Banyak risiko Bung sebagai ‘poster boy’ PRN

MENAMAKAN Bung Moktar Radin sebagai ‘poster boy’ pada pilihanraya negeri Sabah akan memberi lebih banyak risiko kepada UMNO dan Barisan Nasional, kata beberapa penganalisa politik.

Bilcher Bala daripada Universiti Malaya berkata ini kerana Bung dikaitkan dengan gerakan gagal untuk menjatuhkan ketua Menteri Hajiji Noor pada 2023, dan dengan menjadikannya ‘poster boy’ akan menjejaskan peluang UMNO dan Barisan Nasional untuk memenangi PRN nanti.

Beliau juga berkata pandangannya itu dikongsi oleh beberapa parti lain di Sabah, lebih-lebih lagi cara kepemimpinannya adakalanya tidak disenangi.

Walaupun cadangan UMNO Sabah itu menarik perhatian, menjadikan Bung sebagai ‘poster boy’ tetap ada risiko yang tinggi.

Syahruddin Awang Ahmad dari UMS pula berkata, pendekatan kempen BN patut lebih teliti agar perbicaraan kes rasuah Bung tidak memberikan kesan negatif kepada niat pakatan itu untuk memenangi PRN Sabah.

Terdahulu, UMNO Sabah mencadangkan agar Bung dijadikan ‘poster boy’ pada pilihanraya negeri Sabah akan datang.

“Sudah jadi kebiasaan menamakan pengerusi perhubungan negeri sebagai ‘poster boy’ PRN.

Pengerusi BN, Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, bagaimanapun berkata belum tiba masanya untuk menentukan siapa ‘poster boy’ PRN Sabah kerana apa yang lebih penting ialah mencapai kemenangan.

PRN Sabah mesti diadakan sebelum Disember 2025.

 

Risky to make Bung ‘poster boy’, say analysts

NAMING Sabah Umno chief Bung Moktar Radin as Barisan Nasional’s “poster boy” for the upcoming state election may be a risky move, an analyst says.

Bilcher Bala of Universiti Malaysia Sabah pointed out that Bung is linked to the failed attempt to overthrow chief minister Hajiji Noor in 2023, so making him BN’s “poster boy” may jeopardise the coalition’s chances and, ultimately, accelerate Umno’s decline in the state.

Bilcher also said several parties share the view that Bung’s leadership style is “sometimes considered crude”.

Although Sabah Umno’s proposal is attracting attention, he told FMT, “from a political strategy perspective, choosing Bung as the ‘face’ of BN could be a risky bet”.

Syahruddin Awang Ahmad, also of UMS, said BN’s campaign approach should be carefully planned so that Bung’s ongoing corruption trial and his personality issues will not overshadow the coalition’s ambitions in the state election.

Earlier this week, Sabah Umno proposed that Bung, a former deputy chief minister, be made the “poster boy” for the state polls, with its information chief, Suhaimi Nasir, saying that he is the most qualified person for the role.

“It has always been Sabah Umno’s tradition for the state BN chairman to be (our poster boy),” he said in an interview with selected media.

BN chairman Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, however, said it is not the time yet to determine the “poster boy” candidate because the priority is to ensure victory for the BN candidates in the election.

Several analysts are of the view that discussions with other parties on cooperation in facing the state election will come to a halt if BN names its “poster boy” now.

The Sabah election must be held by December.

 

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