Years from now, Malaysians will be asking how Pakatan Rakyat failed to capitalise on Umno/Barisan Nasional’s weakest moment and instead embarked on a senseless bout of internecine bickering such as we are witnessing at the moment. Pakatan Rakyat (PR), that historic opposition coalition to the Barisan Nasional (BN) is teetering on the brink of collapse as leaders in the component parties continue to demand the exclusion of erstwhile partners from the coalition.
The lack of active participation by more Malays in Bersih 4 should be cause for concern by all Malaysians who want to see an end to BN rule and healthy ethnic relations in our country. Clearly PAS is an important component in PR and as I have chronicled in a previous article, we have come a long way in engaging with PAS and including them in this alternative coalition to the BN since the early 80s. Malaysian NGOs have been instrumental in bringing about this alternative scenario, including the Civil Rights Committee in the Eighties as well as Gagasan Demokrasi Rakyat in the nineties.
PR should learn a lesson in coalition building from the BN. The success of BN as a thriving coalition all these years lies in its capacity to absorb the kind of discord we are seeing at the moment in PR. Thus, through the years it has managed to survive the factional fights within the MIC, MCA, Umno and also East Malaysian parties. This absorbent coalition culture needs to be developed with just the right leadership skills and a strong commitment to end nearly sixty years of BN misrule. The practice of name calling and insolence toward party leaders in the same coalition is not only self-defeating for PR but also a damn poor show for supposedly mature adults in any culture.
1.PAS is a component party of PR
The recent statement by the Selangor Menteri Besar that PAS will still be part of PR is most heartening. If we are to move forward rather than backwards, all component parties must accept current realities, be consistent in their political principles and most importantly, be magnanimous in dealing with their partners.
If PR can survive the general elections of 2008 and again in 2013 with a common platform, there is no reason why this formula cannot be a model for future elections. PAS is entitled to its Islamic ideology that is part and parcel of its party ideology but it has to abide with the common platform of the PR coalition.
2. Amanah as a new member of PR
The new breakaway party from PAS, Amanah should be accepted into PR in the way the BN has absorbed dissident parties that had broken away from the main BN component parties. Like them or not, Amanah is a new reality that PAS has to recognise. Whether they manage to attract voters or not in future elections is left to be seen. PAS should be magnanimous and if they are so sure that Amanah can never be a threat to PAS, why fret over them?
DAP has to be consistent on this score. When DAP dissidents broke away from the party to join Parti Keadilan in the late nineties, the DAP leadership objected to this and tried to impose their will on their coalition partner, causing needless strain in the coalition. Anyway, that is history although there is a lesson there for today’s problems in PR.
On consistency, DAP leaders have also conveniently forgotten about the principle they have upheld so religiously regarding the unethical practice of renegades who leave their party after they have been elected. Remember the poster of the three former DAP renegades in Perak that was stepped on by indignant members?
So what is so different about these former PAS wakil rakyat who have left the party and formed Amanah? Didn’t these wakil rakyat have to sign a letter committing them to resign if they left the party after they were elected? Or is swearing by the Holy Book a much more powerful disincentive for renegades to jump party?
The factor that concerns the Malaysian people is whether PAS and Amanah are committed to ending BN misrule and upholding social justice, democracy and human rights. If they are, what is the problem with both being in the same PR coalition? I am sure their relative strengths will be cleared up in the next general election.
3. PSM is part of this alternative coalition
PR must be open to all parties that uphold the common platform for social justice, democracy and human rights and are committed to ending BN’s corrupt, oppressive and unjust rule. PSM has stronger credentials than most parties in their fight for these social and political principles and they should be accorded due recognition as a member partner in the PR coalition. The shenanigans by PR parties in the constituencies that PSM stood in during the 13th general election should not happen again if there is to be a mature and thriving coalition culture within PR. PR parties must come clean on this and account for their unprincipled actions vis-à-vis PSM during the 2013 general election.
In this moment of grave crisis facing Umno and BN and the hopes that Malaysians pin on a clean, just and democratic alternative to BN rule, let not the leaders in PR disappoint us with their calls for excluding component parties in PR. True statesmanship is exhibited through consistency of principles, inclusiveness of attitude and magnanimity of spirit.
Dr Kua Kia Soong