Faisal S Hazis, an associate professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said he believed PKR’s emblem would be more recognisable to voters than PPBM’s and Amanah’s and more acceptable to Malays than DAP’s.
It would also be more familiar than any proposed logo for the opposition coalition, he added.
Speaking to FMT, he said the Registrar of Societies might have inadvertently done Pakatan a service in delaying approval of the coalition’s logo and ordering PPBM to be temporarily dissolved.
“I think the PKR logo suits the opposition coalition very well,” he said.
“Voters want to go for long-established brands like Barisan Nasional and opposition parties like PKR, DAP and PAS.
“The difference for PH in this election is that instead of PAS, it has two new parties.
“For parties making their election debut, contesting against long-established brands like BN and PAS will be tough.”
He gave the example of Parti Keadilan Nasional in the 1999 election. “People expected it to make a significant impact in that election, but it ended up with only five parliamentary seats because it was a new brand.
“PPBM and Amanah are also new brands. So how can long-established parties like PKR and DAP use the logo of either one of them?
“The PH logo is also a totally new symbol, and we know the battleground in the coming election will be in the rural areas. How are you going to sell this new brand to the rural voters?
“So PH is left with PKR’s logo, which over the last couple of years has been pushing into the semi-rural, rural and, of course, urban areas.”
Faisal acknowledged that some voters, especially from the Chinese community, might spoil their votes or make a wrong choice because DAP’s logo will be absent from the ballot.
However, he said the effect would be insignificant in the larger scheme of things.
“Most of the seats that DAP won in the last election, it won with huge majorities,” he said. “So it can survive even with a 5% drop in votes.
“On the positive side, if DAP contests for constituencies with a significant number of Malay voters, it might be able to capture the Malay votes because it is contesting under the PKR symbol, which is much more acceptable to these voters.”
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