The cauldron continues to simmer…
(Harakah Daily) – While the Selangor MB saga has passed, the aftermath of that issue simply lingers on.
One cannot say for sure that with the appointment of a new chief minister for the state problems within the ruling coalition have been resolved. Far from it. One of the outstanding ones is the continued resentment over the way the whole episode was handled, most members of the three parties as well as supporters wishing that it could have been handled better.
Perhaps over time, the people would forget and allow Pakatan Rakyat another chance. In fact, the rakyat and mostly members of civil society want to see a total change to the political landscape in Malaysia having had to endure decades of BN misrule. And therefore PR returning to its former strength is seen as crucial. However, that would depend on how inter-party relations are handled following the recent crisis.
The cauldron continues to simmer. There was this admonition by two of the PR parties against the third. Perhaps rightly so. The problem that still dwells in the manner these parties conduct themselves is that there is little room given to accept criticism of any sort. Hence when one Pakatan partner criticizes another this is seen as “uncalled for” by the one that is criticized. In the first place such criticism may not even have been aired out in the open if certain rules and guidelines for engagement had been properly laid down. However in the absence of this, these parties took the partner to task.
The major task now before all coalition partners in PR is to work out the ground rules, the basic principles upon which PR and its individual parties would operate. Any one party that fails to abide by these rules or principles must be reprimanded and certain action taken against it. This is to ensure that PR remains as a united, strong coalition. There cannot be the usual clichés like “we are committed to PR” when actions or statements made by some section of the leadership point otherwise. There must never arise a situation where what has been decided at the presidential council of the PR is rejected by the leadership of any individual party. In other words, giving leeway to a member party to make a decision that runs contrary to what had earlier been decided collectively at the presidential council. PR must move forward as one cohesive unit and the defining factor here would be total adherence to decisions taken collectively at the presidential meetings.
In order to ensure compliance to decisions therefore much consultation between technical committees from the three parties would be necessary. The people understand the different ideologies the three parties subscribe to, but that in no way is a hindrance to developing a framework of cooperation that is sustainable. Members of such sub committees must be carefully selected. They must be fully committed to ensure PR develops into a model coalition in a society that is multi-ethnic and multi-religious.
At the moment however this is yet to be realized. The leadership of the three parties must make an immediate initiative in this direction. Never allow unnecessary emotions to control the manner in which inter-party relations would be handled.
Are they ready to do this?
