Pakatan Harapan and Barisan Nasional to form state government in Pahang

KUANTAN - The Regent of Pahang has consented to a state government formed by Barisan Nasional (BN) and Pakatan Harapan (PH), after the recent state polls ended with a hung state assembly.

Tengku Hassanal Ibrahim Sultan Abdullah had also consented to the re-appointment of BN’s Datuk Seri Wan Rosdy Wan Ismail as menteri besar. He will be sworn in at the palace at 11am on Monday, according to a statement from Pahang palace.

Mr Wan Rosdy from Umno was the incumbent menteri besar of Pahang before the Nov 19 election. He is also a four-term assemblyman for the Jelai state seat.

While Pahang has been a stronghold for Umno for decades, the Umno-led BN secured only 16 out of the 42 state seats in this election - seven fewer seats compared to the 2018 election.

Perikatan Nasional (PN) secured 17 seats, while PH won 8 seats. Election for the Tioman state seat is postponed to Dec 7, as the PN candidate died after suffering a heart attack on polling day.

As none of the coalitions managed to secure a simple majority of 21 seats, prolonged negotiations took place over the past week, with PH officially agreeing to join hands with BN to form the state government on Saturday.

PN will be in opposition despite winning the most number of seats in the state polls.

“The party that received the largest mandate from the people of Pahang is Perikatan (PN). That’s the will of the people and should be respected,” said Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah, the chairman of PN in Pahang who was formely with BN’s Umno, and then PH’s Parti Keadilan Rakyat, before leaving to join Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) in PN.

He added that PN was ready to partner BN from the start, but their negotiations stalled due to BN’s “unreasonable demands”.

“Barisan (BN) demanded the position of menteri besar and wanted seven executive council seats, and only agreed to give Perikatan (PN) one exco seat even though they are a minority party with no mandate,” he said.

On the other hand, PH managed to secure BN as a partner as it did not make any demands during the negotiation, said Ms Fuziah Salleh, the former chairman of PH in Pahang.

“Pakatan (PH) just offered to work with Barisan (BN) to form the government without any conditions.

“Why? Because we fear for Pahang looking at how extreme Perikatan (PN) was in their campaign and how it can destroy racial harmony and the future of Pahang,” she added.

PN, which comprises Bersatu and Parti Islam SeMalaysia, has run a successful social media campaign, particularly on TikTok, in the lead up to the election. Several analysts have pointed out how PN has played on extreme Malay Muslim sentiments to win votes, largely by demonising the Chinese-led Democratic Action Party, a component party of PH, and accusing PH leader Anwar Ibrahim of having an LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender) agenda.