The Frog is croaking to High Heavens

Harapan should go into GE15 with PN, moots Idris Haron

Pakatan Harapan and the Bersatu-led Perikatan Nasional should come together against BN in the next general election, moots former Malacca chief minister Idris Haron.

The former Umno leader, who is now with PKR, believes that Harapan needs a "wow factor" to score big in the 15th general election.

"There must be a wow factor. Something big in Harapan.

"From the way I see it, if Harapan continues to go solo into the election, we may find it hard to get votes from those who are voting according to party lines.

"One of the wow factors I'm looking at is Harapan and PN (Perikatan Nasional) working together again," he told Malaysiakini in an exclusive interview last week.

Idris was sacked from Umno in October after he and three other Malacca state assemblypersons attempted a political coup against the Umno-led state government by withdrawing their support from chief minister Sulaiman Md Ali.

The coup failed when Sulaiman advised the Malacca governor to dissolve the state legislative assembly, which triggered a snap state election.

Idris then contested in the election on a PKR ticket but failed in his attempt to capture the Asahan state seat.

Umno won the election handsomely, while Harapan lost many of its seats won in the 2018 general election, with PKR performing the worst by not winning any seat.

According to Idris, the defeat of Harapan in Malacca was largely due to a split of votes between Harapan and PN.

This was on top of several other factors, including low voter turnout and Harapan losing support from Malay voters in some of the seats, he added.

"In my opinion, Harapan lost the Malacca state election because of the split between Harapan and PN.

"One thing I regret is that I did not get the chance to tell (the Harapan) leadership about doing this.

"Since BN had been pushing PN away and turning down PN's offer to work together in the state election, what was missing was only an offer from Harapan to work together.

"Maybe if that had happened, the scenario would have been different," Idris said.

Bersatu is formerly a Harapan component party, together with PKR, DAP and Amanah.

When they were still together, the Harapan coalition won the 2018 general election, dealing BN with its first electoral defeat at the federal level.

Many states were also won by Harapan, including Malacca, where it won 15 out of 28 seats to form a simple majority in the State Legislative Assembly.

However, a political coup early last year saw Bersatu breaking away from Harapan and this caused the fall of the Harapan federal administration. Bersatu then formed an alliance with several other parties to form PN.

'Don't get carried away with sentiments'

Idris, who built a 31-year political career in Umno, also said Harapan should not depend too much on sentiments and hot issues to win elections.

The opposition coalition still has a good chance to emerge as the winner in GE15, he said, but stressed that it would come only with a good strategy and hard work.

"With current issues such as the Digital Nasional Berhad, 1MDB and price hikes, it looks like the situation would favour Harapan.

"However, Harapan also needs the right strategy and strong structure. It needs to be an organisation that reaches all segments of society so that it would be the people's choice in the next election.

"There is much work to be done. The people do not simply buy sentiments (in making the decision). If sentiment is what we need to win the election, I would have won Asahan," he added.

According to Idris, he brought up community issues in his campaign for the state seat, including sand mining and offering freehold land titles to Felda settlers.

"We cannot rely too much on sentiment. We can take it into account, but not so much that we forget more important work.

"Do not get carried away by sentiments such as issues about discrimination, corruption and such... we can lose the election."

Much room for improvement

Asked to compare BN and Harapan in terms of election preparations, Idris told Malaysiakini he believes there is still room for improvement in the opposition coalition.

While Harapan has many enthusiastic and highly-spirited party members, the coalition is behind BN when it comes to operating systems.

"I have mentioned this in many forums, that if you want to see a well-organised political party in Malaysia, which reaches every inch of the land, that is Umno and BN.

"Meaning to say, if we go across the country, we will find every area has Umno (a branch or division).

"Like in Malacca, Umno has more than 450 branches all over the state and when they have such a coordinated organisation, it means they have party members all over, holding the responsibility to make sure their party wins the election.

"So, the difference that I see is from the organisational structure and work system, in which I find much room for improvement in Harapan itself.

"Because we have party workers who are very enthusiastic to help our candidates win. But, if the work itself is not done in a proper system, then it might lead to failure."

Idris also expressed his readiness to assist PKR and Harapan with his knowledge and experience in politics.

However, according to the former assemblyperson, he is not ready to hold any party position, albeit having been approached by several PKR divisions.

"As a new kid on the block, I cannot all of a sudden come into the party and sit in a position which many have worked for to get there.

"There are offers, but I have told them it's not the time. I'm not very much interested in holding a position at the party grassroots level, because I believe they are already well-established and I do not want to disturb the harmony."