Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) needs to conduct a comprehensive post-mortem on its election performance following disappointing results in the Johor and Negeri Sembilan state elections, which have raised serious questions over the party’s level of public support.
Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Abdul Karim said the outcome of the Johor state election on 11 July showed that PKR’s campaign narrative had failed to translate into votes at the ballot box, despite efforts to highlight the government’s economic achievements.
He said the party had promoted Johor’s economic growth, increased investments, major infrastructure projects and the Johor-Singapore Special Economic Zone (JS-SEZ), which had received support from the Federal Government.
“Those facts were acknowledged by the people of Johor but were not translated into votes. The question is why? PKR needs to find the answer.
“More specifically, why did only one of the 20 PKR candidates contesting manage to win a seat? And that was in Puteri Wangsa, a state constituency that is not Malay-majority,” he said in an analysis titled ‘PKR: An Endangered Species?’ on Sunday.
Hassan said the bigger question facing PKR leaders was the level of support among Malay voters, which he claimed stood at only around six per cent during the Johor state election.
He said a similar situation emerged during the Negeri Sembilan state election on 1 August, despite PKR entering the contest with greater confidence than it had shown in Johor. The party also had the advantage of being part of the state government before the dissolution of the state assembly.
“The Negeri Sembilan government before the state assembly was dissolved was a Pakatan Harapan (PH) government, with its Menteri Besar coming from PKR.
“Yet once again, the PKR and PH narrative used during the campaign failed,” he said.
According to Hassan, PKR and PH had also highlighted the Negeri Sembilan government’s eight-year record since 2018, including the popularity of its Menteri Besar, an administration regarded as clean from abuse of power, as well as its performance in economic development and governance.
However, those achievements did not produce the expected electoral support, with the Menteri Besar himself losing the Linggi state seat. For Hassan, the result should prompt PKR leaders to seriously examine why Malay candidates from the party failed to secure victory.
“The PKR leadership needs to realise this: why did all Malay PKR candidates lose in the Negeri Sembilan state election?” he asked.
Hassan described the situation as particularly worrying for a party that has spent more than a quarter of a century championing justice, democracy and reform. He said PKR now faced the risk of losing public confidence despite once offering voters a strong vision for political change.
He stressed that PKR’s wider objective was to build a united nation for people of different races, religions and cultures while continuing the reform agenda that had previously given many Malaysians hope.
“PKR’s enemy is not the opposing parties but PKR itself,” he said.
At the same time, Hassan acknowledged that PKR’s success in forming the Federal Government and governing the country for almost four years was an achievement that could not be dismissed.
However, he argued that economic performance and government statistics alone would not be enough to secure political support. In his view, public confidence in the country’s leadership remains a crucial factor in determining how voters respond at the ballot box.
“The issue for the people is not statistical data but their confidence in the country’s leadership.
“If that confidence or ‘trust’ is in deficit, PKR will face problems when the next election comes,” he said.
Hassan nevertheless expressed hope that his analysis would eventually prove to be inaccurate, stressing that PKR still had time to address its weaknesses and rebuild public support ahead of future elections.
He said the upcoming Melaka state election, expected to take place in September, could provide an important test of whether PKR is capable of recovering its political standing.
“If PKR produces a surprise and secures a respectable victory in Melaka, then simply throw this piece of writing into the rubbish bin,” he said.
