Penang DAP chief says collaboration with BN may benefit all parties in state polls

GEORGE TOWN, April 20 — The collaboration between Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) could be beneficial to both coalitions and the federal government in the upcoming state polls, Penang DAP chief Chow Kon Yeow said today.

He said the collaboration may work to strengthen the coalition government more popularly called a “unity” government under PH and BN.

“Given that the unity government is gaining support, the next two months will be important to send the message that the future lies with PH and the unity government,” he said in a press conference after officiating the Ancom Crop Care Penang Scholarship Programme at The Wembley here this morning.

Chow, who is also Penang chief minister, was also asked if the collaboration between DAP and Umno under the unity government will cause the BN lynchpin party to lose Malay support.

He said Umno was already losing support before the PH-BN current alliance.

He pointed out that Umno went from the dominant party to only retaining 26 seats in the 15th general election last November.

He said this showed that the Malay nationalist party had already lost Malay support before collaborating with DAP.

He added that Umno is still struggling to get back its support base.

“They may continue to lose support to Perikatan Nasional and PH but that’s an assumption of transferability,” he said.

The Penang lawmaker said what is important now is that PH has about 100 days to gain support for the state polls.

“If we calculate from the campaign period to polling day, we have about 100 days more so these 100 days are important for all parties to prepare their election machinery to face the state elections,” he said.

He hoped that seat negotiations will be completed in good spirits while candidate selections can also be completed in a proper manner.

“All machinery are now ready and waiting for the dissolution and we hope all will go smoothly and for PH to get support from the people,” he said.

In Penang, he said the focus will be on the state administration’s performance and how it has fulfilled pledges made in the 2018 election manifesto.

He said previously, when it was decided that state polls will be held separately from the general elections, the worry was that the respective state will have to face the full force of the machinery from their political opponents.

“Now the situation is different because we will be getting full support from the federal government and our coalition partners,” he said.

He said with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as the prime minister to lead the federal government, PH is confident that it will get support from voters in the state elections.

He said opinion polls have shown that more than two-third of the respondents are happy with the direction of the unity government and that it was on the right track.

“This is our strong campaign point, with Anwar leading the government and our performance at federal and state level, this unity govt will get support from people,” he said.

He said the state elections will be about looking forward and PH bringing hope to people for change.

“Let us be part of this change,” he said.

When asked about the collaboration between PH and BN in Penang, he said the PH coalition parties will discuss first after the Raya holidays.

“We will discuss immediately after Raya, and Raya festivities last for a month,” he said.