“If it really wants to get support, Amanah needs to reduce its attacks not just on PAS, but on BN parties as well,” said Wan Saiful Wan Jan, who heads the Institute for Democracy & Economic Affairs (Ideas).

He said other parties were already making such attacks and Amanah needed to show it was different.

“Amanah has to quickly identify what makes it unique and make that known to people. If they organise a convention and they only talk about the things that other people are talking about, that won’t set them apart.

“You can be really different if you offer real solutions and outline what changes you would bring if you were to be in government. Don’t be just another party that complains about what is happening but doesn’t have any solution to offer.”

Jeniri Amir of Universti Malaysia Sarawak also advised Amanah against attacking other parties, especially PAS.

“It will be better for Amanah to talk about how the opposition parties should cooperate against BN,” he said.

The opposition would find it tough to topple BN if it could not get PAS’ cooperation, he said, but he noted that it would be difficult to persuade PAS to work with Amanah.

“Amanah is a PAS splinter party and PAS has made it obvious that it does not want to cooperate with either Amanah or DAP. It’s not going to be easy, but they need to find a way.”

However, Awang Azman Pawi of Universiti Malaya said he didn’t see how Amanah could avoid making references to PAS.

“Amanah will have to explain how it is different from PAS and whether the two can work together,” he said.

He added that Amanah would also need to explain its position on the so-called hudud bill tabled by PAS President Abdul Hadi Awang.