PETALING JAYA: Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) is going nowhere nationally because of the confusion in the party about the direction it should take, said a political analyst.
National Council of Professors senior fellow Dr Jeniri Amir said PBM is basically a Sarawak-based party that is trying to go national.
He said the party wants to dream big but it will not be able to realise it.
Jeniri also questioned the leadership of PBM president Datuk Larry Sng.
“The sacking of the party’s top leaders will not really make any impact on the national political landscape. They have been sacked most probably because Sng wants to shape the party’s future and Datuk Zuraida Kamaruddin had not been supportive of him.
“Their sacking will not help the party in any way. PBM leaders such as Sng are popular only in his area in Sarawak and have no national pull.”
Jeniri said PBM also lacks strong grassroots support, and no matter what is done to strengthen the party, no nationally influential political leader will want to join it.
He added that former PKR leaders who joined PBM did not bring anything to the party as could be seen from the results of the 15th general election.
“Zuraida, who was synonymous with Ampang, and former PKR leaders were rejected by voters for their actions during the ‘Sheraton Move’, which led to the downfall of the Pakatan Harapan government.
“Many ex-PKR leaders involved in the Sheraton Move had joined PBM.”
Jeniri said these leaders simply did not have the pulling power to influence voters and their sacking would make no difference to the party.
PBM sacked Zuraida and 10 others, while its deputy president Haniza Talha and Women’s chief Daroyah Alwi were stripped of their positions but remained as party members.
Sng, who is also Julau MP, said on Monday that 13 members were issued
show-cause letters on Dec 19 and they had been given a one-week deadline to respond.
Other party leaders who have been sacked are vice-presidents Rahimah Majid,
Dr Sathiskumar Govindaraju, Saiful Bahari Sahari and information chief Zakaria Abdul Hamid as well as supreme council members Ab Aziz Ab Kadir, Zakaria Abdul Rahim, Roger Tan and Albacore Salim.
The party’s disciplinary committee said the 11 sacked included PBM secretary-general Nor Hizwan Ahmad and Youth chief Na’im Brundage.
Nusantara Academy for Strategic Research senior fellow Prof Dr Azmi Hassan said Sng, who is popular in Sarawak, wants to go national but he needs the support of strong political leaders.
He said the party needs all the backing it can get at the moment but the purging of its top leadership will only hurt it.
“No other well-known politicians will want to join the party because it seems to take action against leaders as and when it wants. Zuraida can survive without PBM as she has Muafakat Nasional as a back-up.
“The reason for the sacking remains unknown but there is a possibility it was done because Zuraida was likely to challenge Sng for the top post.”
He said Zuraida lost big in Ampang and this shows that PBM is unable to nationally exert any kind of influence and is seen as weak.
Azmi added that PBM is not strong because individual leaders in the party are popular with voters in their respective areas but do not have star power nationally.
