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Perikatan Nasional has a new chairman. PAS vice-president and Terengganu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar now leads the PN coalition, following the resignation of Muhyiddin Yassin from the role and amid Bersatu’s widening internal split. What does this new leadership arrangement mean for the future of Perikatan Nasional? And does it signal a deeper shift in Bersatu’s influence in the coalition? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Ibrahim Suffian, Programmes Director at Merdeka Center.
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00:10Hello and good evening. I'm Melissa Idris. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:14where we want you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day. Perikata
00:19National has a new chairman. Past Vice President and Tunggandu Menteri Besar Ahmad Samsuri
00:26Mukhtar, better known as Dr. Sam, now leads the PN Coalition following the resignation of Muhyiddin
00:32Yassin from the role. All this is happening amid Bersatu's widening internal split following a slew
00:40of Bersatu members having been booted out from the party a few weeks ago. So what does this new
00:46leadership in Perikata National mean for the future of the coalition and does it signal a deeper shift
00:54in Bersatu's influence in PN? Well joining me now on the show is Ibrahim Sufyan, better known as Ben
01:01Sufyan. He is a programs director at Merdeka Centre. Ben, let's talk about Dr. Sam or Ahmad Samsuri
01:08Mukhtar, his full name. He's just been appointed chairman of PN. I'm wondering how significant you
01:14view this appointment and what it signals to you about the balance of power within the coalition
01:20currently. Yeah thanks for having me on. I think number one it is a very significant shift in terms
01:26of the top leadership of Perikata National. I think I you know base my comments on two specific
01:32aspects. Number one you know Dr. Samsuri as a personality, political personality, political leader
01:38and then number two in terms of what it means to the average Malaysian voters out there. I think first
01:44and
01:44foremost Dr. Ahmad Samsuri is you know I would say one of the common, more moderate appearing
01:51political leader coming out from PAS. I think as Chief Minister of Tengganu he has for the most part
01:59scattered controversy and has not been in the national limelight you know for a long time and having said that
02:07he belongs to a new crop of leaders who are seen to be more moderate, technocrat, he is an aeronautical
02:16engineer
02:17and because of that I think could appeal to a wider set of Malay voters beyond the traditional
02:26more islamically oriented electorate that has been traditionally supporting PAS. So broadly speaking he is a
02:35leader who could potentially bridge the gap for PAS and Perikata National towards other segments of the
02:42Malay electorate that the party still have not been able to get to. On the second aspect in terms of
02:49what it means for the broader voters, I think the shift here is more significant because with the
02:55resignation of Tan Sri Muhyiddin and then the passing the beton over to Ahmad Samsuri, I think now the
03:02make up the face of Perikata National is more PAS than it was Bersatu and therefore the public facing
03:09side of the coalition now would have you know a heavier PAS flavor. It also I think challenges the
03:18notion that it is a coalition of equals and that it is likely that the influence of PAS and what
03:27they intend to
03:28bring will be heavier than where it was before. In the past uh PAS had this cloak of moderation in
03:36the
03:36sense that they had Tan Sri Muhyiddin who is a long figure in public service you know more than 40
03:42years
03:42in politics and um presided over the crisis of COVID-19 uh and I think with him no longer being
03:51the chair
03:51he will no longer be the face of the coalition and therefore the face of the coalition will be
03:57represented by a PAS leader and I think this is going to affect how middle ground independent-minded
04:03voters see the coalition and what it intends to bring to Malaysian politics in the future.
04:08Can I just focus on PAS and Perikata National for now? We'll touch on Bersatu in a little bit but
04:14I'm curious to know why the uh the choosing of Dr Sam or Dr Samsuri um over other candidates um
04:23over say
04:25more fire brand candidates like uh the Kedah Menteri Besar San Yusino um that seems to be more I guess
04:34popular San Yusino is is a very popular I'm curious to know Dr Sams kind of standing within the party
04:40and does this um signal the way forward for PAS? Is PAS likely to take a more soft-spoken moderate
04:49line go
04:50in the lead up to GE 16? Yeah I think PAS is decidedly uh number one I think decision making
04:57in PAS is quite
04:58solidly with the president of the party and those around him uh and the party has pretty high level
05:05of discipline in terms of respecting the decision of the leaders even if specific quarters of the
05:11party may disagree uh and I think this is what has happened with the appointment of Dr Samsuri that
05:17although there are other voices that we've heard uh but generally everyone is falling in line and I think
05:23the selection of Dr Mats Samsuri you know speaks about PAS's uh thoughts about the future that I think
05:29they want to present themselves as a moderate party as a party that is not uh clerical or theologian
05:37led but rather led by professionals who have at least administrative experience and have not been
05:45uh quoted by controversy so I think that's I think the underpinning reasons for choosing Dr Samsuri
05:51right uh and while there might be other more popular figures uh some popular figures may be uh
05:58they may have some strong following within certain segments but I think here they're thinking about
06:03a leader that could represent all Malaysians you know and I think this is the best that they have come
06:08up with and uh this is something that will uh look with some hopefulness that perhaps it will inject
06:15some rationality uh into politics and someone that can speak about the national interest above the
06:22narrow ethnic or sectarian interest of the particular groups that the party has in the past represented
06:28right so the way you were describing Ben uh Dr Samsuri you know uh moderate maybe can appeal to the
06:35Malay vote
06:35um professional maybe has past administrative experience all of those things was what
06:41Bersatu brought to the table uh for the coalition I am quite curious now about Bersatu's position I mean
06:50does it reflect the internal crisis of Bersatu is it now has it now completely weakened Bersatu's position
06:58in Perikatan National well I think you know any party that has splintered from Barisan National uh tends to
