Opposition hamstrung by wishful thinking
Do the leaders know the real problems besetting the coalition?
TK Chua, Free Malaysia Today
We have lately been hearing many statements from Pakatan Rakyat leaders on the future of the coalition. Azmin Ali wants PAS to remain in Pakatan. Lim Guan Eng and Ramkarpal Singh think otherwise. Tian Chua wants everyone to cool down and to compromise. And Nurul Izzah Anwar says personal anger and bitterness have no place in the management of differences within the coalition.
I have always thought that the beauty of Pakatan Rakyat is in its “coalition of equality.” It is not based on dominance or subservience. Every party within the coalition has every right to articulate its own position and policy. But for the coalition to work as a viable alternative to BN, each party must compromise to the extent it can. It must be willing to join the coalition with its eyes wide open. It must agree to common polices that are acceptable to all coalition partners and Malaysians in general.
In other words, a party wishing to join the coalition must be willing to sacrifice a little for the greater good of Malaysia. Certainly it can’t ride on Pakatan Rakyat to further its own narrow parochial interests.
So here are my questions: Do Pakatan leaders know the real problems besetting the coalition today? Are they being so unrealistic as to indulge in wishful thinking?
What is Azmin’s point in asking PAS to stay in Pakatan when hudud and perhaps the institution of an Islamic state represent the “must” requirements of the party? Do we form Pakatan, compromise whatever we can, fight very hard against BN to ultimately get hudud and Islamic state? I don’t think this is what DAP and many Malaysians want.
At one time, when the situation was vague, Pakatan Rakyat could galvanise the support of Malaysians by just focusing on the malfeasance of BN alone. I think this was what Tian Chua alluded to as well.
But the situation is different now. To many of us, it is futile to replace BN with backwardness and archaic bigotry. We want sustainable solutions, not short term measures which eventually will present us with the same problems. Rightly or wrongly, this is how many Malaysians, including the Malays, are looking at PAS now. If the liberals within PAS are not able to work with the fundamentalists in the party, what hope do the rest of Malaysians have when PAS is in the coalition of federal power?
