‘Shadow’ lessons for Pakatan
If there are any lessons to be gleaned from the latest debacle, it is Pakatan’s flawed decision making mechanism and faulty structural alignments.
“It’s a structural problem,” Ong, a lecturer in public policies with UCSI University, told FMT. “Going by precedent, Anwar should not have entered the picture. It should have been Baru Bian who should have come out to give his thoughts on the subject,” he said, referring to the Sarawak PKR chief and Ba’kelalan state assemblyman.
Syed Jaymal Zahiid, Free Malaysia Today
If there were any lessons Pakatan Rakyat could learn from the Sarawak shadow cabinet debacle, it was the pact’s flawed decision-making mechanism and faulty structural alignments.
To sum up the mishap, DAP had proposed a 16-member shadow cabinet line-up on May 1, only to have PKR leaders shoot down the proposition, claiming no consultation was done and that the decision was made unilaterally.
And while PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim insisted that the list was not finalised, Sarawak DAP’s and state opposition leader Wong Ho Leng maintained that its Pakatan partner, particularly its Sarawak chapter, had agreed to the proposal.
Now what went wrong?
According to political analyst Ong Kian Ming, the altercation came from the lack of understanding about the unique character of Sarawak’s politics and the parties’ operational procedures formulated in adaptation to the state’s political culture.
Ong said DAP in Sarawak and Sabah were given autonomy with little peninsula encroachment to fit the aforementioned purpose but the interference by Pakatan’s national leaders like Anwar “had muddied the picture”.
“It’s a structural problem,” Ong, a lecturer in public policies with UCSI University, told FMT.
“Going by precedent, Anwar should not have entered the picture. It should have been Baru Bian who should have come out to give his thoughts on the subject,” he said, referring to the Sarawak PKR chief and Ba’kelalan state assemblyman.
Disunity in ideology and structural weaknesses
Criticism towards Pakatan’s weak structure was not new. The pact had too many a time engaged in petty squabbling over its failure to clearly define and propound a united ideology.
Much of the glossed about Common Policy Framework were still ideas based on surface values and had not tackled crucial differences like DAP’s push for a secular state and PAS’ Islamic state ideology.
And while the said issue remained congenially buried (and even so, done merely on tactical reasons instead of a real will to iron out and consolidate a unison Pakatan ideology), the CPF or “buku jingga (orange book)” had not included concrete and tangible policies for Sabah and Sarawak.
This disjointed structure within Pakatan could not had been made clearer when the shadow cabinet proposal meeting was held in a “less than ideal” environment with key leaders like Baru absent.
The Ba’kelalan lawmaker told FMT that he was not even aware of the meeting’s agenda, telling of the state of communication between leaders in the coalition.
“What I want to clarify here is that there should have been a proper discussion. That’s all. It was just a miscommunication between the parties. Do not dwell from the past. Let us learn from this episode.”
Anwar, who had so far been insistent that the list was not finalised, had chosen to remain tightlipped.
Baru admitted to FMT that he had misinformed Anwar on the matter and said that all parties should move forward and try “to minimalise this kind of misunderstanding in the future”.
