Pakatan Harapan’s victory in 2018 signalled a new era in Malaysian democracy.
For so long, democracy had felt like something we had only on paper. Sure, there were elections, but the results were all but foregone. The words “Barisan Nasional” might as well have been translated as “government”, their grip on Putrajaya was so tight it seemed impossible to break.
But then, amid a wave of public pressure and outrage over the billions stolen as part of the 1MDB scandal, the opposition finally won. What seemed like a pipe dream for so many had at long last become a reality.
The PH of 2018 represented change, progression, a new dawn. The beginning of a new chapter not just for Malaysian politics, but for Malaysia.
What in the world happened?
I’ll be bold and have my GE15 prediction immortalised on the internet: BN will comfortably head the next government. Will they need to rope in new partners to bolster its existing coalition? Probably. But BN will be the biggest winners come Nov 19 and PH have nobody to blame but themselves.
What worked in 2018 was the unity that PH exuded. While BN reeled from 1MDB and looked unable to get its house in order, PH represented a united front. More than the promises PH laid out in its infamous manifesto, for the first time the opposition looked organised and prepared for the big stage, ready for its close up.
But after the PH government fell in 2020, the coalition has looked like a shell of its once victorious self.
PH has lacked any semblance of oneness or cohesion – whether it was DAP and Amanah sidelining PKR at the Johor elections, by issuing joint statements without PKR, or public squabbles over whose logo the coalition candidates should use, or conflicting views about allies and enemies.
The shambolic state of affairs has only continued heading into GE15.
PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and his newly minted deputy Rafizi Ramli have publicly disagreed on election strategies. Popular MPs like Charles Santiago, R Sivarasa and Kasthuri Patto have been maligned.
Amanah, once touted as the Islamic party for moderates and reformists, has failed to define a distinct identity for itself outside of the coalition that voters can believe in.
An opposition divided stands no chance against a BN that’s been preparing for a general election for the better part of a year. Umno may appear to have fractures of its own (just ask the former ministers unceremoniously dropped from contention last week), but at least it’s organised chaos.
For all the rumbling about turmoil in its ranks, to Umno’s credit, it never proved the rumours right by letting internal spats spill out into the public.
Until PH can get its act together, their dream for a new Malaysia will have to be put on hold. Maybe another five years under BN is just what they need to regroup and re-energise.
I’d love for PH or its component parties to have another crack at running the country, if only to bring some variety of thinking and diversity to Putrajaya. As it stands, it’s likely we’ll have to wait at least one election cycle for that to happen.
It’s probably for the best.
The PH we have today looks like a shell of its former self, a far cry from the government we entrusted in 2018. The PH of 2018 was worth taking a risk on. For the sake of our democracy, I hope they can prove worthy of another try at GE16.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.