07:05not last longer than two electoral terms with the exception of TKR uh and simply because when they
07:13um you know appeal to only the Malay base you know there is a period of time within which you
07:21know
07:21the memory fades and then people start to revert to the mean and I think Bersatu potentially is facing that
07:28challenge
07:29in the upcoming elections uh GE 16 in the sense that they are uh they did they perform really well
07:37in GE 15 but I think moving forward with a number of these leaders having legal problems with the
07:44finances of the party under constraint and also the lack of a base and I think having a base is
07:50critical
07:51meaning having a state that one can call its own and from there they can build support and you know
07:57nurture
07:57new leadership I think this is what's missing in the Bersatu uh context and so I think they're going
08:03to face a tough challenge ahead and the splits that they are seeing right now in some way is symptomatic
08:09of the systemic problems they face that they lack a base and therefore uh there is you know impetus
08:15they have some segments of the party that feels that they ought to move forward they ought to you know
08:20be
08:21more aggressive whereas there are others who like to take a more cautious stance and I think this is
08:25the rift between the two factions that has split the party apart and it doesn't vote well for the
08:32party in the coming election so depending on when elections are going to be held if elections are
08:37held soon say in less than a year then I think they're going to have a tough time but uh
08:41time heals so if
08:42elections are held much later there is a opportunity for them to recover over the next year or so
08:49um Ben what does this splitting this internal um splitting of Bersatu mean for the wider political
08:59landscape when um could pass choose to align with one faction over the other could because Hamzah says
09:07he has the support of was the 18 19 MPs um if that's true then could Muhyiddin's grip on Bersatu
09:15be more
09:15tenuous in the perikatan national coalition than we initially um expected yeah I mean it could be
09:22that you know in the sense that now that the party is split and then some you know like Hamzah
09:27claims
09:28that he has uh you know more than a dozen leaders I think the incumbent president uh also has some
09:33support uh but I think these are all notional in the sense that number one uh it's only good for
09:39the remainder of the term which you know perhaps could run for another 18 months or so uh and it's
09:45only good for them to hold you know the current positions and when elections go by uh all of these
09:52are reset everything has to uh be fought for again and I think that in lies the problem you know
09:57now that
09:58you know the vice president has been sacked and he's probably is either going to form a new party or
10:03join another party so that's definitely going to be contestation so the little base that Bersatu has
10:10created for itself out of the uh dismissal or Tan Sri Muhyiddin from the Najib cabinet back in the day
10:17like nearly 10 years ago uh that little base is now split further uh and uh so so it could
10:25go three ways
10:25some people will stay with Bersatu some people might go with the new faction uh that may potentially
10:33form a party some people will go to PAS and maybe some group might just return back to UMNO and
10:40so the
10:40party definitely will have a more diminished base uh so if we just look at prospects uh you know we
10:48don't
10:48think that elections uh or rather we don't think that there's going to be any changes in the current
10:54configuration of the government so you know it's not like the government is going to collapse
10:59and so because of that we are looking at prospects in the next GE and in the next GE you're
11:04going to
11:04have a party that's probably going to split four ways uh and so Bersatu is going to be at a
11:09terrible
11:10disadvantage and waiting in the wings is actually PAS and UMNO who will be in a position to scoop up
11:16the
11:16spoils so I think UMNO uh has enough uh potential of winning back some seats uh simply by taking
11:24advantage of the troubles that Bersatu is facing right now and likewise PAS they too may decide
11:29that uh they want back some of the seats that those candidates contested because uh they are more
11:35solid they provide the backbone of the missionary uh and they can carry the weight of the election
11:41do you think then Ben that all of these factors might uh be taken into consideration into calling for
11:49early elections or snap elections um you said you know there are there's money left on the table from
11:55the weakening of Bersatu could um could the Madani administration want to take advantage of a weakened
12:03opposition certainly I wouldn't put it past them it is certainly a potential uh given that you know we have
12:11generally improving macroeconomic sentiment uh you know we can see the ggp growth rates and so on
12:17that continues to improve and the prospects for 2026 seem to be generally well despite you know a more
12:25hazy global outlook uh you have pretty stable government right now uh and in out of that I think
12:33we also see that uh the prime minister Anwar is making some inroads in gaining new support particularly
12:40amongst first-time voters so the prospects are there I think the big question is whether they are ready
12:45themselves to put to call for election whether you know ph itself is ready to call for elections and
12:53and face it earlier rather than much later because I think uh they have some advantage in calling it
13:00sooner rather than allow time to pass and for the wounds inside the opposition to heal it and they can
13:08probably take a leaf of lesson from you know previous instances back in 2018 when you know
13:15at that time you know pakatan harapan was still in disarray their leaders was in jail and they were
13:21still trying to cobble together a coalition with former prime minister dr mahatir uh then incumbent prime
13:27minister najib waited a long time and nearly waited the full extent of the term before calling for election so
13:33uh so there's a case to be helped for calling it sooner rather than later so at the end of
13:38the day is
13:39you know how ready and confident they feel about themselves uh because I think the landscape out there
13:44uh seems to be suiting an earlier election all right Ben thank you so much for joining us on the
13:52show
13:52always a pleasure to talk to you Ibrahim Sufyan there from Merdeka Center and we're going to take a quick
13:56break
13:57um and after this we'll speak to a Bersatu Supreme Council member stay tuned we'll be right back
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