Is PKR next on DAP’s hit list?
Jason Chin, The Malaysian Times
CHIEF MINISTER Lim Guan Eng was a catalyst in exiling PAS from the Opposition coalition. He accused them of silently working with UMNO. Unfortunately, PKR has refused to adhere to Lim’s command of isolating PAS. DAP put enormous pressure on PKR to severe ties with PAS, but to no avail. Is PKR going to face the iron fist of lord Lim?
When five PKR assemblymen abstained from voting in a land issue at the recent Penang state assembly, Lim battered them verbally and called them betrayers. He went further by accusing them of siding Umno. The issue debated was about the people’s land. Lim politicized it to his liking and is drawing bad blood in the DAP-PKR relationship in Penang.
This murmuring reminds me on how the DAP-PAS trouble sparked and embroiled into an ugly mess that has left Barisan Nasional laughing.
Contrastingly, when some Opposition leaders abstained from voting for the motion to ban NurulIzzah and Tian Chua from Sabah, PKR took it sportingly and did not criticize their leaders in public. I am sure those who stayed silent and walked away from the chambers during the voting process would be questioned by PKR’s higher office bearers. Nevertheless, they acted with extreme professionalism by not washing dirty linen in public, a habit that Lim strives upon.
The only party that seems to dance to DAP’s tune for now is Amanah. It is obvious Lim is a control freak. He wants everything his way. Only his was is the right way although it may just be the highway to hell. He conveniently laid all blame on PAS and hudud for the demise of Pakatan Rakyat. A video circulating social media of a joint press statement between PAS and DAP in 2013 has emerged again. It clearly shows that Lim did not object to PAS’s vision of forming an Islamic state. Was that just an eye-wash to fool the public for the general election? That press statement clearly also mentions that the difference between DAP and PAS is only 5% while they agree on the remaining 95%. However, Lim rifled this same hudud issue towards Umno and called for Prime Minister Najib’s resignation for failing to stop the motion in Kelantan. With the video going viral on social media, what would Lim say now? He got away by playing ignorance to Anwar’s promise to residents during the damaging Kampung Buah Pala fiasco.
Would he now lay the blame on his poor memory, or perhaps claim that the person in the video was not him?
While Pakatan plights on democracy, their component parties fail to demonstrate any kind of democratic ideology. It is still the same old authoritarianism. While the world is moving more towards democratisation, the Opposition appear to transform whatever little democracy there is left in this country into an authoritarian system.
We still see people like Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin holding on to his Umno post although he is against the president. However, in DAP the rule is simple. Anyone who defies Lim gets the boot out. It would not surprise me if in the near future Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad officially joins the Opposition pack. After all, birds of the same feather always flock together.
