Wednesday, June 17, 2015

'Pakatan Rakyat Crisis, A Replay Of Past Opposition Pact Failures', Bernama, 17 June 2015

 



By Nik Nurfaqih Nik Wil

KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama) -- What is happening to Pakatan Rakyat is a replay of the failures of several other opposition party pacts formed in the country.

Political analyst Md Shukri Shuib drew attention to the fact that opposition pacts were found consistently to be unable to stay together for long.

This included the coalition of Semangat 46 and PAS in Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah and Semangat 46 and DAP via Gagasan Rakyat.

Speaking to Bernama, the Universiti Utara Malaysia Political and International Studies senior lecturer, said however it was not about their failures which was important but the impact of their failures on the people.

It raised many questions, especially on states jointly led by them, specifically Selangor which was among the most developed states in the country.

"The impact of the dissolution of this pact is not only on the cooperation among the parties but also involved the question of the dissolution of power-sharing ties in Selangor.

"The main spillover effect is on the position of the Selangor state government and it will give an overview on the state of uncertainty, "he claimed.

Pakatan Rakyat is an unofficial pact which was formed on April 1, 2008 by DAP, PAS and Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) after the 12th general election.

However, the pact was declared as having ceased to exist by DAP after its central executive committee arrived at a consensus during its meeting yesterday.

DAP secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng, in a statement today, said the decision which was made by the PAS Assembly prior to this to sever ties with DAP had killed the pact.

Another political analyst, associate professor Dr Sivamurugan Pandian said the focus now was towards the administration of Selangor whereby PAS and DAP each held 15 seats, PKR (13), Barisan Nasional (12) and independent (one).

"If all (PKR, PAS, DAP) agree to cooperate, PKR can continue to lead, otherwide a state election must be held, which I feel should be avoided," he said.

The Universiti Sains Malaysia's Centre for Social Science Studies senior lecturer, however, expressed his regret, because the people had given a form of trust to Pakatan rakyat and hoped for the best service performance from them.

"I see, the decision depends a lot on PKR, whether to maintain the status quo or find a new cooperation alternative which probably bring a new base point," he said.

The squabble in Pakatan Rakyat which had been dragging for so long became more serious after the PAS Dewan Ulama on June 3 unanimously approved an emergency motion to sever ties with DAP at the 61st PAS Assembly.

DAP, which was hurt at the motion of the Dewan Ulama, lately became more aggressive in pressuring PAS members to resign from their posts in the Penang state government.

Lim, on Thursday, was reported as saying the refusal of the new PAS leadership to direct PAS representatives in the state to resign from the Penang state government administration was very shameful.

PKR deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali, on his part prior to this, when pressed on PKR's stand on the motion by PAS, told his allies not to drag him into their political crisis which he regarded as 'childish'.

On Saturday, he, nevertheless, was reported to have lauded the formation of a new political party which was proposed by the Ummah Welfare Association Malaysia (Pasma) to replace PAS in Pakatan Rakyat.

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