By Murray Hunter
ONLY a couple of weeks ago, Ronnie Liu announced that he is bringing Parti Bangsa Malaysia (PBM) to peninsula politics with a very strong creed.
In a press conference full of ‘old timers’, Ronnie espoused that PBM would fight to preserve Malaysia as a non-racial, non-theocratic democracy.
PBM wants to nurture an open, free, harmonious, and prosperous society.
The candid Ronnie who has never been slow to voiice out peoples’ causes, often had fallings out with the leadership of his former party, the DAP.
Ronnie retired but remained a staunch supporter of prime minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, supporting the visions that Pakatan Harapan stood for.
This time around, Ronnie most likely sees himself as emulating peoples’ desires for the nation.
He still upholds the values and principles he did while serving the DAP for 40 years.
No doubt, PBM will be a populist party, and according to Ronnie himself will also be pragmatic to further the peoples’ cause.
Since the PBM launch, many have written off PBM as being just another mosquito-party with the usual fate.
However, reports coming back to the writer indicate that many non-Malays on the ground seem to respond very positive to the message and see PBM and Ronnie as some hope for the future.
Its very clear where PBM’s potential support lays.
It will be in largely non-Malay electorates through Johor, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan, Perak, and Penang.
One would say that Ronnie’s potential base of support lays in Selangor and the Federal Territories simply because many there know the man.
There is no data to indicate whether its just the ‘Otai’ generation that supports him or whether GenZ and Millennials will also heed the PBM message.
What we do know is that the Ronnie ‘train’ is now on the hustings and receiving very positive messages back.
PBM is going to crowd the non-Malay voter cohort with lots of choices in the coming general election and may become a factor which the DAP leadership didn’t calculate on in their electoral strategy.
PBM may become what Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli’s Parti Bersama Malaysia wanted to achieve.
In fact, PBM may perform much better than Bersama because its is being built from the ground, rather than by using social media from a central office.
Ronnie has that charisma which just may work. As a consequence, PBM maybe able to ‘punch above its weight’. – August 23, 2026
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