As polls loom, Pakatan moves to repair battered image
By Shazwan Mustafa Kamal, The Malaysian Insider
KUALA LUMPUR, July 23 — The Pakatan Rakyat (PR) leadership has agreed to stop publicly airing disagreements or infighting among its three component parties by setting up a “special mechanism” to settle inter-party disputes ahead of the upcoming national polls.
PR leaders came to a consensus during this week’s party leadership retreat that a specific mechanism was needed to project a unified image for the coalition in order to deflect and prevent repeats of the cases of public inter-party feuds throughout the year.
“We have come up with mechanisms of streamlining… to make it more of Pakatan as a coalition rather than three separate parties, especially through our statements.
“We’re thinking about weekly statements for Pakatan, instead of all of us coming out with separate statements… this will force us to sit down and discuss, react and get things moving,” DAP’s Zairil Khir Johari told The Malaysian Insider.
Zairil, who is political secretary to DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, denied that PR’s decision was in response to the recent uproar caused the Kedah government’s entertainment ban.
He said the move was not a response to any incident “in particular” but more on how to “project Pakatan Rakyat as a cohesive coalition and force, a proper alternative to Barisan Nasional (BN).”
“In case of an emergency where a problem occurs where disagreements arise [among] PAS, PKR and DAP, no party should come up with contradicting statements. There will be one number for party leaders to call, a hotline if you want to call it that… where the top Pakatan leadership is immediately informed of the problem, and it will be discussed on the spot.
“And after that, a joint statement by all three parties will be issued… all this can avoid unnecessary misunderstanding between the PR parties, through proper channels of communication and discussion,” added Zairil.
PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli told The Malaysian Insider that a “common approach” was needed in order for PR to be seen and recognised as a “common alliance.”
“A difference of opinion between parties is alright. The question is, how do we manage those differences so that our political opponents do not use it as an opportunity to attack us? How do we accommodate differing views so that it does not invite danger? That is a why a case-by-case mechanism is needed.
“We are slowly working towards integration of all Pakatan parties. We are not BN, where decisions are made by one party only,” said Rafizi, adding that a large chunk of yesterday’s retreat meeting was focused on “enhancing” PR’s image as a alternative federal coalition for Putrajaya.
