He said the two parties should not remain trapped in any electoral pact between BN and PH, which would make it unlikely that they would be allowed to field candidates in their traditionally-held seats.
“The conventional rule of coalition politics in Malaysia is that the incumbent parties defend their seats. This means that in the PH-run states, MCA and MIC will not be given any seats to contest,” he told FMT.
Wong said MCA in particular should contest in constituencies it traditionally fields candidates even if it is likely to lose to PH, in order to “keep its brand alive”.
“It must have some friendly matches against PH to test the waters,” he said. “In politics, no one knows when the wind changes its direction.”
PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli and vice-president Amirudin Shari are among those who proposed an electoral pact between BN and PH.
On Sunday, Amanah central leadership committee member Sany Hamzan said PH will defend all the 40 state seats in Selangor it won in the 2018 general election even if there was an alliance with BN.
He said he was made to understand that, for now, PH will not make way for BN in constituencies won in 2018, that talks on seat sharing will focus only on seats held by Perikatan Nasional.
Another analyst, Universiti Sains Malaysia’s Ahmad Fauzi Abdul Hamid, said the best solution for MCA and MIC is to stay out of any agreement between BN and PH altogether if the two parties want to fight in seats traditionally allocated to them.
Otherwise, he said, both parties must be willing to accept the constituencies allocated to them. However, he questioned if MCA in particular is prepared to play second fiddle to its PH rival DAP.
Three PH-controlled states, Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan, as well as PAS-led Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu will hold state elections this year.
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