Kadir Jasin: Better for DAP to rally non-Malay support than to engage UMNO

Kadir Jasin: Better for DAP to rally non-Malay support than to engage UMNO





IT would do the unity government more good for DAP to focus on ramping up non-Malay support rather than to explore ways to strengthen its ties with UMNO.


This is because UMNO is faced with declining support from the Malays as evident in the four consecutive national polls from 109 seats in the 2004 general elections to 26 in the 15th General Election (GE15) last November as a result of directionless and perverse leadership.

“In my opinion, UMNO has never been strong or weak because of DAP. UMNO and DAP have never competed directly. DAP only competes with Barisan National (BN). The target of DAP is not the UMNO Malays but the non-Malays who have already come under its wings,” penned veteran journalist and blogger Datuk A. Kadir Jasin in his latest Facebook post.


“DAP can be adventurous by taking risks to cooperate with UMNO for it has experience of collaborating with PAS. It has grown stronger while PAS suffered badly after being accused by UMNO of being a DAP’s puppet.”

For the record, DAP won the second highest number of parliamentary seats in GE15 with 40 (behind PAS’ 49) amid solid support from non-Malay voters.

Kadir was commenting on a recent wishful thought by DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke Siew Fook that the unity government will be further fortified if the party’s old foe UMNO can win big in the upcoming state polls.

“If UMNO emerges stronger, it will not be good for the opposition,” remarked the Transport Minister and Seremban MP during a post-GE15 (15th General Election) round table session organised by BERSIH in the Parliament recently.

In Kadir’s view, even if DAP’s supporters were to protest the party’s collaboration with UMNO, they will still vote for former. “Even if they don’t vote, DAP can still win because of the margin of victory of its candidates is huge,” projected the former Bersatu supreme council member.

But it is not that easy for UMNO which now has to share seats with parties in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition when it could freely contest in any seat as they wish in the past.



“As a result, of course UMNO cannot expect to compete for all the seats as it used to do in the past. This will be done by means of negotiation, usually following the principle that the incumbent party will get the seat,” suggested Kadir.

“If that’s the case, there aren’t many seats that UMNO can contest in the upcoming state election. In fact, it can be said that UMNO will lose in all states that it will be contesting in.

“In Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu, UMNO is bound to lose to Perikatan Nasional (PN) parties, especially PAS. Meanwhile, Selangor, Penang and Negri Sembilan are controlled by PH parties.”

Added Kadir: “That alone is enough to give the picture that Anthony Loke’s hope to see UMNO becoming stronger is hard to come true. It’s easier for DAP to strengthen its ties with non-Malays than to cultivate or engage UMNO.” – May 12, 2023

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kt comments:

We know Pak Kadir used to be Mahathir's mouthpiece and I suspect he still is. So you can make an intelligent guestimate as to Pak Kadir's 'goodwill' towards the PH-BN unity government, wakakaka.