COMMENT In Malaysian politics, we have to look at the bigger picture.

A three-cornered fight will give Barisan Nasional and Umno the edge as opposition votes will be split, as we have seen from the 2004 general election. It is only when the opposition parties are united that people will know how to give their support to Pakatan Harapan.

What BN would love to have is an opposition front that is divided. A house that is divided will be easily defeated in any election, even without the help of the Election Commission with its alleged gerrymandering and redelineation, and the blatant use of money politics and empty promises.

The election process in this country is dirty, and Bersih 2.0 should continue to demand for clean and fair elections. The federal election is just two years from now.

I have always emphasised the importance of looking at the bigger picture, and I would not hesitate to say that with the current political climate, we are like the three little pigs each trying to build its own house, while the big bad wolf roams outside.

The only way the three little pigs can overcome the big bad wolf is, as Sesame Street’s Cooperation Today suggest, to collaborate with each other instead of building their own homes.

BN, too, has its own fair share of internal splits, as we can see from the three-cornered fight involving Sarawak United People’s Party (SUPP) and its splinter party United People’s Party (UPP).

It is worth watching the different versions of the well-loved children’s fairy tale again and again, until the message gets through, and hopefully by the next federal election, we will see a stronger opposition front to give BN a run for its money.

Each trying to build its own house

For now, I will draw a parallel in the recently-concluded Sarawak state elections, from which Pakatan Harapan partners at both state and federal level could learn something.

The three-cornered fight by DAP and PKR over six state seats could have been avoided although I do not think it was the main reason for Pakatan’s loss in the state election, the way some pundits would like us to think. Even with a combined number of votes from both DAP and PKR, Pakatan would still have lost to BN.

The truth is that Pakatan is facing the odds when it comes to winning the election, given BN’s advanced and well-oiled machinery to allegedly cheat in every possible way. Unless Pakatan partners stand united, they will not simply be wasting their already very limited resources.

It is time that all parties aligned with Anwar Ibrahim learn how to cooperate and focus all their resources in order to win more seats in the next general election. GE12 and 13 are very good examples, but with the alleged gerrymandering, unless you have over 70 percent popularity votes (based on a chart done by activist Ng Chak Guan), you will never smell Putrajaya in this lifetime.

While DAP is already making inroads into the rural heartland of Sarawak, this should continue on but when it comes to the federal election, it should give in to the party that has a higher majority. There is nothing like seeing both DAP and PKR working hand-in-hand to win the seat to fulfil the people’s vision for change.

After all, DAP’s slogan is ‘Ubah’. Until all parties learn to give in to each other, there will not be any change at all for the next 70 years and Umno will continue to introduce its supremacy policies in Sarawak, our last frontier, bearing in mind that a lot of urban Malays, too, have given up on the current batch of Umno leaders.

Parti Amanah Negara, being a new party, should also take cognisance that it could not have won the seats in the constituencies it contested. Therefore, it has to work doubly hard from now to prepare the ground. Perhaps, by the 15th general election, it can go for some constituencies; meanwhile, it has to accept the fact that Sarawakians are unwilling to accept either PAS or a splinter party like Amanah.

More time has to be given to explain to the Sarawakians that Amanah was the Erdogan faction of PAS, which is now left to the ulama faction in the party.

A more united front, please

By the next federal election, which has to be called within the next 24 months, I hope all three parties - Amanah, DAP and PKR - will be better prepared to take on more federal seats.

From now on, they should be cooperating and grooming their supporters for different roles in the coming elections. At around this time before the last general election, both Bersih and TindakMalaysia were already conducting their election agent (PACA) training to equip ordinary citizens to monitor the electoral process.

We hope that Bersih and TindakMalaysia will kickstart the training process well ahead of the election, instead of waiting till the last hour.

What I saw in the recent Sarawak elections is that all three parties were trying to build their own little houses. One was trying to build a house of hay, the other from sticks, and both could not stand against the huffs and puffs of the big bad wolf.

Fortunately, the third little pig built a house from bricks, and his was the only one that could keep all three little pigs safe from the big bad wolf.

All three little pigs should collaborate with each other to expedite the building of one solid house that could house them together. In an election where cash is king, there is no reason for each party to take on its own course and clash with each other.

Watch again and again, this cartoon version of the fairy tale, as there are lessons to be learnt.

STEPHEN NG is an ordinary citizen with an avid interest in following political developments in the country since 2008.