A house divided after an election is good practice
Kuo Yong Kooi, The Malay Mail
A personal friend wrote to me and gave the best summary of how Pakatan supporters feel about the current state of affairs in PKR. His quote “re-alignment of forces it may be, but it is frustrating that, instead of focusing their energies towards taking out Umno, PKR seems more preoccupied with hacking each other’s legs off.”
YB Lim Kit Siang recently warned with Abrahim Lincoln’s famous quote “A house divided against itself cannot stand” specifically with reference to the current in-fighting in PKR and its possible effects on the imminent Kajang by-election.
In reality the “Kajang Move” initiated last month is part and parcel of the post GE13 blood-letting exercise that is badly needed to renew the party’s leadership and direction.
The timing of the internal feud is fine because there is plenty of time given to the party to rehash/renew its policies and personality power play before the next general election.
What is very unhealthy and risky practice is making the “Kajang Move” in three years’ time, when it will be a bit too late for the party to reorient ate itself when the in-fighting is in full swing. GE 14 then might be another failure for the Opposition.
If the decision of choosing the party’s number two post is not just based on loyalty and payback (you scratch my back, I scratch your back), then it is a healthy practice. The decision should be based on their different management styles, policies and values that they hold.
The party members have seen how both the potential candidates operate for many years now. Their management styles and their personalities are a big contrast. Since the incumbent Azmin Ali was responsible for the seat allocations during the last election, are the members happy with his approach?
PKR has got many talents on the background, is the current leadership encouraging the talents to flourish or stifling them because of power play?
If the election of the party number two is based on these factors, then we will be seeing a more matured democratisation process in the opposition forces of Malaysia.
It really does not matter if in a hypothetical scenario Azmin loses his number two post and leads many PKR members’ defection to Umno. The party might turn out better in the long run.
A more worrying trend that might irk many well-wishers of Malaysia’s democracy would be claims of election fraud and money politics at play during the party election. If that is the reality on the ground during the PKR party elections, then PKR is no better than Umno.
So the time for internal party feuding is now. In the next year or two, it will be about allocating the potential winnable candidate for the right constituency. If there are signs of a wrong choice of candidate, there is still time to make the right choice. The last minute choice of candidates that was practised in the past is clearly a wrong move.
