Pakatan's dream of taking over Putrajaya dissipating without Pas

Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak said the success of DAP and PKR in 2008 and 2013 general elections was because of PAS’ support when it joined the Pakatan Rakyat (now defunct and replaced by Pakatan Harapan).

“Without the support of PAS voters, the DAP and PKR will definitely not win. Without PAS’ support, the DAP and PKR are no longer strong. Imagine, without PAS, with 70 percent of PAS voters no longer voting for the opposition pact? With this much change in votes, the opposition will be crippled,” he said in his blog sskeruak.blogspot.my, today.

Salleh said PKR and Amanah cannot help the opposition draw Malay voters as both parties do not have a strong political base and their pact remains flimsy.

“With this, the new Pakatan Harapan will definitely not get the confidence of the voters,” he said.

Salleh added that DAP only won in the 2008 General Election when it joined forces with PAS, getting it 28 seats and PKR 31 while its collaboration with PAS in the 13th General Election (GE13) saw it gaining 38 seats and PKR (30) seats.

“When DAP stood alone, the party’s achievement was not encouraging. In the 1969 GE when the opposition won big, the DAP only garnered 13 seats, 1974 (9), 1978 (16), 1982 (9), 1986 (24), 1990 (20) and 1995 (9),” Salleh said.

He added that in GE13, 84.84 percent of the total 13,268,002 registered voters cast their votes, with Barisan Nasional (BN) gaining 5,237,699 votes, PAS (1,633,389), DAP (1,736,267), and the rest to other parties.

“History has shown that PAS is core to the opposition’s strength just like UMNO is to BN. Today’s reality is that the DAP is the core to Pakatan Harapan,” he said.