Is Perikatan Nasional Doomed To Fail?

With all the uncertainty that’s been surrounding Malaysian politics the past couple of weeks, you’d be forgiven for losing faith in the system. The government that the people voted for in GE14 is no longer in power, replaced by a party pieced together by some unscrupulous politicians hell bent on power.

At the end of it all, Perikatan Nasional emerged as the Bran Stark to our local Game of Thrones, but can a coalition that consists of outright traitors, members of the corrupt previous government, people with charges in court and parties of very similar ideologies thrive in the long term?

It’s a question that we can’t help but to bring up. For one, Perikatan Nasional doesn’t actually hold the majority of seats in the Dewan Rakyat. They currently hold 90 seats, supported by Gabungan Bersatu Sabah (GBS) and Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) with 3 and 18 seats respectively. In spite of this, our YDPA made the decision based on who he believes has the majority support of the Dewan Rakyat. The important thing to note here is that while Muhyiddin has the support of the majority, it’s more out of convenience for the other parties involved than anything else.

It’s this same convenience that puts Perikatan’s future at risk. You see, the coalition wasn’t formed on the basis of shared ideologies. Perikatan was formed because it’s what UMNO, BERSATU and PAS had to do in order to put one of their guys in the Prime Minister’s Office. It’s a marriage of convenience, and with UMNO, BERSATU and PAS all appealing to pretty much the same demographic (the Malay semi-urban/ruralmoderate/conservative), there can be no doubt that there will be blood should the coalition contest in GE15.

Is the shared interests of all three parties going to be enough for them to not have headaches when it comes to dividing the seats later? Time will tell but i’m leaning towards a solid no. I don’t see either of the three parties compromising or giving up their influence to it’s fellow coalition members. I mean, come on, BERSATU outright packed up and left PH, and they did it in plain sight too.

That being said though, Pakatan Harapan was formed out of a shared ideology (or so it had seemed), and yet it still failed. Of course, that’s due to the snakes in the grass but it just goes to show that a machine running on a shared ideology can be brought down by just a few bad gears.

Perikatan is doomed to be torn apart from the inside. Should Muhyiddin be able to convince the rakyat of the credibility of his new Government however, Perikatan Nasional might just make it to GE15. Everything after is anyone’s guess.