Parti Amanah Negara has told its allies in Pakatan Harapan to accept the political reality of having to face three-cornered fights with both PAS and BN in the next general election.

Amanah communications director Khalid Samad in a forum last night said the coalition had to prepare itself to face this obstacle now.

The Shah Alam MP pointed out to PKR deputy president Azmin Ali that PAS may field a candidate in his Gombak parliamentary seat.

"Like it or not, we have to accept three-cornered fights as a political reality. And the sooner we prepare and strategise for it, the better.

"No point telling ourselves that we want to go for straight fights," he stressed.

"Even those in PKR and DAP, who may not agree with three-cornered fights, may wake up with PAS candidates contesting in their seats in the next general election," he said.

"They are going to go for seats like Gombak. I mention that first, intentionally. They are going for seats elsewhere, even if they were not contested by PAS in the last polls," he said to laughter from the 200-crowd.

'PAS no longer opposition'

PAS had said during its muktamar (general assembly) that it hoped to stand in the seats it claimed it had loaned to PKR, explained Khalid.

He also called for his allies to stop seeing PAS as an opposition party, as it acted as a spoiler in the twin by-elections and was attempting to work with both Umno as well as PKR.

Azmin had failed to negotiate with PAS to strike straight fights in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections.

The Selangor menteri besar stressed he could not abandon a coalition with PAS that was built since the reformasi era, even after the defeat in the latest polls.

BN won Sungai Besar with a majority of 9,191 or 53 percent votes, while Amanah and PAS only captured 24 percent and 21.78 percent votes respectively.

BN retained the Kuala Kangsar seat with a 6,969 majority or 54.3 percent votes. PAS secured only 24.4 percent votes while Amanah only got 20.9 percent votes.

Single party not priority

Several political analysts have said the opposition coalition stands a better chance in the next general election if they can coordinate among themselves.

But Khalid argued three-cornered fights did not necessarily mean that all hope is lost for Harapan in the next general election, as he was confident Amanah will win over Malay voters who had supported both Umno and PAS previously.

Harapan organised the forum, titled 'Malaysia: Is there hope yet?' to discuss the road ahead following the defeats in Sarawak and the twin by-elections over the past months.

Other speakers included DAP national publicity secretary Tony Pua, political education director Liew Chin Tong and PKR supreme council member William Leong.

Liew stood in for DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang, who was unable to attend as his son and Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was arrested last night for allegations related to the latter's bungalow purchase.

Leong replaced PKR vice-president Nurul Izzah Anwar, who was ill and unable to attend.

At the forum, Pua brushed off the proposal that the opposition coalition merge into a single party.

"Making us one party may not necessarily be good. There are many factions in one party, if there are three parties trying to merge into one, maybe we will get more factions," he said.

"(Separate parties) working together sometimes is better than forming one party. I don't think it (combining) is a priority either," he said.

"This is probably (achievable) in an ideal world, but the three parties have got different strengths, and perhaps different cultures in the way we work," said Pua.

While agreeing with the DAP lawmaker, Leong however did not rule out the possibility of the coalition merging as one party in the future.

"I think Pakatan Harapan has more in common and is (better) able to agree on policies than before.

"It will be a process towards setting up one party," said Leong.

Taking voters' anger for granted

Admitting the opposition had failed to gain traction by harping on the 1MDB fiasco and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak's RM4.2 billion in his private accounts, Pua said the pace of change differs in urban and rural areas.

"Like it or not, the pace of change is not within our control, especially in rural areas," he said.

Pua admitted his party initially thought it would be an easy choice for the voters in Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar.

"But obviously, we were very far off and a lot of work needs to be done.

"The (by-election) result has shown that we should not take for granted that people are upset, sick and angry.

"They call for us to do our part in the coffee shop, Facebook, SMS and Twitter to keep harping (on the issues) until it finally sinks into these people the guy out there taking our money will probably destroy the country," he said.

"The only way is for everyone to talk about it day and night, until you feel like you are going to vomit so that everyone out there sees it," he added.

'Turning into BN'

During the question-and-answer session, an audience member commented that Harapan was acting more and more like BN, particularly on the corruption allegations brought up by PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli.

He also criticised the opposition for "licking the boots" of Dr Mahathir Mohamad by working with him, even though the former premier destroyed the judiciary system and divided Malaysians.

Another voter called Kang slammed PKR for causing seat clashes in the Sarawak election in May.

"If you cannot solve this among yourselves, where is the hope for us (to support you)?" he asked.

Another member of the audience said the people must not abandon Harapan, but bad leaders must go.

"Umno, BN are the worst kind of people in the world. There is no doubt we must replace them (with Harapan)," he said.

"We cannot throw them away, as we will be back to Umno again.

"We tell our leaders here (in Harapan), they must buck up, otherwise we will kick them out.

"We will not kick out the party, (but) we will kick out the individuals whom we don't trust, even up to the extent of the menteri besar of Selangor," he said.