Pakatan plotted it’s own downfall
Failing to plan for a PR without Anwar has doomed the opposition
Scott Ng, Free Malaysia Today
There’s been a lot of hoo-ha from the opposition camp with regard to BN ramming through several controversial bills in marathon sessions that end in the wee hours of the morning. Quite a bit of vitriol over the absence of many of Pakatan MPs during the POTA discussion has emerged, and that criticism is valid as Pakatan could have stopped the bills from passing by denying BN a simple majority.
So why is Pakatan Rakyat, once the bright beacon of hope for many Malaysians, failing us when we need it to show that strong presence in Parliament that we gave it in the past two general elections?
It’s simple. It failed to plan, and thus planned to fail.
You see, this all began when Saiful Bukhari made that fateful police report that eventually sent Anwar Ibrahim back into prison and robbed the opposition of a leader, and the coalition of a direction. The repercussions of that conviction are being felt now as a fractured and undisciplined coalition attempts to fight against the full might of a ruling party that has known nothing but power for more than 50 years.
BN’s timing in introducing these bills has been nothing short of impeccable. The directionless PKR lacks a uniting force to drag all its MPs to Parliament to oppose the bill, and PAS is as recalcitrant as usual. This has allowed BN to take advantage of the situation to ram through whatever laws it likes.
Back to the matter at hand. Why is this PR’s fault? It’s simple. We all saw the writing on the wall the instant it was revealed that Anwar was once again accused of sodomy. Even the most optimistic of us had to recognise that any chance Anwar had of avoiding a guilty conviction was slimmer than a strand of silk.
Now, given this tacit understanding, Pakatan should have planned for the conviction. Even when you’re supremely confident that you’ll be able to pull something off, it always helps to have a Plan B, and failing to have a Plan B may be what has doomed Pakatan for good. Anwar himself, who is more than aware of what the government is capable of, should have had a game plan in place for Pakatan to continue the struggle while he languishes in prison, and that he didn’t is proof of either hubris or stupidity.
