BN will win if the opposition parties remain the same

Someone asked me yesterday whether the opposition parties will be able to defeat BN in the next general election.

I said no.

Well, not if the opposition parties remain the way they are now.

Honestly, the way I see it, the opposition parties are simply in even worse shape than BN.

That's the truth. Even the opposition supporters, if they are honest with themselves, will have to agree.

There's that Pas factor to begin with, which will break the opposition's vote bank among the Malays.

The opposition parties were hoping for a Malay tsunami against BN, but without Pas in the same camp as the others, I don't think that's going to happen.

This Pas matter has been discussed quite a lot, so I don't think I need to elaborate on it.

Let's go to the other opposition parties and see what's wrong with them,

Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia

It is basically a Dr Mahathir's party consisting disgruntled Umno people who quit or forced to quit the party after the latest failed Umno rebellion.

Their way of thinking is however still as if they are in Umno. Lately they were even squabbling for positions the same way when they were in Umno.

This latest blog post by Dr Mahathir confirmed talks that the infighting has been serious,

PENYOKONG SAYA

They are also finding it hard to play second fiddle to the more senior opposition parties such as PKR, DAP and even Amanah.

It would be hard for many of them to swallow the fact that even if they win, they will have to submit to the other parties' wishes.

On top of that, they may even have to accept that Anwar Ibrahim is to be made PM if they win the next general election. That's going to be very hard for them as they have been whacking the guy for a very long time when they were in Umno.

PKR

PKR is still stuck with the ideology of making Anwar the PM, plain and simple.

Yes, they do talk about justice and a better Malaysia, but their end game is still all about Anwar.

As of now, they seem even willing to sacrifice everything else including the goal of winning the next general election, to achieve that objective.

For them,  beating BN would be meaningless if Anwar is not to be PM.

Thus the other day at their convention, they sort of forced everyone, including their guests from the other opposition parties to hold up the Anwar to be PM placard.

Dr Mahathir, who was there actually avoided doing that.

PKR's Anwar as PM dream is actually off putting for many people who hates BN as they equally can't stand the idea of the former DPM running the country.

DAP

The Chinese-based party is currently stuck at third gear.

It can't improve from it's Chinese tsunami mode of GE13.

It's for all intent and purpose is still actually a Chinese party.

All its effort to appear multi-racial have not been making much progress.

Any attempt to dilute it's Chinese flavour only causes it to lose chunks of its Chinese vote bank.

That's exactly what happened when they fielded a Malay girl at the Teluk Intan by-election in 2015.

For many Malays, DAP is still a Chinese political bogeyman that scares them.

It doesn't help that some of the DAP personalities openly displayed their lack of sensitivities towards the Malays.

For example, by openly promoting evangelicalism, some DAP leaders do not seem to care what the Malay Muslims feel about such activities.

They even contemptuously dismiss the Malays unhappiness over the matter.

They probably feel that they can get away with such behaviour because their constituents are mostly Chinese and that they may even actually win more Chinese votes that way.

However, the effect would actually be damaging for the opposition parties as a whole because Malays, who are the majority in this country tend not to take such nonsense too kindly.

Its a case of "Menang sorak Cina, kampung Melayu tergadai".

Amanah

Consisting mostly Pas rejects, it's the only opposition party which in my opinion is without too much baggage.

Okay, party president Mat Sabu may be a baggage because of his not so handsome face as well as crazy antics and background, but the other leaders seem not so bad.

These guys are after all mostly professionals who joined Pas believing that they can do good in the Islamist party.

When they were still in Pas, the party seems less Taliban-like.

Well, too bad that they got kicked out by the Pas Ulama gang and have to set-up their own new party.

However, they don't have the Pas' Islamic fanaticism which attracts a lot of Malays, especially those from the rural areas.

Unlike Pas leaders who can claim that supporting their party is akin to buying a ticket to paradise, the Amanah guys, who are not ulama could only project a moderate Islamic image which may not be attractive enough for the more religiously-inclined Muslims.

Amanah may do some good in non-Malay heartland states such as Johor and Malacca but that's about all that they can do.

It may not likely stand much chance in three cornered fights with Pas and Umno such as what happened at the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar by-elections last year.

Mat Sabu may not be handsome in my eyes but some girls do love him though.

Well, that's my honest opinion about the opposition parties' chances for the coming general election if they remain as they are now.

Unless they do something drastic to overcome their problems as laid down above, they will lose again.

A lot of people that I know are fed up with the opposition parties despite their hatred towards BN. Some of them don't even want to talk about politics anymore and may likely not bothered to vote later on.

This, however, doesn't mean Umno and the other BN parties will have it easy in the months ahead leading to the general election.

If they get over confident and cocky, which they tend to do all the time, they may get the people to be so angry that they don't really care whether the opposition is any better or worse to replace BN in Putrajaya.

They would just vote for the opposition out of spite because they are pissed off by the arrogant and stupid remarks as well as failures to do the right things coming from the BN side.

Actually, I believe the opposition parties' only chance to win the next general election is if the people become so angry with BN that they couldn't care less whether those to replace the ruling coalition are any better.