“Reforms necessary for Pakatan victory”
The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) missed a golden opportunity to push for attainable democratic reforms after the historic March 2008 elections by focusing on its 16 Sept government-by-defections strategy instead.
Written by Shanon Shah, The Nut Graph
The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) missed a golden opportunity to push for attainable democratic reforms after the historic March 2008 elections by focusing on its 16 Sept government-by-defections strategy instead.
Ong Academic Dr Ong Kian Ming said since former Prime Minister Tun Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and his Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition were in a weakened position after their historic losses, the opposition could have forced key institutional reforms then.
“For example, they could have clarified the parameters of their role as parliamentary opposition, thus assuring Pak Lah of his continued leadership, while also demanding for a more independent Elections Commission,” said Ong.
He added that the opposition would probably be stronger now if it had adopted these measures.
“Instead, the opposition ended up looking very bad by attempting to topple the government via defections, and probably the PR is suffering now because of this,” he said.
Ong said this during his seminar presentation, The Breakdown of Dominant Party Authoritarian Regimes (DPAR), at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (Ikmas), at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia yesterday.
According to Ong, it is through such institutional reforms that opposition parties ultimately defeat authoritarian regimes in which one party dominates, otherwise known as DPARs.
