KUALA LUMPUR, March 26 ― No local political force is ready to replace Barisan Nasional (BN) as the ruling party, said Parti Ikatan Bangsa Malaysia (Ikatan) president Tan Sri Abdul Kadir Sheikh Fadzir.

Abdul Kadir said this also extended to the Pakatan Harapan opposition pact, the largest alternative to the ruling BN, due to the infighting among its member parties.

In an interview with Malay Mail Online recently, the former information and tourism minister said the lack of a viable option made it imperative for the ruling BN to reform itself and address the allegations of corruption and abuses against it.

“So now, this governing party, really, they must seriously look at transforming themselves to stop this rot. Stop this rot, and furthermore when we see the alternative, where’s the alternative?

“You don’t want BN, who is going to replace it? Who’s going to be prime minister? You can’t see anybody there. They (Pakatan Harapan) are all busy fighting among themselves,” he told Malay Mail Online.

Abdul Kadir pointed out that internal feuds were common with the opposition parties in Pakatan Harapan, even when they had still been the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) pact that also included his party’s new partner, PAS.

The former Umno leader singled out DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng over the latter’s treatment of PAS and its president, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang, during their disagreement over the Islamist party’s bid to enforce hudud, which eventually killed off PR.

He expressed shock that Lim had openly called Hadi a “liar” and “traitor” when their two parties had been allied.

“How do you tell your partners, call names like that? Obviously these people are not meant to govern the country!” he exclaimed.

Abdul Kadir explained that this was also why he chose to ally his four-year-old party with PAS rather than Pakatan Harapan that comprises PKR, DAP and Amanah.

“Don't tell me I should pair up with DAP. They keep shouting non-stop! Not with PKR… they always argue… only fixated in finding faults,” he said.

PAS and Ikatan announced their partnership on March 16 and presented themselves as the “third bloc” in Malaysian politics, after BN and Pakatan Harapan.

The Islamist had until then maintained that it was still in PR along with PKR, after DAP declared the pact dead following their intractable acrimony over hudud.

PAS has said that the new bloc will compete against both BN and Pakatan Harapan in polls, and will not seek to avoid multi-way fights in elections.

In Malaysia’s first-past-the-post electoral system, multiple opposition parties contesting against BN invariably cannibalise each other’s support, to the benefit of the ruling coalition.