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Lee Kuok Tiung of Universiti Malaysia Sabah and Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya said the challenges of vying with established parties on the peninsula and gaining acceptability by West Malaysians would be formidable.
At a Zoom session in conjunction with his birthday last Tuesday, Warisan president Shafie Apdal told the media the party would pursue its plan to launch itself onto the national platform and that it would adopt a multiracial approach in its policies and also uphold Muslim values. He said he expected support from many young voters because of their courage in seeing change.
Lee told FMT he believed Warisan had little hope of mounting any significant challenge against parties in Barisan Nasional, Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan.
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He said it would be “very challenging” for Warisan to break into the national scene, especially with PH also commanding considerable support among Peninsular Malaysians.
“Whether it has the merit to contest in the peninsula is another issue, but it will definitely be seen as an outsider.”
There is talk that Warisan will be collaborating with Muda to gain the support of young voters, but Lee said he doubted that the combination would work, considering that Muda had not even proven itself.
“I believe that among the chief reasons Warisan wants to enter the peninsula is that there are many Sabahan voters there but it should study this carefully to see if they have changed their voting constituencies or are still registered as voters back home,” he added.
Lee also said Warisan should not get its hopes up too high with Undi18 voters.
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Awang Azman said Warisan should realise that West Malaysians already had many home grown options to choose from and that many voters would see Warisan as a Sabah-centric outfit fighting mainly over state issues.
He also said Warisan could be seen as lacking the credentials to contest in the peninsula since there was already rejection on its own turf with the defection of several elected representatives.
Essentially, Awang Azman said, it would be difficult for parties from either Sabah or Sarawak to make it in West Malaysia because they did not have enough leaders with national-centric thinking.
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Another analyst, Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, told FMT he believed Warisan would be welcomed as a multiracial party in the cosmopolitan parts of the country but it “can forget about the Malay heartland”.
He said some urban voters disgruntled over PH’s decision to forge an understanding with Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob would go for Warisan.
“But let’s see if that is enough for it to win seats,” he added.
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