[ad_1]
PETALING JAYA: A political analyst sees the strained ties between Umno and PPBM as an obstacle to the kind of national reconciliation that the head of the Umno Youth, Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki, has called for.
Speaking to FMT, Bridget Welsh from the University of Nottingham Malaysia said that the challenge in reconciliation, particularly between Umno and PPBM, lies in concessions rather than respect.
Asyraf recently urged political parties to put aside their differences and focus on a “national reconciliation agenda.”
“If you look at what Umno says about setting new conditions, he is not seeking reconciliation,” Welsh said. “What he wants is for PPBM to give up seats, positions and power. He doesn’t want PPBM to challenge him like he did in Sabah. “
He said this had put Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin in a difficult position without much room to maneuver.
However, he also said that Muhyiddin was “quite smart” and had shown in the past six months that he could negotiate his way out of trouble.
“The main question now is whether Umno is willing to accept less than he wants,” he said. “And if you are willing to accept today, what happens tomorrow? How long will it be before I am not satisfied again?
Syed Arabi Idid of the International Islamic University of Malaysia said that the Malaysian parties could work together if they perceived a common enemy and if they believed that cooperating would win the votes of the Malays.
But they would likely collide when there was no strong common enemy, he added.
“In the near future there will not be a dominant Malay political party,” he said. “The number of seats of the Malay majority is fixed. Now you are talking about distributing the Malaysian seats among three parties. “
He noted that Umno, PAS and PPBM faced each other in the last general elections.
“If they’re going to stick together, then a lot of sacrifices have to be made and this makes reconciliation problematic. That is why I do not foresee that there is any dominant Malay political party. “
These sacrifices, he said, included the three Malay the willingness of the parties to lose their individual identity to unite as a great entity.
James Chin of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania said he did not see any reconciliation, noting that even when Umno was at its strongest, the Malaysian vote was divided with the PAS.
