This was among the points highlighted on what the opposition could have done to avoid the disastrous outing on Saturday when the coalition won only five seats – far short of the 15 it won in 2018.
Bangi MP Ong Kian Ming said more local issues should have been presented in the days leading to the state election.
He said PH had not communicated a compelling vision of what the coalition’s state government would be like if it won the state polls.
He was speaking at a live session titled “Melaka state election 2021: Silver Linings for Pakatan Harapan” with moderator Wong Fook Meng, who is also a lawyer and former councillor for Hang Tuah Jaya.
Wong said DAP and PH could have looked into business-friendly policies that could attract the business community, like how it could bring foreign direct investments into Melaka.
“Those are key issues that the business community would look at, and I think PH could have done better there,” he said.
He said people would be more excited if there were more collaborative initiatives between the government, private sector and non-governmental organisations.
Ong agreed that reaching out to the business community on job opportunities was important for a state like Melaka, which was losing talent to Kuala Lumpur and Singapore.
“Melaka is actually a good location to set up support services for MNCs and other service-orientated companies for business services,” he said.
Wong said fresh initiatives are needed to breathe life into the Melaka economy.
“I think that’s what people, especially young voters, want – job opportunities,” he said.
Questions were also raised on the memorandum of understanding (MoU) between PH and the federal government, including if the MoU had led people to believe that the opposition was now afraid of criticising the government.
Ong admitted that PH has not done a good enough job in explaining how the MoU could deliver reforms such as the proposed anti-hopping laws.
However, he urged the people to give PH more time for reforms to take place. He said that the huge challenge was that people wanted “instant gratification”.
“We signed the MoU in September so it’s been less than two months. We won’t get anti-hopping laws this quickly. Do give us time,” he said.
On calls for leadership renewal in PH, Wong said people felt it was time for younger leaders to rise and for more fresh faces and ideas.
“Many people are saying Anwar (Ibrahim) has to take responsibility for the performance of PH,” he said.
Ong, however, replied that the leaders in PH need to weigh if the positives they bring to the table outweigh their negative “baggage”.
He said each party in PH has to do its own “soul searching”, following the state election.