The ‘national consensus’ drama
Salleh Said Keruak
Opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim said Pakatan Rakyat has decided to retract its offer of national consensus with the Barisan Nasional (BN) following his conviction for sodomy last week.
Speaking at a ceramah in Kajang on Monday night, he said that it was better for PR to fight against BN than to work with it because of the ruling coalition’s ‘cruelty’ towards it.
“Before this, we decided to talk about religion, corruption and race. And we called for a national consensus.”
“But no more now. We fight. Why? Insolence. This is about the judiciary, and not Anwar,” he told his supporters.
In January 2014, Anwar Ibrahim talked about a national consensus. Initially, the talk was about a unity government but when it was apparent that PAS and DAP would not support the idea of a unity government it was watered down to just a national consensus.
The meeting that the Secretary-Generals of PAS and PKR had with Umno Vice-President Zahid Hamidi in London over Christmas of 2013 was to explore the possibility of a unity government. DAP was not invited to this secret meeting, for obvious reasons, because DAP would never agree to such an arrangement. Hence the move had to be between PAS-PKR and Umno but excluding DAP.
The problem arose when the PAS President, Hadi Awang, who was also in London, refused to join the unity government talks. This was an indication that PAS was not interested in the move, as confirmed by PAS spiritual leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat who said that such a possibility is out of the question.
Whether it was for purposes of unity government, national reconciliation or national consensus (Anwar appears to ding-dong about what it is supposed to be) is no longer relevant. Anwar has just announced that whatever in the end was going to happen is no longer going to happen. And the reason why it is no longer going to happen is very clear — because Anwar has been convicted for sodomy.
