From Terence Netto
If Bersama were to contest 15 seats in the Melaka polls on Nov 14, it is certain to take away votes from PKR, DAP and Amanah.
It is not too late to rescind a move that bodes ill for a future in which Bersama ought to have a vital role in making the reforms long sought by Pakatan Harapan (PH) a reality, thereby setting on course the creation of a different country from the prevailing one, whose contours are likely to be reinforced by the right-wingers of Umno and the Islamists of PAS.
As if the good fairies have decided to play a hand in steering things towards an outcome both congenial for Bersama and beneficial to PH, Bersama’s co-founder Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad is in a spot of bother that may well throw him off stride for GE16.
The khalwat case he is facing may well disqualify the former MP for Setiawangsa from being the constituency’s first Bersama MP at GE16. Prior to the case’s inception, Nik Nazmi was on course, after resigning as PKR MP for Setiawangsa, to being returned at GE16, under Bersama’s colours, as the seat’s MP.
Now that probability is dimmed by what hangs over him at the shariah court.
This is grist for the argument that Bersama ought to draw in its tentacles and play to its strengths. There is no point in splitting votes at the Melaka polls and persisting in attacking PKR and Anwar Ibrahim on the stumps, as Bersama has been known to do from the time the party set sail.
When Rafizi Ramli and Nik Nazmi launched a new political vehicle by forming Bersama, it was clear the pair were on course, heading up to GE16, which must be called by February 2028, to carve off something like 10 of the 31 parliamentary seats that PKR won at GE15 in November 2022.
Their incumbents were pro-Rafizi and will likely be won again by the same coterie if re-contested by them.
Bersama will want to contest a number of other seats held by PKR MPs, but not significantly more.
Bersama went into the Johor state polls in July with hopes of making some gains. They wound up with nothing but lost deposits and were suitably chagrined to not want to contest in the subsequent Negeri Sembilan polls.
But now Bersama fancies its chances in Melaka: it has not learnt its lesson that what plays in the Klang Valley does not exactly play outside its highly urban and urbane precincts.
The Nik Nazmi khalwat case is a symptom of Bersama’s presumptuousness.
The party must play within its strengths.
And wait for the realisation to congeal that after Anwar, it is Rafizi who should resuscitate the fallen reformasi colours.
Hence, there isn’t much point in alienating its putative allies in PKR, DAP and Amanah by going solo and splitting votes at the Melaka polls and elsewhere.
What has happened to Nik Nazmi should introduce some grains of sand into Bersama’s balm of complacent assumption.
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.