But the party is still “cautiously optimistic”, to quote its Youth vice-chief, as it prepares to defend the Rantau state seat in Negeri Sembilan.
Shahril Hamdan said the battle this time is a “new ballgame”, as the party cannot depend entirely on Malay votes.
“Mathematically speaking, it is quite unlikely that we can win the state seat based purely on Malay votes as it was in Cameron Highlands and Semenyih,” Shahril told FMT in a recent interview, referring to two by-elections which Umno won on the back of its cooperation with PAS.
Almost half – 47% – of Rantau’s 20,926 voters are non-Malays, with a large concentration of Indians – the fifth largest number of Indian voters in the country.
But Shahril said this was not to suggest that Umno won the two by-elections this year on Malay votes alone.
He said Umno still needs a “a sizeable chunk of the non-Malay vote”.
The by-election on April 13 will see Umno acting president Mohamad Hasan defending the seat against PKR’s Dr S Streram.
Mohamad won the seat by default after Streram was barred from contesting in the May polls last year, a decision which was challenged in court resulting in the by-election.
Shahril said despite Umno and PAS at the forefront of the campaign, the opposition should project a Malaysian narrative.
And that is something even PAS must do, he added.
“Anyone who’s interested in winning will have to see that the approach can’t be a ‘Malay-only’ approach.”
He said PAS had been increasingly engaging with non-Muslims in recent years, adding that there is a misconception that the Islamist party is Muslim-centric.
“They have a history of appealing not just to their core Malay-Muslim vote bank. They were in Pakatan Rakyat in the 13th general election in which they had a manifesto that was themed ‘Negara Berkebajikan’,” he said, referring to PAS’ “welfare state” slogan.
He said PAS’ history was anchored in moderation, and cited as example its first president, Burhanuddin Helmy, seen as a moderate-left politician.
“So, because of the history of PAS and the history of Umno that is able to speak to a broader base, I think if we can activate or reactivate that in Rantau, we will be able to see a good win.”
Shahril said Najib Razak’s “Bossku” campaign would complement Barisan Nasional’s campaign in Rantau, especially among the younger voters.
“Whoever can help us, we should never be so arrogant as to say no to,” he added.
“We are not in a position to pick and choose.”