Pakatan’s club of cabinet shadows
(NST) SINCE last year's astonishing March 8 general election re-ignited the opposition's existentialism, the edgy alliance of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Lim Kit Siang and Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang has worked in tandem under the loose construct of the Pakatan Rakyat to demean, demonise and destabilise the budding prime ministership of Datuk Seri Najib Razak.
The ex-deputy prime minister has primarily deployed Pakatan as a vehicle to augment his nationwide saturation bombing agenda, more so after his Sept 16 power grab attempt derailed and the advent of the second sodomy charge became problematic for him to handle.
Anwar needed a series of distractions and he succeeded in selling his agenda to mainly the foreign press, who gushed and fawned at Anwar's organisational facility in bringing disrupting forces under the single banner as they stomped hard on Barisan Nasional's vulnerability and the mess left behind by the then bewildered administration.
But recent events are beginning to unravel Pakatan's so-called concord at the speed of Lim Kit Siang's Twitter hyperboles in a slew of embarrassing episodes, chiefly the contretemps in Penang and Kedah.
Lim Guan Eng may have been the DAP poster boy but managing a state like Penang looks to be out of his league, judging by the missteps that led riled-up villagers facing eviction from their homes in Kampung Lorong Buah Pala, Penang to unflatteringly demand his resignation.
Then there was Lim's incredible sacking of Johari Kassim, the Parti Keadilan Rakyat whip in the Seberang Perai Municipal Council who led eight PKR councillors to boycott the swearing-in of a new council president, blasting shock waves through the frayed Pakatan configuration.
These incidents shook Pakatan, further aggravated by the Kedah DAP's intent to break away from the Kedah Pakatan coalition after the party was upset with the Pas-led Kedah government for demolishing an illegal pig abattoir thus forcing Anwar and Kit Siang to furiously backpedal.
Anwar attenuated the DAP's petulance by suggesting that the crisis could be "settled within" while he had a word with the Kedah menteri besar. DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang, "shocked and surprised" by the Kedah DAP's nervy move, was more reticent in his assessment of the crisis: it was Pakatan's second "crisis of confidence" after the overtures of Pas-Umno unity talk quavered the coalition.
Pakatan Rakyat needed an immediate distraction and they mustered it almost overnight — a no-brainer "Shadow Cabinet" of sorts: a list of committees made up of Pakatan MPs to monitor all 24 ministries, 25 if you count the PM's Department.
Najib's cabinet appointments, based on privately separate discussions with BN component party leaders, were still done on a unilateral basis. Najib's prerogative meant that as many as there are of happy BN leaders, there are many more others who will whine and complain — privately of course — on why so and so was appointed or not appointed.
But in decisively avoiding Najib's complex decision-making, the Pakatan cabinet committees have a very "amenably clubby" feel; virtually every Pakatan Rakyat MP is included in the committees.
While Najib's cabinet appointments may trigger a tempest of sulking, Pakatan MPs simply smile at the crowd-pleasing appointments, "crowd" being the operative word.
Here's the catch: for every Barisan minister, there is no single official opposite number.
Everyone's an equal and no one is bigger than the rest. For instance, Anwar shadows Najib, which is understandable since he is Pakatan's undisputed leader but Hadi and Kit Siang too are the PM's shadows, besides a slew of Pakatan leaders from all three parties to make up the numbers.
Here's the quirk: does it need three Pakatan leaders to tail Najib? Eventually, it dawned that the list refrained from naming a definite shadow for Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, only that he is shadowed through his Education portfolio by a junior apparatchik.
Pakatan Rakyat has steadfastly refused to call these groups of committees a shadow cabinet, for now.
While the Pakatan's attempt to stitch together this club of MPs to monitor their counterparts in the cabinet is laudable, its composition is comical. Why now? Why put together these committees 15 months after March 8? Why did they not capitalise on the March 8 gains to announce the shadow cabinet, if that was the original intent?
While Anwar remains undisputed leader, the "shadow Deputy Prime Minister" is highly disputatious. Should it be Kit Siang? Or Hadi? Or Azmin, if they were to follow the Barisan Nasional's tradition of naming the PM and DPM from Umno?
So quarrelsome was the naming of the Pakatan Rakyat pecking order that it dragged its feet in conceiving the proper shadow cabinet in the realm of the British Westminster model that is so well-established that there is funding to aid the opposition party to carry out its shadowing business.
However, if Anwar were to emulate the Westminster model, he would have to name a shadow DPM, an appointment he won't be able to make without risking a revolt among the Pakatan contingent, especially from the DAP or Pas, who will surely stake a claim that they are more deserving than the rest to secure that coveted placement.
But by the size and linearly uncomplicated constitution of the committees, squabbles have been conveniently avoided and everybody's a winner.
For now, it's a provisional but cynical political solution designed simplistically to bring the fractious Pakatan leaders together and avoid aggravating the simmering hostilities.
A fool could have dreamed up this Pakatan cabinet committee model.
