KUANTAN: The Pakatan Harapan government had "political configuration problems" from the start that led to the coalition fracturing, says Pahang Perikatan Nasional chairman Datuk Seri Saifuddin Abdullah.
The former chief of Pakatan's secretariat said from the very day the coalition won GE14, signs of weakness were already there.
"How can a government (stand when it) received the support of non-Malays – this is not being racist, these are numbers – and only held 30% support from the Malays, when the Malays are the majority?
ALSO READ: Don't pin blame on Perikatan for Parliament's dissolution, says Saifuddin
"How can this government be stable? From the beginning, some of us already felt there would be problems from the aspect of (Pakatan's) political configuration," Saifuddin said in response to a question at a meet-the-people session in Kampung Beserah on Saturday (Oct 22) night.
He said this was not the fault of the voters as the support base made it difficult for Pakatan component parties to properly configure the power structure within the coalition.
"Thus began the points of fracture and weaknesses within Pakatan started to (show). The rest is history," he said.
Saifuddin was among those who joined Datuk Seri Azmin Ali in quitting PKR during the political upheaval in early 2020 that led to the collapse of the Pakatan government.
ALSO READ: GE15: Pahang Perikatan in final stages of seat negotiations
As for Barisan Nasional, Saifuddin pointed out that the leadership structure was dominated by Umno.
From the chairman and deputy positions right down to every other major post, Saifuddin said all were held by Umno while the other component parties were merely "passengers".
"Perikatan cannot repeat the same mistakes in configuration.
"When Bersatu was invited to join Muafakat Nasional started by Umno and PAS, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin as party president answered that the invitation was received but until today, we were never asked to attend meetings.
"The rest has also become history," he said.
ALSO READ: GE15: Kelantan to get full 5% oil royalties if Perikatan wins, says Muhyiddin
Saifuddin added that after its experience in Pakatan, Bersatu realised that a coalition must have a certain configuration for stability to be achieved.
He said Perikatan had not faced similar problems so far as power was distributed among the leaders of its component parties.
Before Pakatan, Saifuddin was an Umno member and served as Temerloh MP until his defeat by PAS' Nasrudin Hassan in the 2013 elections.
He subsequently quit Umno in 2015 to join PKR and won the Indera Mahkota parliamentary seat in GE14 with a 10,950-vote majority.
Saifuddin was appointed foreign minister in Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad's Cabinet after that.
After quitting PKR, Saifuddin found his way into Bersatu and is expected to lead Pahang Perikatan in GE15.
