Current Affairs

In 2015, will there be a Pakatan Rakyat as we know it?

By Wan Hamidi Hamid, Advisor of Impian Malaysia

7Let’s start with a cliché. Many Malaysians believe our economy is in bad shape. Unhappily, many of us are preparing for a higher cost of living, in anticipating the Goods and Services Tax (GST) by April 1. Many of us know we are going to suffer economically and financially in 2015.

By “us” it means all Malaysians who are neither billionaires nor the Barisan Nasional crony capitalists. “Us” includes ordinary, hardworking Malaysians who could also be members of UMNO, MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PBB, SUPP, UPKO, PBS, etc. Basically “us” is each and every one who has to work hard for a living.

So far the UMNO-BN government does not seem to have any concrete plans to get us out of these economic woes. Prime Minister Najib Razak’s magic fund 1MDB has become the burden for all Malaysians. In just a few years 1MDB has successfully managed to incur RM42 BILLION debt.

Right now we are facing the problem with the value of Ringgit, the higher rate of inflation and the rising costs of almost everything, from food and household products to houses and other properties. These are UMNO-BN’s misadventures in bad governance, and we the people have to pay the price.

These are bad news indeed. Yet these bad news can be overturned if Pakatan Rakyat – as the government-in-waiting – can pull its act together. This is the time for Pakatan leaders to come up with a workable plan of actions.

Pakatan has convince the people that not only UMNO-BN’s economic mismanagement will bring the country down but also offer the Pakatan’s economic solutions that would save the nation from ruins.

Shooting oneself in the foot

Unfortunately, top PAS leaders can’t see things the way many DAP and PKR leaders can. All they care about is enforcing hudud whether the people want it or not, because they believe God commands them to do so, with or without any context.

Some say that the issue is deliberately being played up by UMNO-controlled media to paint a bad picture about PAS. But in reality, it’s actually true that many PAS leaders, especially its Kelantan leaders, have been harping the hudud issue since after the general election of 2013.

So instead of striving to unite all Malaysians, regardless of race and religion, to fight against UMNO-BN’s mismanaged economy that would make us suffer, top PAS leaders are more interested in a law that will not cover punishments for corruption, bribery, abuse of power, injustice, discrimination, wastage, etc.

In the words of Lim Kit Siang: “The Kelantan Special State Assembly on Dec 29 on the implementation of hudud would be like manna from heaven for Najib, as it would provide precious diversion and distraction from the mega 1MDB scandal!”

The veteran DAP leader knows that Najib is facing relentless attack and the greatest pressure in his five-year nine-month premiership over the 1MDB scandal. He said, Najib has attracted brickbats not only from Pakatan MPs such as Tony Pua and Rafizi Ramli but also from inside UMNO led by Tun Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin

Yet top PAS leaders seem oblivious to all these. No one knows why top PAS leaders behave the way they do. They seem to refuse to seize the opportunity which would not only strengthen Pakatan but at the same time would help the people to ease their financial woes.

No hudud in Pakatan’s common agenda

Perhaps top PAS leaders have forgotten that, like DAP and PKR, their party too has an economic manifesto, and it’s called Negara Berkebajikan or A Nation of Care and Opportunities. It was launched three years ago, based on the ideals of the late PAS President Datuk Fadzil Noor.

Perhaps they have forgotten that their party has offered to eradicate poverty with the aim of helping 40% of Malaysians with a household income of less than RM1,500. Perhaps they have also forgotten PAS’s promise to give free entry to public universities for rural children whose family income is less than M1,500 and urban children whose family income is less than RM2,500.

PAS even promised to build more low-cost and affordable housing, to give special funds for single mothers and to review the wage structure in the public sector to bridge the gap between the public and private sectors.

In Negara Berkebajikan, PAS never promised to enact hudud or to set up an Islamic state. While those ideas and values may be deeply embraced in the hearts and minds of PAS members, their leaders never promised to implement them prior to GE13. And to be part of Pakatan means to respect Pakatan’s common agenda.

So why now? The answer doesn’t seem to matter anymore. The point is, if Pakatan wants to survive, the leaders have to decide now. It’s not difficult. All they have to do is go back to their common policy platform. This means no hudud, no Islamic state, no communist state, no ultra-liberal state, no discriminatory state.

DAP consistent with Pakatan’s agenda

For the DAP, its stand is consistent with Pakatan’s common policy. As Kit Siang says, the DAP’s stand is the same as the stand taken by the first three Prime Ministers of Malaysia, Tunku Abdul Rahman, Tun Razak and Tun Hussein – that hudud is against the Malaysian Constitution which provides for a secular state with Islam as the religion of the Federation and freedom of worship guaranteed for other religions.

This is in line with the objectives of Pakatan’s common policy platform which among other things, wants to protect the Federal Constitution with Islam as the official religion of the Federation while other forms of non-Islamic religions can be adhered and practiced freely and peacefully in the country.

Pakatan also agrees to protect the role of constitutional monarchy and to uphold the Malay language in correspondence to Article 152 of the Constitution, while preserving and strengthening the use of mother tongue for all races and of all social background, and to improve the command of the English language for Malaysia’s global competitiveness.

It’s very clear that Pakatan respects and seriously aims to protect the sanctity of Islam and other religions as well as to ensure fairness and social justice to all Malaysians, including the Malays.

So why the need for PAS to push for hudud?

A new form of coalition?

Therefore, it is very baffling indeed for top PAS leaders to keep on insisting on hudud. Even UMNO is not interested in enforcing hudud.

If those PAS leaders refuse to accept Malaysia’s political reality, it will indeed be a sad end to Pakatan Rakyat as we know it. Unless, all Pakatan leaders think there is a need to have a new form of coalition.

Such a coalition could either be a two-party coalition or with new parties joining in, or perhaps to initiate a different level of coalition at the federal and state level. Or any other form. As long as the top leaders agree to meet and discuss in an amicable manner.

It’s all up to Pakatan leaders, especially PAS leaders. But if they want to score own goals instead of moving forward, Malaysians will punish them in the next general election. And with that, all of us including the Malays can suffer together.

Let’s end with another cliché. The rich will always get richer while the poor will suffer forever, with or without hudud. Only UMNO-BN cronies and their billionaires will continue to reap the harvest of Pakatan’s breakup. Pakatan leaders have to meet and decide now.

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