Gagasan Rakyat
The Semangat 46-DAP front of the 1990 two-front opposition challenge, whose Sabah partner PBS defected from Barisan Nasional six days before polling, and which broke up before the 1995 election.
Who was in it
In it at the end: SEMANGAT 46, PRM.
Left before it ended: DAP, PBS.
Party membership of a coalition changes over time. The dates behind this are the same ones the Coalition River on the home page is drawn from.
The account
Gagasan Rakyat was one of two opposition fronts built around the same party at the same time. When UMNO split in the late 1980s and Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah's faction formed Semangat 46, the new party needed partners to have any chance against Barisan Nasional. The two biggest opposition parties available were PAS and DAP, and they would not sit in the same coalition. So Semangat 46 joined both of the fronts it helped create: Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah with PAS, and Gagasan Rakyat with DAP, Parti Rakyat Malaysia and, on Bernama's account, the Indian Progressive Front.
DAP made its side of the arrangement public on 17 February 1990, at the first of a series of joint ceramah with Semangat 46 in Penang. Lim Kit Siang was candid that the two parties wanted different things from it: DAP was aiming to strip the government of its two-thirds majority, while Semangat 46 wanted to replace the government outright, with Tengku Razaleigh as Prime Minister — an outcome DAP said it would support if voters delivered it.
Then, days before polling, the front got much bigger. Parti Bersatu Sabah had been standing under the Barisan Nasional banner, allocated 14 of Sabah's 20 parliamentary seats. On 15 October 1990 Joseph Pairin Kitingan announced at Kota Kinabalu Town Hall that PBS was leaving Barisan Nasional and joining Gagasan Rakyat, saying the Semangat manifesto matched Sabah's aspirations better.
Nominations had already closed, so Barisan Nasional could not put up its own candidates in those 14 seats. The Commonwealth Observer Group, which had observers in the country at the time, recorded the switch in its report.
The result on 21 October did not follow. Barisan Nasional won 127 of 180 seats. The Gagasan Rakyat bloc took about 21.1 per cent of the vote and 34 seats — DAP 20 and PBS 14 — while Semangat 46 won 8 and PAS 7. Writing three days later, The Borneo Mail observed that the ground swell Gagasan Rakyat had hoped for after PBS's entry had not materialised.
Whether Gagasan Rakyat was ever registered as a coalition could not be established from the sources found. That gap matters here, because its sister front APU is documented as having applied to the Registrar of Societies and been refused. Where a coalition's legal status is on the record, the record shows an agreement between separately registered parties rather than a body of its own; for Gagasan Rakyat, the record simply does not say.
It broke up before it could be tested again. By the 1995 general election DAP and PBS had left, and Semangat 46 won nothing outside Kelantan. The seat counts moved as follows:
- DAP
- fell from 20 seats to nine
- PBS
- fell from 14 to eight
- Semangat 46
- fell from eight to six
- Barisan Nasional
- grew to 162 of 192
A contemporaneous Aliran analysis argued that the break-up of Gagasan Rakyat just before the election was part of what weakened Semangat 46, alongside UMNO recovering its former members. Semangat 46 dissolved itself on 6 October 1996 and its members returned to UMNO. Bernama's account of the party's end describes its partners leaving one by one, starting with the Gagasan Rakyat parties.
What the sources say
What it was
Semangat 46 entered an understanding with DAP, Parti Bersatu Sabah, Parti Rakyat Malaysia and the Indian Progressive Front through Gagasan Rakyat, and separately with PAS, Berjasa and HAMIM through Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah.
Andreas Ufen describes Gagasan Rakyat Malaysia as consisting of Semangat 46, PRM and DAP "amongst others", and the two 1990 fronts as parallel pacts interlinked through Semangat 46, an arrangement he attributes to the programmatic differences between PAS and DAP.
DAP's cooperation with Semangat 46 was announced publicly on 17 February 1990, at the first of a series of joint DAP-Semangat 46 national ceramah, in Penang. Lim Kit Siang said the two had decided to cooperate to remove the government's two-thirds parliamentary majority; the statement does not use the name Gagasan Rakyat.
Lim also set out publicly where the two partners' aims differed: DAP was targeting the removal of the government's two-thirds majority, while Semangat 46 was working to remove the Barisan Nasional government altogether, and DAP said it would support Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah as Prime Minister if that happened.
PBS's defection, October 1990
Parti Bersatu Sabah left the Barisan Nasional coalition on 15 October 1990 and allied itself with the opposition, six days before polling on 21 October. The Commonwealth Observer Group recorded this in its report on the election.
Mohammad Agus Yusoff records that PBS had initially stood under the Barisan Nasional banner with 14 of Sabah's 20 parliamentary seats allocated to it, and that Joseph Pairin Kitingan announced the withdrawal on 15 October at Kota Kinabalu Town Hall, saying the Semangat manifesto was more in line with PBS's and Sabah's aspirations. Because nominations had closed, Barisan Nasional could not field its own candidates in those 14 seats.
