PETALING JAYA: Umno needs to clean up its act and be graft-free before it starts talking of ousting Pakatan Harapan (PH) as the federal government, political analysts said.
Universiti Malaya socio-political analyst Prof Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi said the party needs scandal-free leaders to attract fence sitters.
He was commenting on former prime minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s three-pronged plan for Barisan Nasional (BN) to wrest back control of Putrajaya from PH in the next general election.
Najib said the plan would be to consolidate the relationship with PAS, strengthen his “Bossku” campaign support and boost Umno by having members and leaders who are fearless against PH.
“Voters want clean leaders with integrity and not people who don’t walk the talk,” Awang Azman told theSun.
“If the leaders are clean, then support from the people would increase.”
He said the Umno-PAS pact would be a key threat to PH as collectively they outnumber Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia and Amanah members.
“Tun M (Dr Mahathir Mohamad) knows that as long as Umno and PAS cooperate, Bersatu and Amanah have a lesser chance of winning in the future.”
Awang Azman also said MCA and MIC must work on drawing their own support instead of heavily relying on Umno votes.
He added that both parties would not be negatively affected by the Umno-PAS union.
Former Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Dr Ahmad Atory Hussain said the three-pronged approach is a powerful and accurate strategy that would yield results.
“There are 30 parliamentary constituencies that are expected to be captured with this strategy, adding that the success of this strategy would work if Umno and PAS do not go “running” back to Mahathir.
“There’s still time. Tun M (Mahathir) could do many things as long as certain goals are achieved,” he said.
The academician said MCA and MIC would still be relevant and given the major tasks of contesting in DAP and PKR-dominated constituencies. They would still contest in traditional Malay majority dominated areas.
