Pakatan’s chances in Sarawak get worse
Things look ugly all around as PKR and DAP quarrel over seat allocations.
Scott Ng, Free Malaysia Today
Despite the hopes of its supporters, Pakatan Harapan seems doomed to repeat the mistakes of the defunct Pakatan Rakyat.
As the Sarawak state election draws near, PKR and DAP find themselves at loggerheads over seat allocations. Xavier Jayakumar of PKR has quite firmly told DAP that his party would defend the rural seats it contested in the previous state election. But DAP’s Dayak leaders say their party has laid more groundwork in Sarawak than PKR, and that many Sarawakians have lost faith in PKR due to its continued association with PAS. Things look pretty ugly all around.
Do these people really want to be called elected representatives of the people? One can imagine opposition supporters who aren’t partisan to any component party, and even some of the DAP and PKR supporters themselves, asking this very question. It becomes increasingly hard to believe in Pakatan Harapan as a viable replacement for the ruling government when the component parties spend most of their time squabbling with each other.
When the Pakatan leadership announced that all decisions would be made through the central leadership conference to create a coherent narrative for the coalition, it was hailed as a step forward. Well, now is the time for the central leadership to step in because it is as embarrassing for opposition supporters to watch this little comedy as it is for PKR and DAP to take part in it.
The two parties should know by now that the greatest threat they face is not each other, but Chief Minister Adenan Satem, who at this point looks well nigh unbeatable at the ballot box. After all, what promises can Pakatan now offer to Sarawakians? That they’ll know who will be the Chief Minister once the component parties have finished arguing over it themselves? No, that is not acceptable.
If PKR and DAP cannot get their heads together, they might as well just hand Adenan the election on a silver platter. The more they fight, the more likely voters will decide to live with the devil they know rather than the devils sitting on the shoulders of a bigger devil.
