Zaid Ibrahim said that instead of asking opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim to resign, PKR, DAP and Amanah should identify possible successors and push them up into leadership positions.

This comes following calls from politicians and analysts urging Anwar to step aside as the leader of PH and PKR.

However, Zaid said the coalition and its supporters should know what their goals are and decide who could replace Anwar.

“It is true that a political leader who is not able to deliver electoral victories should step aside. Anwar has failed, make no mistake about that,” the former law minister said.

“But before we ask him to step down, we should ask ourselves what do we want? Do we know what we want? Don’t be like Manchester United … They renewed Mourinho’s contract and three months later sacked him. They gave Solskjaer (a) long-term contract in July and sacked him in November,” he said in a Facebook post today.

PH won only five seats in the Melaka state elections, compared to the 15 seats it won in the last general election.

Following the poor performance, political analyst Wong Chin Huat said Anwar should step down and merge his party with Amanah.

Warisan vice-president Junz Wong said the people were also fed up with PH’s repeated broken promises and were yearning for a new leader.

Zaid said that instead of having a post-mortem on the Melaka defeat, the PH coalition parties – PKR, DAP and Amanah – should conduct a thorough self-examination.

“Ask who should step down and which new leaders should move up. Ask where they can place good Malay leaders like Maszlee Malik, Nurul Izzah, Nik Nazmi, Rafizi Ramli and Syahredzan Johan. There must be other good talents they should actively promote,” he said.

He said leaders who no longer had the stamina to struggle for their causes should step aside.

“They have done much … but they can’t score goals anymore. Step aside. Good ideas and good speeches don’t necessarily work in our country, but good planning is essential for electoral victory. Let’s work towards that.”