BN must secure Malay support before going solo, says think tank head

Barisan Nasional (BN) must demonstrate to Malay voters that it has regained their support, particularly in the seats they lost to Perikatan Nasional (PN), before considering going solo or collaborating with the opposition coalition, according to Hisommudin Bakar, executive director of the think tank Ilham Centre. The BN's task is to win over young Malays, a demographic segment where PN has gained strong backing.

If BN cannot assess whether the Malay vote has returned to their favor, they would be forced to concede to PN in seat negotiations, since PN secured the seats in the last elections, Hisommudin stated during a BN forum titled "Post-Johor and Negeri Sembilan: A new dynamic in Malaysian politics?" last night. He further emphasized that BN should evaluate its strength at both the parliamentary and state levels, including Malay support in individual constituencies.

In the Negeri Sembilan election, where BN and PN collaborated, the coalition secured 18 and seven seats respectively, granting them a two-thirds majority to form the state government. This was the first success for the BN-PN alliance, which agreed not to contest against each other and encouraged their supporters and members to vote for each other's candidates.

Meanwhile, Hisommudin also highlighted that Pakatan Harapan (PH), BN's ally in the federal unity government, poses a liability due to the growing Malay-Muslim sentiment. This brings some baggage to the unity government, he said. Syaza Shukri of International Islamic University Malaysia pointed out that working with PH enables BN to appeal to various voter segments, with BN attracting Malay support while PH draws non-Malay voters.

However, the main challenge for the coalitions is to ensure vote transferability, as it is very weak when BN works with PH, as they can draw support from two segments: Malays and non-Malays.