Has the opposition failed us?
(Malaysia Impact) – One of the big surprises this month is Bersih secretariat member Mandeep Singh Karpall Singh’s searing criticism of the opposition. Writing in Malaysiakini, he bluntly states there is “no more hope” in the opposition, predicting that it “will remain as opposition for another decade or more.” But he’s far from the only one who has lost faith in the great Pakatan ‘change’ machine.
This month, we’ve also seen the resignation of 182 DAP grassroots members in Malacca. In February, DAP lost one Malacca MP and three state assemblypersons (ADUNs). In both cases, the members who quit accused the party of deviating from its original struggle. Should we expect to see more of this? A drip is slowly but surely turning into a torrent.
Years of disappointment have come to head. Yes, many opposition supporters are angry at the government. But now they’re angrier at the opposition. They can no longer maintain appearances to empower bickering, self-serving leaders, or to promote a vacuous, incoherent agenda. And can you blame them?
It’s been clear for awhile now that the opposition considers winning votes more important than upholding principles. Some defend this approach as pragmatic, but others rightly see it as shamelessly cynical. How else to explain Pakatan’s enthusiastic backing of notoriously scandal-ridden Mahathir and his racially exclusive party Pribumi? While this is certainly ‘change’ (see hypocrisy), it’s not quite the change that voters had in mind.
But above all, disaffected opposition supporters are just sick and tired of seeing the same mistakes leading to the same results. Indeed, Pakatan leaders have perpetually failed to address the elephant-in-the-room issues at the heart of their repeated infighting and breakups.
