Pakatan to break up soon?
Selena Tay, FMT
‘Pakatan split inevitable, says Zahid’ – that was one of the stories carried in one of our local English dailies dated May 6, 2014.
Much has been talked about the health of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition these days especially in regard to the hudud issue.
Although the mainstream media has made a big issue of the so-called impending split, Nizar Jamaluddin, the PAS Changkat Jering state assemblyman, is of the view that as long as PR does not fall into the enemy’s trap, it is PR who will remain strong while the enemy will experience a rift in their working relationship.
The key to the hudud issue is for all of PR’s component parties to stay calm and not react to the instigation or provocations of the enemy.
Khalid Samad, the PAS Shah Alam MP, commented that “Pakatan will not break up if everyone works together in order to handle the hudud issue well.”
Added Khalid, “Moreover DAP opposing hudud is nothing new as DAP has been opposing it since Day 1. We agree to disagree on this issue and we will most definitely be going all out to help DAP win their upcoming parliamentary by-elections in Bukit Gelugor and Teluk Intan.”
Whatever is said up till this point in time, it must be noted that DAP and PKR both knew of PAS Islamic struggle even before PR was formed in April 2008.
Therefore the hudud issue should never act as a catalyst for the breaking up of Pakatan Rakyat and it would be tragic if PR was to go the way of Barisan Alternatif 10 years ago.
Mistakes should never be repeated.
Former Kuala Selangor MP, Dzulkefly Ahmad of PAS, remarked that he is the eternal optimist and what PR is going through now will only serve to strengthen the coalition.
The enemy will surely capitalise on the hudud issue to weaken Pakatan by saying that the late Karpal Singh who held the Bukit Gelugor seat was a strong opponent of hudud, never mind that he was opposing it based on arguments from the Federal Constitution.
Therefore DAP and PAS must work together to counter this point that will surely be raised a thousand and one times during these by-election campaigns.
In actual fact, hudud aside, DAP and PAS have a very good working relationship. Take for instance in the 2008 general election when they worked well together to capture the very tough Changkat Jong state seat which falls under the parliamentary seat of Teluk Intan.
This seat which was won by PAS in 2008 was lost to BN in 2013 when the 30% Indian voters in Changkat Jong who had wanted M Manogaran (the incumbent) to contest in Teluk Intan had protested by not coming out to vote.
(M Manogaran was instead sent to Cameron Highlands late wherein he acquitted himself well, losing only to MIC’s G Palanivel by 462 votes with 877 votes being spoilt.) This shows that the contributions of every race is equally important in PR.
And PR leaders must therefore learn from this and not allow any issue to become a contentious issue in Pakatan.
