Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid of Universiti Sains Malaysia said reports of PBM’s wish to join Barisan Nasional was an “act of desperation” by those linked to former PKR leaders Azmin Ali and Zuraida Kamaruddin.
PBM president Larry Sng has since said it was a motion from delegates, and that the party leaders had yet to decide on the matter.
However, Ahmad Fauzi said non-Malay ex-PKR members who joined Bersatu with their Malay compatriots had faced a dilemma as Bersatu is Malay-centric and does not value multi-racialism highly in the context of internal party politics.
Yesterday, it was reported that assemblymen Paul Yong and A Sivasubramaniam had quit Bersatu, the Perikatan Nasional lynchpin, and joined PBM.
Ahmad Fauzi said BN did not need PBM, and accepting them would lead to new problems for the coalition as it would have to accommodate them at the expense of Umno, MCA and MIC.
“Having won their seats (in the 2018 general election) on a Pakatan Harapan-PKR ticket and an anti-BN platform, PBM will lose all credibility if they join BN, which lacks a reformist ethos.
“Whatever positive changes we see in the current BN-PN administration are foisted upon them by political circumstances surrounding BN’s shocking defeat in 2018.”
Ahmad Fauzi said PN’s core parties, Bersatu and PAS, were even less likely to accept PBM when it comprised “PKR and Bersatu rejects”.
He said PBM’s best political lifeline resided with PKR, should the party’s president, Anwar Ibrahim, retire before the next general election.
”But this will depend on how willing the future PKR leadership is to accept them. That’s why it’s important for them to see Anwar being succeeded by a coterie of more conciliatory leaders at the helm of PKR.”
Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs meanwhile said there was no need for BN to entertain PBM if it felt confident of winning seats held by PBM incumbents.
He added that PBM could look to Warisan or PN if BN did not accept them into their coalition. However, Oh said even if PBM ended up going into the elections alone, some, like Sng, could very well retain their seats as they had access to resources.