Clear Support For PH-BN Alliance - Political Analysts

By Rozainah Abdul Rahim

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- Public acceptance of the transition from competition and cooperation between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) to form the Unity Government is an important indicator of the country’s stability, political analysts said.

Political analyst Assoc Prof Dr Khairunesa Isa said BN’s comfortable victories in both the Mahkota by-election yesterday and in Nenggiri previously, as the Unity Government’s representative proved that voters were comfortable with the PH-BN partnership.

“The reduction in ideological differences can restore the people’s trust and bring about harmony and development to face upcoming issues that are the people’s priorities,” she told Bernama, adding that the victories would provide a positive aura to BN and indicate its fortunes in the upcoming general election.

BN defended the Mahkota state seat after its candidate Syed Hussien Syed Abdullah won in style with a wide majority of 20,648 votes against Perikatan Nasional’s (PN) Mohamad Haizan Jaafar, who only was able to rake in 7,347 votes, while BN’s Nenggiri candidate, Mohd Azmawi Fikri Abdul Ghani defended the seat with a comfortable majority of 3,352 votes, polling 9,091 votes against PN’s Mohd Rizwadi’s 5,739 votes.

Another political analyst, Prof Datuk Dr Sivamurugan Pandian, a lecturer in Universiti Sains Malaysia’s (USM) social science school, said that the partnership between BN and PH could be views as improving after facing several challenges initially.

“The big majority shows the commitment and willingness to expand this collaboration.

“The PH-BN wave can be seen from the shared (interest) in strengthening cooperation to build confidence among their core voters to continue to support the Unity Government as a new big coalition,” he said.

Meanwhile, Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) lecturer Dr Mazlan Ali said that BN’s Mahkota victory was thanks to the close cooperation between PH and BN, with both coalitions able to deliver to ensure that the Unity Government candidate won.

“The win was also motivated by public sentiment wishing for a stable government… by retaining the BN candidate, it meant that the Johor (state) government remained stable.

“The prime minister can carry out his duties more confidently and better with political stability and Malaysians are excited about the improving national economy and the rising ringgit,.. even foreign investment is rising,” he said.

He pointed out that the Mahkota by-election results would encourage the alliance to continue to work together in the future till the 16th general election as public confidence towards BN is increasing and it represents a chance for them to form a stable government.

-- BERNAMA