PUTRAJAYA: Pakatan Harapan’s performance in the Semenyih by-election on March 2 will prove whether research firm Fitch Solutions’s prediction that the coalition would experience a decline in popularity was baseless or not.
Parti Amanah Negara (PAN) communications director Khalid Abdul Samad said the by-election would be a barometer as to how much support PH has from the rakyat.
“Semenyih will tell us whether the support has declined or not. Looking at it from one angle, if (the support) is in decline, because the performance of the PH government is not as expected, then what needs to be understood is that this government is still a new one and still has much to do to tackle all the problems inherited (from the previous government).
“The assumption that we (the PH government) have not delivered is something that is prevalent in society, but this is something which can be tackled in the coming years. It is not necessarily so that if there is a decline in support, that it is a sign of what will happen in the 15th general election,” he told reporters after the launch of the Putrajaya Fishing Competition held in conjunction with Federal Territory Day.
It was recently reported that Fitch Solutions had predicted a decline in public support for PH in the coming months due to, among others, internal problems within the coalition and the failure of the government to reduce the cost of living.
Khalid said the people’s expectations for PH when the coalition took over the government were high and they were expecting many changes after nine months.
“It is quite impossible for us to do so in such a short amount of time, but all the things we have pledged are still targets for us and we will strive to meet them. The only thing is that perhaps we need a bit more time as there are many problems which we ‘inherited’ (from the previous government) which we need to resolve first,” he said.
