My Two Cents
Both DAP and PKR professed to be multiethnic political parties with the acceptance of membership from all races and of any religion in Malaysia, and the selecting of different races to contest certain elections under their respective banners.
PAS is also thinking along these lines but their purely Islamic ideology makes it far more difficult for non-Muslims to join their party and for their existing members to accept Malaysians of other religion into their ranks.
Rightfully a dilemma of sorts but one that, personally speaking, can be easily resolved.
To consolidate this coalition, why don’t these three partners come up with one common banner? It could be the form of a garish “cow humping a Camry”, a silhouette of “dogs running” or a multicolored “jumping frogs” for all I care, as long as it signifies the cooperation between DAP, PAS and PKR. Furthermore, Malaysians would be seeing this one banner being displayed everywhere instead of the “rocket” in DAP constituencies or an “eye” in PKR areas. Penang could display this Pakatan Rakyat banner and not just the DAP banner. Kelantan could display this PR banner and not just the “moon”. It would suggest a common struggle against injustice and act as an instrument to further unite Opposition supporters in the righteous endeavor to hand back the power to the Rakyat. It would also be capable of influencing those voters who would have like to vote Opposition but not certain individual PR parties. For example, a lot of Chinese who would normally vote DAP might not vote PAS or vice versa. One common banner on the voting slip could rectify this problem once and for all.
Secondly, a lot of Malays and Indians do not join the DAP because the latter used to be a purely Chinese party with meetings being held using Mandarin as the medium of communication. Hell, even English and BM educated Chinese were reluctant to be members of DAP because they could not seriously participate in all DAP functions and would be guessing at what the DAP leaders were saying half the time. I am not stating that this is the norm as there are quite a few of my Malay and Indian friends who are capable of speaking Mandarin far better than myself, but what’s the point of isolating DAP when the Chinese only make up about a quarter of the total population of Malaysia? Make DAP a real multiracial political party acceptable to all races by transforming it through the utilization of either a common language acceptable to all or having multiple languages. Who made it a law that meetings must be held purely in Mandarin, English or BM only?
The leadership problem in PR must also be solved immediately. DSAI is now the defacto leader and not the actual leader. Lim Kit Siang and Nik Aziz are the defacto deputy leaders and not the actual deputy leaders. Make this a fact for all to see! We are talking of the leadership of the combined Opposition parties, not the selection of the playground taiko whose brawn would have automatically installed him as the King of the Hill. We are also not counting who is more hairy or crazier because if we were to do so, Karpal “The King” Singh would have won the former and Tian “The Loose Cannon” Chua would win the latter hands down. If DSAI is acceptable (as is the case now), make it so. Elect a formal PR committee along the way. This committee should be tasked to make ready the public for Political Tsunami II in 2013.
If you were to ask anybody off the streets just where the Opposition (PR) HQ is, how many would be able to successfully answer that question? (I admit that I myself do not know the whereabouts of this place.) What PR needs is a permanent structure to call their own, where administrative work can be done there. A place where recruitment can be performed and ceramahs be held. A place for meetings and an anchorage of sorts.
The Opposition must also possess a common Treasury where all donations can be made towards the support and provision for expenses incurred during by-elections and the next federal elections. Politics is after all an expensive game and monetary resources are essential to maintain a political party. Who knows, a few foreign countries might even decide to make a substantial contribution as well.
Furthermore, do set up shadow ministries to undertake the tasks now performed by the federal ministries. One, this can be organized in a manner that it acts as a watchdog; and two, the people there can be trained immediately to assume these positions if ever PR wins the federal elections, instead of hastily putting the wrong personnel into these positions. Think tank committees are also a mandatory requirement. Just remember that there are many Malaysians better informed with certain subjects than PR politicians. Their recommendations might be more logical, after all, what’s wrong with having more options?
If and when PR do assume a new state or federal government, get everybody to hand in their resignation letters within the first week after the inauguration. Everybody means just everybody, and that includes municipal council aldermen, department heads, permanent secretaries, chief of police, village headmen, the Chief Justice (if possible) and etcetera. Those that fail to submit their respective resignation letters within the allocated time will be automatically terminated. Form an impartial vetting committee together with the PR legal department to go through each and every dossier before either reappointing, putting them on probation, suspending, replacing or retiring them. Make everything transparent.
Lastly, rewrite certain laws so that there can be no legal way around it, repeal certain inhumane laws, ensure that the separation of powers are reinforced through legislative measures and make sure that everybody knows just what the word democratic means.
Anyway, these are just my two cents worth…
Hakim Joe
