PETALING JAYA: The hopes and aspirations of the majority of voters should be the main factors that political coalitions take into consideration before collaborating to form the federal government, said Ilham Centre head researcher Assoc Prof Mohd Yusri Ibrahim.
He said the coalitions should put aside their differences and focus on the country’s growth and development, adding that under the current uncertain situation, coalitions must strive to heed the wishes of the people to achieve stability.
Mohd Yusri also said an ideal collaboration to form the federal government would be between Pakatan Harapan (PH), Perikatan Nasional (PN) and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS).
He said this is because there are three segments of Malaysians, namely urban and multi-racial voters who favour PH, rural and Malay-Muslim voters who support PN as well as a large population in Sarawak, which backs GPS.
“None of these coalitions have a simple majority to form the government.
“They need one another. These three coalitions must be in the government, otherwise it will not be stable.”
Mohd Yusri said if any of these coalitions do not collaborate to form the federal government, then there will not be adequate representation for the segments.
“There should not be mere politicking for the next five years, but dogged efforts to develop the country and its economy.”
On Barisan Nasional’s (BN) dismal performance, Mohd Yusri said Umno had failed to carry out “housekeeping”.
“Umno nominated new candidates who were unfamiliar to grassroots members.
“It also left many crises unresolved and this led to issues with its logistics and campaign machinery.
“In the end, with PN’s momentum in aggressive campaigning, BN lost seats to it. This is why PN garnered a greater number of seats.”
Transparency International former president Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam said coalitions planning to form the federal government should take into account
the need for sustainability, multi-racialism and unity.
“If they choose a collaboration based on emotions, exclusiveness and not inclusiveness, then the people’s needs and wishes will not be fulfilled.
“Malaysians have hopes for fair distribution of wealth, better incomes, more freedom and fulfilment of fundamental rights.
“The elections went off well without any incident, and we should be grateful for that.
“This is the people’s ‘gift’ to the politicians so that they can fully expand the concept of unity, harmony and equity to all Malaysians.
“Politicians should take full advantage of this gift rather than turn to politicking and ignore the nation’s growth and development.
“There is a great challenge now for the new government to lead the country in the right direction and not be trapped into becoming racial and bigoted.”
Ramon said he believes a large number of voters had thrown their support behind candidates rather than the parties they represented.
