KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 13 — Perikatan Nasional (PN) has gone as far as it can by capitalising on Malay anger to win votes, DAP deputy secretary-general Liew Chin Tong said today.

He acknowledged that PN has made inroads into Pakatan Harapan (PH) and Barisan Nasional (BN) territory in the recently concluded six state elections, but said that future fights with the PN coalition, especially for the 16th general election, will depend on who can convince the rest of the multiracial country’s citizens to vote for it.

“If PN refuses to build a meaningful multiethnic coalition in time for the next general election, the Unity Government will likely be the default winner,” he said in a Facebook post.

The DAP strategist pointed out that for all PN’s overt gestures to get support from the Malay voter base in the run-up to the six state elections, its chairman Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin had recognised the need to go beyond one communal group in order to wrest Selangor from PH and BN.

“He was surprisingly frank in his view that a change of government in Selangor would only happen if almost all Malays swung to PN, due to the multiethnic nature of the state.

“Most parts of Malaysia are more like Selangor than Kedah, Kelantan or Terengganu. To win federal power through a general election, the winning coalition will have to win across ethnic lines. Winning votes from one community is not enough to gain power,” Liew said.

Describing PN as “handicapped” structurally, he said the coalition that is driven by Bersatu and PAS “could only mobilise Malay anger but failed to win non-Malay support.

“Ideally, the nation benefits if PN makes a serious attempt to win more than just Malay votes. Such a move would create a full-fledged two-coalition structure with both sides competing effectively for votes from all ethnicities, and therefore lowering ethnic tension caused by PN's mobilisation of Malay anger,” he said.

The Johor DAP leader also said that with PH and BN now a team, the political road ahead to GE16 will be a straight fight between the unity government and PN, “unless PN is imploded before the next general election”.

“The effort to mobilise Malay-only anger will wane once the anger is maxed out and ventilated, and when the Unity Government can finally govern properly with the support of all ethnic groups,” he added.

Liew said that the results of yesterday’s six state elections that kept the 3:3 status quo between PH-BN and PN also spelt the end of a “mid-term” change of the federal government.

“PN will have to accept the reality that they did not win the 15th general election and thus have to serve the remaining term by presenting itself as an effective opposition, which it doesn't seem to be capable of,” he said.

As such, he suggested that the PH-BN government will be able to fully focus on reviving the national economy and buckling down to matters that affect Malaysians of all backgrounds and social classes, instead of just one group.

But Liew also observed that the PN leadership is undergoing a transition from the current figures like Muhyiddin, PAS president Tan Sri Hadi Awang, and Hulu Kelang winner Datuk Seri Azmin Ali who he touted as becoming “less relevant by the day”.

He named caretaker Kedah menteri besar Datuk Seri Muhammad Sanusi Md Nor and caretaker Terengganu menteri besar Datuk Seri Ahmad Samsusi Mokhtar as the up-and-coming politicians to watch out for in PN.

“Beneath Sanusi’s spontaneous and rancorous political style is a brilliant Trump-like populist.

“Samsuri is not talked about much nationally yet he is consequentially important because of his effectiveness as a strategist and by virtue of him holding the Menteri Besar post. For the first time since the Young Turks that included Hadi launched a party coup 40 years ago in 1982, PAS is now likely to witness a major generational shift soon.

“Once PAS transitions into the Sanusi-Samsuri generation, no one can rule out a spectacular resetting of directions,” Liew said.