Pakatan to break up soon?

‘Pakatan split inevitable, says Zahid’ – that was one of the stories carried in one of our local English dailies dated May 6, 2014.

Much has been talked about the health of the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) coalition these days especially in regard to the hudud issue.

Although the mainstream media has made a big issue of the so-called impending split, Nizar Jamaluddin, the PAS Changkat Jering state assemblyman, is of the view that as long as PR does not fall into the enemy’s trap, it is PR who will remain strong while the enemy will experience a rift in their working relationship.

The key to the hudud issue is for all of PR’s component parties to stay calm and not react to the instigation or provocations of the enemy.

Khalid Samad, the PAS Shah Alam MP, commented that “Pakatan will not break up if everyone works together in order to handle the hudud issue well.”

Added Khalid, “Moreover DAP opposing hudud is nothing new as DAP has been opposing it since Day 1. We agree to disagree on this issue and we will most definitely be going all out to help DAP win their upcoming parliamentary by-elections in Bukit Gelugor and Teluk Intan.”

Whatever is said up till this point in time, it must be noted that DAP and PKR both knew of PAS Islamic struggle even before PR was formed in April 2008.

Therefore the hudud issue should never act as a catalyst for the breaking up of Pakatan Rakyat and it would be tragic if PR was to go the way of Barisan Alternatif 10 years ago.

Mistakes should never be repeated.

Former Kuala Selangor MP, Dzulkefly Ahmad of PAS, remarked that he is the eternal optimist and what PR is going through now will only serve to strengthen the coalition.

The enemy will surely capitalise on the hudud issue to weaken Pakatan by saying that the late Karpal Singh who held the Bukit Gelugor seat was a strong opponent of hudud, never mind that he was opposing it based on arguments from the Federal Constitution.

Therefore DAP and PAS must work together to counter this point that will surely be raised a thousand and one times during these by-election campaigns.

In actual fact, hudud aside, DAP and PAS have a very good working relationship. Take for instance in the 2008 general election when they worked well together to capture the very tough Changkat Jong state seat which falls under the parliamentary seat of Teluk Intan.

This seat which was won by PAS in 2008 was lost to BN in 2013 when the 30% Indian voters in Changkat Jong who had wanted M Manogaran (the incumbent) to contest in Teluk Intan had protested by not coming out to vote.

(M Manogaran was instead sent to Cameron Highlands late wherein he acquitted himself well, losing only to MIC’s G Palanivel by 462 votes with 877 votes being spoilt.) This shows that the contributions of every race is equally important in PR.

And PR leaders must therefore learn from this and not allow any issue to become a contentious issue in Pakatan.

PR will hold firm

At this point in time, MCA is still pushing DAP to stop PAS from attempting to implement hudud in Kelantan via a tabling of a Private Member’s Bill in Parliament next month.

A PAS insider who spoke on condition of anonymity had informed this columnist thus, “Don’t worry, let PAS go ahead, I cannot say more but I dare to say that PR will hold firm.”

Still, the general public is getting a bad impression of PR as an unstable coalition because no one knows what is really going on behind the scenes.

The best thing for everyone in PR to do would be not issuing statements every now and then because these statements confuse the rakyat or worsen the situation.

The more statements that are issued by PR leaders, the more fodder is given to the enemy to spin about.
From now on, any response from Pakatan on the hudud issue should be a united statement. Otherwise, silence is golden because some of these statements are quite unsettling to the public and the supporters of PR.

PR leaders must strive to control the hudud issue or else they will be controlled by the hudud issue.

Currently PR leaders seem to come across as losing focus and losing direction. The hudud issue has taken up much of their time when they should be working the ground to explain the GST (Goods & Services Tax) to the rakyat as the government will be employing 500 people to do so.

Pakatan leaders must focus their attention on urgent issues at hand. Otherwise they will lose the support of the rakyat.

To-date, PR is the most viable coalition acting as a check and balance against the BN federal government. It would be a great pity if PR is dissolved.

Indeed it would be a very sad day if Pakatan ceases to exist because the people’s hopes for a two-party system would then be gone forever.

FMT