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PETALING JAYA: Following Gabungan Rakyat Sabah’s victory in the Sabah elections, Perikatan Nasional was warned by a political analyst that he cannot afford to disagree with Barisan Nasional if he hopes to win the next parliamentary general election.
Jeniri Amir, a senior member of the National Council of Teachers, said that the results of last night’s elections were a clear message to PN that the coalition could not afford a fight with its BN allies if they wanted to win.
GRS comprises PN, BN and PBS.
The coalition’s electoral success in Sabah comes just days after Umno President Ahmad Zahid Hamidi revealed that some Umno MPs were in favor of PKR President Anwar Ibrahim taking the post of Prime Minister in instead of the president of the PPBM, Muhyiddin Yassin.
A high-ranking member of Umno, Nazri Aziz, had also told the FMT the unhappiness in Umno about how the PPBM treated the party.
Jeneri said: “If Umno and BN are unhappy, they need to find a formula for peace, because Sabah shows that they are stronger when they are united, even though their election campaign started much later compared to Warisan Plus.
Jeniri also highlighted the role of former Umno state leader Musa Aman, whose attempt to wrest the Sabah government from Warisan had sparked the elections.
“By campaigning for BN, PN and PBS, he embodied the necessary cooperation at the federal level,” Jeniri said.
Musa, who was the assemblyman of Sungai Sibuga, did not participate in yesterday’s elections.
Jeniri said Prime Minister Muhyiddin’s popularity was also a factor in PN’s success.
However, the defeat of Warisan and his partners in Pakatan Harapan was a “big slap” in their faces and the results showed that “PH cannot even retain the support they got in the last general election,” Jeniri said.
“It is clear that the people of Sabah were fed up with life under Warisan, there were many broken promises and they wanted a change.”
He added that the mistakes of Warisan leaders, including controversial comments made by Warisan’s candidate in Segama, Mohamaddin Ketapi about the intrusion of Lahad Datu, had cost them votes, especially in the Kadazan seats.
Jeniri said she believed people were happy with Muhyiddin’s leadership and handling of Covid-19 and the appeal of a Putrajaya-aligned state government.
However, political analyst Azmi Hassan of the Universiti Teknologi Malaysia said that he would not be surprised if the Warisan assemblymen changed their allegiance to Perikatan Nasional after their defeat last night.
He said the election results were a “big blow”, especially for Warisan, who said he had performed miserably after raising such high expectations. On the other hand, the DAP candidates had performed very well compared to the PKR candidates, he said.
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