Too big for its britches

ARCHIVES 2012

By admin-s On Nov 21, 2012

In observing the mood of the PAS delegates at the recent general assembly, one can’t help but feel that if PAS were to do well in the polls, it would indeed demand for Hadi Awang to become the prime minister. And as I mentioned earlier, I suspect this is not something most supporters of PR, especially the non-Muslims and the progressive Muslims, would be comfortable with.

Oon Yeoh, The Sun

I’VE OFTEN said that Barisan Nasional is its own worst enemy. Time and again, it has shown a remarkable deftness in shooting own goals. But BN has no monopoly on damaging itself. Like BN, Pakatan Rakyat is often its own worst enemy. The issue that consistently trips it up is hudud.

The scenario is familiar. Former Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad would challenge PAS on the issue of hudud. PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz would declare it’s the party’s goal to implement hudud. DAP chairman Karpal Singh would say, “Over my dead body” or something to that effect. Meanwhile, PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim would dither and say something that’s neither here nor there.

The way this plays out over and over again, like a broken record, is farcical. And so, I expected to see another round of it during the 58th PAS Muktamar in Kota Baru. Surely, hudud is going to be the hot topic.

But I was wrong. The big news is that PAS wants its president Hadi Awang to become the prime minister should Pakatan Rakyat win the general election. This caught everyone off guard because until then, nobody had ever mooted that notion.

All along, it was generally assumed that PR’s prime-minister-in-waiting was Anwar. This latest development could be cause for concern for non-Muslims and moderate Muslims alike, who until now threw their support behind PR because they assumed it would be led by Anwar.

Would those same people vote for PR if the prospective prime minister is Hadi Awang? I’ve got no surveys to back me up on this but I’m pretty sure if Anwar was not available, such voters would much rather have Lim Guan Eng as prime minister.

The thing is, DAP is not pushing for Lim to become the prime minister. Lim himself has said that he is “not qualified” to become prime minister, despite the fact that DAP has the biggest number of MPs in Parliament and that Lim is widely admired for his stewardship of Penang.

If DAP is not pushing for its leader to helm the top spot in a PR government, why is PAS doing so?

If the argument is that PAS is an absolutely critical component of PR, and that the coalition cannot possibly capture Putrajaya without it, the same can also be said of DAP and PKR. The truth is, all three parties need each other if they hope to take over the federal government.

The answer quite simply, is that PAS has a tendency to become too big for its britches. It exhibited such behaviour after the 1999 General Election, where it did quite well, and now it’s exhibiting such tendencies again.

In a scenario where PR wins the general election, the best configuration would be to have a similar kind of win ratio that the three parties currently have. That is, a situation where DAP has the most number of MPs, followed by PKR in second place and PAS third.

That way, DAP, as the numerically-dominant party, can give way to PKR and support Anwar as the leader of the coalition (as it does now). Meanwhile, PAS, in third place, would not be in a position to insist that it should have everything its way.

What about PKR as the dominant party, with DAP second and PAS third? That’s still a better configuration than having PAS in the top position, but it would allow PKR to become overly dominant in much the way that Umno is dominant in the BN. Look at what has become of MCA and MIC in such a scenario.

So, if PR were to win power, it should be with roughly the same ratio of MPs as is the case now otherwise those who voted for PR could be in for a rude shock.