Members of a panel at a forum on Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah), including representatives from PKR and DAP, defended the fledgling party, even as PSM took the entire opposition to task.

At the forum titled ‘Amanah: Boon or Bane?’, DAP national organising secretary Anthony Loke said Amanah, a splinter party off PAS, should not be judged by the results of the two by-elections on June 18.

“Of course, there are some weaknesses but those are weaknesses that we can fix and improve upon and we can help to improve Amanah in the long term.

“But do we judge Amanah right now, only a year after it was formed?” Loke questioned at the forum in Petaling Jaya last night.

PKR elections director Saifuddin Nasution pointed out that building a party from scratch, with limited resources and facing a mighty ruling party, was not an easy task.

Saifuddin said Amanah and Pakatan Harapan were off to a good start, as long as they did not have “denial syndrome”, and were ready to acknowledge they had a huge responsibility.

'Amanah has potential'

Ilham Centre executive director Hisomuddin Bakar also said Amanah has potential, as long as it was supported by its partners in Pakatan Harapan.

Hisomuddin cited the fledgling party’s campaign in the two recent by-elections, which received a lot of help from DAP in Sungai Besar and PKR in Kuala Kangsar.

Those campaigns, while still flawed, were a lot more successful than what happened during the Sarawak state elections, he said, where each opposition party seemed to be campaigning by themselves.

“Amanah has to be able to convince and clarify to the voters that they represent Pakatan Harapan, most importantly to the fence-sitters. (And) the older parties have to help out Amanah,” Hisomuddin added.

However, PSM central working committee member S Arutchelvan said that it was not just about Amanah, but about all of Pakatan Harapan.

“Amanah is a product of the circumstances. The problem is not Amanah but Pakatan Harapan,” Arutchelvan said.

He also said that with the circumstances being as they were now, every opposition party would lose in the next general election.

There were multi-cornered fights in both by-elections, with BN overwhelmingly gaining the two victories.

Amanah was placed second in Sungai Besar, ahead of PAS, but came out third in Kuala Kangsar, behind PAS.