Amanah, DAP say won’t abandon PH as PKR strikes out alone

Amanah and DAP today said they would not “abandon” Pakatan Harapan (PH), a day after their coalition partner PKR announced that it would contest the Johor state election to come using its own oval-shaped logo instead of the PH symbol.

In a statement, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu and DAP’s Lim Guan Eng said they were of the opinion that “political allies and coalition partners stay together in good times, and in bad times”.

“As a coalition, Amanah and DAP would prefer all PH allies to unite under the same symbol with a common purpose and a shared political agenda,” they said.

“Both Amanah and DAP will not abandon PH. We still have the three PH state governments of Penang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan to deliver for the rakyat. For this reason, both Amanah and DAP will not abandon the coalition logo which would have been perceived as abandoning our effort to regain the federal government for the rakyat.”

PH leaders announced yesterday that while DAP and Amanah would contest the Johor election under the coalition’s logo, PKR would field its candidates using its own symbol.

Acknowledging “differences in opinion” over PKR’s request to contest under its party logo, they nonetheless said that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim who is also PH chairman would write to the Election Commission to ask that the authority over nomination letters for PH candidates be given to Lim and Mohamad.

The two leaders said their parties would continue using the PH logo to demonstrate their commitment to their aspirations of “governing as a coalition instead of being perceived as being alone as an opposition party”.

“During our 65 years of Merdeka, Malaysia has always been governed by a coalition of political parties. No single party has ever won an election or the right to govern alone,” they said, adding that even Umno continued to use the Barisan Nasional (BN) logo despite being the single dominant political party.

They also said opposition parties would face an uphill battle in Johor against BN and Perikatan Nasional.

“Having a common logo would have helped voters to identify Amanah, DAP, PKR and Upko as allies of PH in a crowded field of political coalitions and parties,” they said.

However they said they would continue to engage with PKR as well as other parties in the opposition including Muda, to offer a united front to the people.

PKR was completely wiped out in the state elections of Melaka and Sarawak late last year, while in the Sabah election a year earlier, it won only two of the seven seats it contested.