8-year road map to save PR, wrest Putrajaya and save Anwar

By admin-s Last updated Feb 16, 2015

(The Malaysian Insider) – A top DAP leader will put forth an eight-year plan to smooth over friction between bickering Pakatan Rakyat parties so that the coalition can win the next general election and rule Malaysia for at least one term.

DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang’s proposal comes at a time when the coalition’s three parties, DAP, PKR and PAS, have come close to breaking up because of feuds over their different ideologies.

The six-year-old pact also suffered a loss when opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was jailed on Tuesday after being convicted of sodomising his aide, Mohd Saiful Bukhary Azlan.

Lim’s proposal would be a return to the two principles which held the three parties together and minimised in-fighting for the first five years since PR’s formation in 2008.

The proposal calls for coalition’s partners to agree on a framework of policies which they can all support regardless of their ideologies, Lim said at a ceramah in Balakong, Selangor, last night.

The second principle would be to adopt a consensus-based approach to decision-making, wherein any new policy would have to be agreed upon by all three parties, he added.

According to the plan, disagreements between them would be set aside for the time being, Lim told reporters.

Though he did not say it explicitly, it is understood that these disagreements included PAS’s desire to implement Shariah criminal law or hudud and DAP’s plan to bring back local government elections.

If agreed, this plan would be in effect for eight years. The first three starts from this year to the next general election and if PR is able to take Putrajaya, the coalition’s first five-year term will come into effect.

“My road map is to ensure the survival of PR, to defeat Barisan Nasional (at the next general election) and to save Anwar,” Lim said.

He said he would bring the proposal to the next PR presidential council meeting.