Dear government in waiting
Three-way fights are mortal wounds only if the new coalition relies on the population’s aversion of BN rather than their own value proposition to pull votes.
Praba Ganesan, The Malay Mail Online
This is when they say the abyss stares back at you.
The purgatory which politicians outside Barisan Nasional (BN) are residing in presently is fossilising. How else can those bequeathed with political gifts — a slipping economy, GST squeezing the humour out of lower income homes, misfiring ministers and a prime minister facing heat missile after missile often from a predecessor — struggle? They seem to be buried by the weight of zero-expectation when they should be readying for the parade.
It should be Hari Raya daily in the opposition camp, but instead doubts fill their days and nights.
Who should be partners? Everybody.
Result: Every day they find different ways to defend the old Pakatan Rakyat, in a maddening effort to force a square peg in a round hole.
Who should lead? Why Anwar Ibrahim of course, for every other choice is flawed.
Opinion: Anwar should be free but the country is larger than the opposition, it is certainly larger than the former leader of the opposition. Focus on ideas not personalities, otherwise can’t tell Pakatan’s avatar apart from BN’s.
Reality: They are so unsure of winning the next general election that it’s not playing Peeping Tom with the abyss anymore, they are halfway into the abyss.
Two whoppers
Let’s begin with the puzzles if we want to help the opposition: How to keep a clear opposition coalition in Semenanjung (Peninsular Malaysia) and what will win over the Borneo people from BN’s grip?
PAS will never play ball. They have an agenda and it has to them greater purpose than the trivialities of Malaysian politics. Nasrudin Hassan Tantawi, Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man and Nik Abduh Nik Aziz — without mentioning the president Hadi Awang — are indifferent to temporal matters when they transgress on their beliefs. They can’t understand why the rest of us can’t believe like them.
Therefore, trying to look for a point of agreement is akin to willingly bend over backwards for a partner already convinced you are wrong. In his mind, he is right, you are wrong.
