS,” Oh told Malay Mail Online.

“But the same thing could perhaps not be said of PAS supporters who are mostly more ideologically and religiously minded, and who despise the secularly-minded DAP,” he added.

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