It's not Warisan Plus but Harapan Plus

Growing support for third PM candidate in Harapan Plus

That headline above ☝ is misleading. If you just read the headline, you might assume that DAP, Amanah and maybe even PKR leaders are supportive of this. Actually it's Warisan people and Dr M's people who are supportive. So, it's basically the "Plus" side that wants this. Not the Harapan side.

It's ridiculous to even moot Shafie's name as a PM candidate. Warisan has never pledged commitment to Harapan. Their commitment is to Dr M. Why should he even be in consideration as Harapan Plus's candidate for PM?

In that same article, a Bersatu source is quoted as saying: "If they do not agree, then we have to go against each other in the election."

That's precisely what PKR and Harapan should prepare for. They can't go into GE15 assuming that Dr M's faction and Warisan are allies. They have to be ready to field candidates in all the seats that Perikatan is fielding, regardless of whether Bersatu or Warisan are fielding candidates there too.

I've long said, Harapan needs to win GE15 without the Plus. Only then will it be a stable government.

After the election is over, and with a solid victory in hand, if the Plus side wants to support the government, fine. They can. But Harapan will be welcoming them from a position of strength and will not be subject to the whims and fancies of any kingmakers.

Let's do the math, shall we?

So, Dr M claims that Pakatan Harapan couldn't have won GE14 without his Bersatu party. Is he right?

Let's do the math. Harapan won 113 seats on its own, which was enough to control Parliament and form the government.

Bersatu won 13 seats. So if you deduct those 13 from the 113 number that they got, they would have been left with exactly 100 seats. That's not enough to form the government. So, yes, Dr M is right that without Bersatu, Harapan would not have been able to form the government.

But lo and behold. Without Amanah's 11 seats, you couldn't have formed the government either. And without DAP's 42 seats, you definitely couldn't have formed the government. Most certainly without PKR's 47 seats, it would be impossible.

So, what is he talking about? The harsh reality is that without any of the component parties, Harapan would not have made it.