Malaysiakini's retrospective account gives the same sequence: after nominations closed in October 1990, Pairin announced that PBS was leaving Barisan Nasional for Gagasan Rakyat, led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah.
The 1990 result
Barisan Nasional won 127 of the 180 Dewan Rakyat seats at the election of 21 October 1990. The Gagasan Rakyat bloc took 21.1 per cent of the vote and 34 seats; the APU bloc took 21.6 per cent and 15 seats. Within those totals DAP won 20 seats, PBS 14, Semangat 46 8 and PAS 7.
Mohammad Agus Yusoff, citing The Borneo Mail of 22 October 1990, records that the surge Gagasan Rakyat had hoped would follow PBS's entry did not materialise.
Break-up
At the general election of 24-25 April 1995, DAP and PBS left Gagasan Rakyat, and Semangat 46 candidates won no seats in any state other than Kelantan.
Across that election Barisan Nasional won 162 of the enlarged 192 seats; DAP fell from 20 seats to nine, PBS from 14 to eight and Semangat 46 from eight to six.
Bernama's chronology of Semangat 46 describes the party's partners leaving one after another, beginning with its Gagasan Rakyat partners including DAP, PRM and PBS, and most recently its APU partners. Semangat 46 announced on 18 August 1996 that it would dissolve at a special assembly on 6 October 1996 so that its members could join UMNO.
A contemporaneous Aliran analysis of the 1995 result argued that UMNO had recovered former Semangat 46 members and that the break-up of Gagasan Rakyat shortly before the election weakened Semangat 46.
Where accounts differ
Gagasan Rakyat's registration status could not be established
No source located states whether it applied to the Registrar of Societies, or with what result. This contrasts with its sister front APU, whose registration application the Registrar is recorded as having rejected. A date of 1992 for the front being "formalised" circulates in tertiary reference works, with no supporting primary or contemporaneous report found.
When Gagasan Rakyat was formed, and when the name was adopted
Bernama's chronology places the understanding in 1989; Ufen and other academic accounts date the front to 1990. Lim Kit Siang's own statement announcing DAP-Semangat 46 cooperation is dated 17 February 1990 and does not use the name. No source located gives a formal launch date for Gagasan Rakyat itself.
Whether PBS was a founding component
Bernama's chronology lists PBS under its 1989 entry, but PBS was a Barisan Nasional component until 15 October 1990. Ufen names only Semangat 46, PRM and DAP, "amongst others"; a study of Malaysian opposition coalitions by Nur Atika Hairi includes PBS. The membership dates above therefore start PBS in October 1990.
The Indian Progressive Front's participation
IPF appears among Gagasan Rakyat's components only in Bernama's chronology; no other source opened names it, and no dates for its participation were established, so it is not recorded in the membership dates above.
Common questions
Which parties were in Gagasan Rakyat?
Semangat 46, DAP and Parti Rakyat Malaysia, joined by Parti Bersatu Sabah in October 1990. Bernama's chronology also names the Indian Progressive Front, which no other source opened mentions. Semangat 46 was simultaneously in the other 1990 opposition front, Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah, with PAS.
Why did PBS leave Barisan Nasional in 1990?
Joseph Pairin Kitingan announced on 15 October 1990, at Kota Kinabalu Town Hall, that PBS was withdrawing from Barisan Nasional and joining Gagasan Rakyat, saying the Semangat manifesto was more in line with the aspirations of PBS and the people of Sabah. Because nominations had already closed, Barisan Nasional could not field its own candidates in the 14 Sabah seats allocated to PBS.
How did Gagasan Rakyat do in the 1990 election?
Barisan Nasional won 127 of the 180 seats. The Gagasan Rakyat bloc took about 21.1 per cent of the vote and 34 seats, of which DAP won 20 and PBS 14; Semangat 46 won 8 seats and PAS 7.
Was Gagasan Rakyat a registered coalition?
Whether it was registered could not be established from the sources located: none states that it applied to the Registrar of Societies, or with what result. The record is clearer for its sister front, Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah, whose application the Registrar of Societies rejected.
When and why did Gagasan Rakyat end?
DAP and PBS left at the 1995 general election, and Semangat 46 won no seats outside Kelantan. Semangat 46 dissolved itself on 6 October 1996 and its members joined UMNO. A contemporaneous Aliran analysis argued that the break-up of the front shortly before the election was among the things that weakened Semangat 46.
Still open
- Was Gagasan Rakyat ever registered with the Registrar of Societies, applied for, or refused?
- On what date was Gagasan Rakyat launched, and when was the name first adopted?
- On what dates did DAP and PBS formally leave the front in 1994 or 1995?
- Did the Indian Progressive Front actually participate, and over what period?