Battle for Putrajaya begins in Johor

Kit Siang says next general election will be focused on former BN 'fortress' and 'kingmaker' Borneo states

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KUALA LUMPUR: The battle for wresting power in Putrajaya at the next general election begins in Johor, veteran DAP leader Lim Kit Siang said last night.

Speaking at the launch of the new Pakatan Harapan opposition coalition, he said Johor, once regarded as a Barisan Nasional “fortress”, was no longer a political backyard but a front-line state.

At the next general election, all eyes would be focused on Johor, as well as the “kingmaker” states of Sabah and Sarawak, to see whether Pakatan Harapan could replace the Barisan Nasional to form the next federal government.

The Barisan Nasional controls 132 seats in the 222-member Parliament, with one BN-friendly independent; the opposition controls 73 seats among the Pakatan Harapan partners, PAS 14, with one seat held by the socialist party and one by an independent.

In Johor, the BN won 21 of the 26 parliamentary seats, with the DAP winning four and PKR one. Kit Siang himself contested and won the Gelang Patah seat.

He said that after the opposition gains of 2013 no leader of Umno or the Barisan Nasional would now dare to repeat their former boast of making Johor a zero-opposition state, or to claim that Johor was an invincible fortress or “fixed deposit” state.

“Everyone knows that Umno-BN will be fighting a life-and-death struggle if they want to continue to form the Johor state government after the 14th general election,” Lim said.

He said the choice of Johor as the first state to launch the Pakatan Harapan underlined the importance of the state in the battle for political change.

The launch last night was attended by leaders of Parti Keadilan Rakyat and the newly-formed Parti Amanah Negara comprising breakaway PAS dissidents. PKR, Amanah and DAP are the partners in Pakatan Harapan, which replaces the former Pakatan Rakyat of PKR, DAP and PAS which fell apart after divisions between the DAP and PAS.

The opposition coalitions were for an electoral pact for a united front against the Barisan Nasional and to form coalition governments on the basis of a common policy agreed to by all partners.