What will Pakatan Harapan do if it wins GE15?

Now, there are many issues that have been a hindrance or obstacle to progress, democracy, civil liberties, human rights, justice, separation of powers, race relations, religious harmony, good governance, accountability, transparency, and much more. Anwar and his Pakatan comrades talk about reforms, which they say the country needs badly. So, let us talk about Pakatan Harapan’s so-called “Reform Agenda.”

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Pakatan Harapan should focus on winning GE15,” wrote Murray Hunter (READ HERE).

Okay, some of what he says may not be quite accurate and smells of a pro-opposition bias. Nevertheless, most of these Mat Saleh and Mina Saleh who write about Malaysian politics are anti-Umno, anti-PAS, anti-Barisan and anti-Perikatan anyway. However, when they write about Anwar Ibrahim even his kentut wangi.

It is just like when they write about Afghanistan. The Taliban are the bad guys while the white people who are in Afghanistan opposing the Taliban are the good guys. The fact that in the first place without the white people the Taliban would not exist is not mentioned. They refuse to tell us that the white people created the Taliban.

And why are the white people even in Afghanistan anyway? Why don’t they go to Brunei or Saudi Arabia and countries where they do not have a western democratic system of government, such as general elections every five years. Is that not enough justification to send the US army into Brunei and Saudi Arabia?

Murray Hunter dan orang-orang yang sewaktu dengannya say wonderful things about Anwar, PKR, DAP, Pakatan Harapan, etc., and bad things about Umno, PAS, Barisan Nasional, Muafakat Nasional, Perikatan Nasional, and so on.

Okay, so let us analyse the real Pakatan Harapan.

First, where is Pakatan Harapan’s shadow cabinet? Why do they not form a shadow cabinet? Why are they so scared of revealing their shadow cabinet?

The opposition shadow cabinet will be the government-in-waiting. They will be the people who will be running the government if Pakatan happens to win the general election. Malaysians will get to know in advance who the new cabinet will be if Pakatan wins GE15. But they hide this from us. Why?

Furthermore, the shadow cabinet will shadow the government. For example, the shadow finance minister will talk about what Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz is doing and whether what he is doing is right or wrong and, if wrong, what he should be doing instead.

“This is what the government is doing, which is wrong, and instead the government should be doing this.” That is what we should be hearing instead of just screaming “Kerajaan Gagal!”

And they must do this for every minister and every ministry. Tell us what the government is doing, in detail, which you feel is wrong, and tell us how you would do it instead if you were the government. Then we will know how much better Pakatan Harapan would be as the government compared to the current government.

When we ask them about this, Anwar and his Pakatan comrades will reply: why should we reveal all our wonderful ideas and allow the government to steal them? We must keep our ideas a secret. Vote for us first, and once we are in control of the government, we will implement all our ideas.

Is that not selfish? If they think the government is wrong, and if they think they have better ideas, for the sake of the rakyat, why not tell us? Why allow the government to continue doing the wrong thing when you know it is wrong and you know what the right way should be? How can you say you only have the rakyat’s welfare at heart when you are prepared to let the rakyat suffer because of wrong policies?

It is very hard to reconcile their statement that they only wish to serve the rakyat, and yet they keep the good ideas a secret so that the government cannot steal them. Is this not turning the rakyat into collateral damage? That is like bombing an entire Afghan kampung just so that the Taliban will have no place to shelter. What about the innocent non-combatants?

Now, there are many issues that have been a hindrance or obstacle to progress, democracy, civil liberties, human rights, justice, separation of powers, race relations, religious harmony, good governance, accountability, transparency, and much more. Anwar and his Pakatan comrades talk about reforms, which they say the country needs badly. So, let us talk about Pakatan Harapan’s so-called “Reform Agenda.”

This article will not be able to cover the entire list of issues (unless you people are prepared to read an article that is 20 pages long). So allow me to briefly touch on the more pressing issues. And maybe Anwar and his Pakatan comrades can respond to these, which have been issues for too long and until today have not been resolved.

The Dasar Ekonomi Baru (New Economic Policy). What is Pakatan’s solution and proposal? I do not mean aspiration (like how Anwar normally talks), I mean action plan. Anwar was Finance Minister in 1991 when Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad put him in charge of resolving the DEB/NEP. But he did not. Why? And how will he resolve it if Pakatan wins GE15?

The Sharia laws. Malaysia has two sets of laws. How will Pakatan resolve this ambiguity, especially when the two laws at times overlap? And where will Hudud come in? What will Pakatan do about the Hudud proposal plus the RUU355 matter?

Local council elections. Will Pakatan implement this?

Chinese schools. What are Pakatan’s plans for this?

Anti-hopping law and recall elections. Will Pakatan implement this?

Freedom of religion. Will this include the rights of Christians to set up churches and the rights of Muslims to leave Islam and/or convert to other religions (which comes under civil liberties)?

LGBT rights. Most democratic countries respect LGBT rights including recognising gay unions (which also come under civil liberties).

Article 153. Will Article 153 be repealed and will Malaysia practice equality and meritocracy, hereby ending what some call discrimination and apartheid?

Shia and other denominations. Will other Islamic denominations be allowed like they are in western democratic countries?

Communism. Will a Communist party be allowed like they are in western democratic countries?

Separation of powers. Will the appointments of the CJ, AG, SG, IGP, MACC Commissioner, etc., come under Parliament?

General elections. Will the general election be fixed every five years? For example: March 2023, March 2028, March 2033, etc.?

Gender equality. Will a law be passed making it mandatory for political parties to field not less than 40% women candidates in the general election?

Those are only a handful of issues that Pakatan needs to talk about. Democracy, civil liberties, human rights, justice, separation of powers, race relations, religious harmony, good governance, accountability, transparency, and so on, cannot be achieved unless those matters are first addressed. Hence Pakatan must tell us what their plans are regarding all this once they win GE15.

My suspicion, however, is that Pakatan Harapan will not want to talk about these matters because they do not have any answers. They are only capable of screaming “Kerajaan Gagal”, but they do not have any solutions or plans on how to do a better job.