Akademi Nusantara’s Azmi Hassan said the presence of PAS, with its perceived hardline religious views, remains the biggest factor deterring non-Malays from supporting the opposition coalition.
He also said Muhyiddin’s statement was unlikely to water down support for PN as the Malay vote remains largely intact behind PAS.
“Malay support for PN is not so much because of Bersatu but because of PAS.
“I don’t think this (statement by Muhyiddin) would unsettle PAS leaders, as they have never said that they were fighting for the Malays. Their struggle is to protect the sanctity of Islam as a religion.
“Of course, indirectly they are saying they’ll fight for the Malays, since nearly all Malays are Muslim, but never in PAS’s political struggle have they said that they are targeting or trying to protect the Malays,” he told FMT.
Oh Ei Sun, of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs, agreed. He said PAS was fundamentally a religion-oriented party rather than race-centric.
Oh believes Muhyiddin backtracked on his “Malay first” declaration as part of efforts to revive his political relevance, both within his party and coalition as well as in the national arena.
He said Bersatu had successfully snapped up a handful of Chinese leaders from other parties over the past few months. However, he questioned whether the move would be successful in wooing the community’s support.
“I think Bersatu realises that it cannot match PAS in attracting Malay support or Umno in distributing resources to the Malays.
“So it is attempting to break new ground by being acceptable to non-Malays as well.
“In politics, such gambles have to be undertaken from time to time when the political fortunes are low,” he said.
On Sunday, Muhyiddin acknowledged having said “I am Malay first” in 2010, but claimed that it was “no longer important”.
The former prime minister said he has never seen himself as “only Malay”, insisting that he was “a Malay who cares for all Malaysians”.
The pronouncement drew barbs from DAP veteran Lim Kit Siang, who challenged him to put his words into action by leading a campaign urging Malaysians to put nationality before ethnicity.
Meanwhile, Umno chief Dr Akmal Saleh accused Muhyiddin of simply changing his stance “in the pursuit of power”.
However, Urimai chairman P Ramasamy hailed Muhyiddin’s shift as a timely and vital step towards PN becoming a coalition that can represent all Malaysians.
Ramasamy said this could make PN an inclusive alternative for non-Malays ahead of the next general election. However, he urged the coalition to avoid the Barisan Nasional model of non-Malay parties being subservient to their Malay counterparts and “politically emasculated”.
Azmi said BN was successful over a period of 60 years because Umno, MCA and MIC looked out for the interests of the respective communities they represented.
In contrast, he said PKR has struggled to position itself as a multiracial party despite being one on paper, and needs the likes of Amanah and DAP to boost its standing among Malay and Chinese voters, respectively.
Azmi said the same model could prove successful for PN provided it has a strong partner capable of garnering non-Malay support. However, the issue for PN was that there is no party outside of DAP capable of commanding such support presently.
“(PN can) forget about Gerakan. They’ve been unsuccessful in elections over the last two to three years,” said Azmi.
Oh also dismissed Ramasamy’s view, saying: “it will be ‘same old, same old’, with Malay and Islamic supremacy coupled with non-Malay and non-Muslim decorations”.