Pakatan Rakyat to Pakatan Riot
As mentioned above, before the 2008 elections there was no Pakatan Rakyat, so where did Pakatan Rakyat come from? Well, after the ‘Bersih’ rally there was this thing called the ‘Deklarasi Rakyat’. It was a manifesto sponsored by influential bloggers such as Raja Petra Kamarudin and Haris Ibrahim, a declaration in which listed the changes the ‘rakyat’ want to see happen in this country.
Zaidel Baharuddin, The Malaysian Insider
I find it rather interesting on the insistence of Pakatan Rakyat politicians saying that unlike in Barisan Nasional, in Pakatan Rakyat all parties are equal.
They then go on about how it is a true coalition of the Rakyat’s hopes and dreams.
Today we see DAP and PAS politicians hugging each other, calling each other brothers/comrades and campaigning side by side.
Heart-warming it may seem, but rather absurd when you think that just 2 years ago there was no such thing as Pakatan Rakyat.
The thing is, before the elections many people have forgotten that DAP vehemently denied that they were in any form of alliance with PAS.
Just before the elections, though the opposition parties agreed on fielding one candidate for each seat, DAP were fighting with PKR over seat allocations in which percentage of non Malay voters were high.
But that was before; back when “Middle Malaysia” was yet to be concocted and DAP wasn’t focusing on the Malay votes.
“DAP is sad at the dishonest and desperate tactics employed by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak in trying to link PAS and DAP as working together for the coming general elections. DAP has no links with PAS following the withdrawal of DAP from Barisan Alternatif in 2001 and has no plans of any form of co-operation unless PAS drops its Islamic state ideology,” said Lim Guan Eng in Petaling Jaya on 18th January 2008.
But enough of hypocrisy, let’s us trace back on how it all started and where it has come today.
Origins
As mentioned above, before the 2008 elections there was no Pakatan Rakyat, so where did Pakatan Rakyat come from? Well, after the ‘Bersih’ rally there was this thing called the ‘Deklarasi Rakyat’.
It was a manifesto sponsored by influential bloggers such as Raja Petra Kamarudin and Haris Ibrahim, a declaration in which listed the changes the ‘rakyat’ want to see happen in this country.
They were willing to campaign and vote any politicians who supported this declaration regardless of what party they may come from. It so happened that the majority (if not all) of the politicians who signed to the declaration were from the opposition camp.
It wasn’t a common political manifesto; rather it was an understanding of fighting for the same cause, fighting for the ‘rakyat’, the people’s declaration.
It is suffice to say that Pakatan Rakyat started off as a movement by the people. Truly noble.
March 8, 2008
Then of course, the political tsunami happened and overnight BN lost the majority of seats in five states. Since none of the opposition parties had the commanding number of state seats (with the exception of Kelantan) a coalition government needed to be formed hence ‘Pakatan Rakyat’ was born.
But rather than a coalition that shares the same ideals, Pakatan Rakyat is more of a coalition of convenience and this is particularly true when it comes to the case of Perak. DAP wanted their man to be the Menteri Besar of Perak but since the Perak’s constitution states that the MB must be a Muslim, DAP opted for Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi, a PKR adun who was formerly a DAP member.
But after consultation with the Perak Mufti (who is now despised by PAS) they picked Nizar Jamaluddin who was an Engineer and had much better credentials. DAP which disagreed with this decision decided to boycott the inauguration of the new MB and only after a public outcry was the boycott called off.
It is interesting to note that, the candidate from PKR which DAP endorses was the one that jumped to BN and resulted in the fall of the Perak Pakatan government.
While on the other hand, Nizar Jamaluddin the candidate that the Sultan chooses would later ask permission to commit treason to His Royal Highness. Ooh, the irony.
