Mahathir, Pakatan Harapan’s PM candidate
The biggest failure by Pakatan Harapan (PH) thus far is not the failure of not naming a Prime Minister or shadow-cabinet but falling into a narrative Barisan Nasional (BN) wants PH to play with.
“The best defense is a good offense.” BN has certainly done well with this. From PAS’s conflicting role in the opposition pact to the PM candidacy. BN has successfully forged ahead as an attacking unit and reduced PH to a defense unit.
If PH names Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as PM today, BN will tomorrow ask how can he become PM without being an MP, just like what they did with Anwar Ibrahim. And then they will ask who is PH’s DPM, followed by PH’s shadow-cabinet.
PH will forever be one step behind, busy answering questions poised by BN, instead of taking the challenge to BN and putting BN on the back foot.
Ask the layman on the streets. They are fed up of politics because of the infighting. This “infighting” referred to, is the very result of PH playing into BN’s narrative – Pas’s role, PMship, next DPMship and then shadow-cabinetship.
The tech geeks who don’t bother to vote, the clerks who don’t care about politics, the make-up artists who don’t read the news, the professionals who are preparing to migrate, the youths who don’t see registering to vote as a responsibility – these are the bulk of fence-sitters that form the base of anti-BN votes. They don’t read the news everyday, but they feel life is getting tougher. They want things to be better, but they don’t feel their one vote matters. In 2008 and 2013, they finally said “ok let’s try the opposition” because everything PR represented felt perfect, and everything BN represented felt terrible.
Next week, these people read on CNN or BBC – “Malaysia’s Opposition Announces 92 Year Old Former PM As PM Candidate”.
Can you imagine what a laughing stock PH will become? The very voters who finally voted once in their lifetime after hearing you tell them about principles and punishing corrupted politicians for the past decades, are now reading a headline that says you are giving the driver’s seat to the very person you whacked for decades.
This is what they will feel: The opposition decided to abandon its pure narrative for a narrative they stood against, in order to win Putrajaya.
PH is basically admitting all these decades of campaigns and talks of democracy, good governance, no corruption, principles etc is not working, so we take the shortcut. This is not HARAPAN. This is telling people TIADA HARAPAN so we shortcut.
PH should go back to people centric issues, because that is the only way BN will once again be on the backfoot. PH say mansuh tol, BN say cannot and try hard to justify why cannot. PH say mansuh PTPTN, BN say cannot and try hard to justify why cannot. PH say abolish GST, BN say cannot and try hard to justify why cannot. Whatever BN says, they will look stupid and foolish, because they are defending the indefensible.
The struggle of the opposition (PR back then, PH now) and activists should go beyond the PMship or even cabinetship. It is what sets the opposition and activists apart from BN all these while. By playing into BN’s narrative, we become no different from BN.
So please, PH. Don’t play into BN’s narrative.
Adrian Lim Chee En
#BebasAnwar
