May 25, 2016
Rudderless PKR : Courting PAS is a strategic error
by Mariam Mokhtar
http://www.freemalaysiatoday.com
It appears that PKR leaders do not know what the electorate wants. The rakyat do not want wishy-washy politicians. We want firm leaders who have our interests at heart. We do not want race and religion to set us apart.
We know that we can move forward only when we have strong leaders who would not allow themselves to be stabbed in the back twice. We certainly won’t trust a political party that vacillates from one viewpoint to another or make an alliance with a known enemy.
Soon after the Sarawak state election, PKR Deputy President Azmin Ali horrified us when he expressed an intention to invite PAS back into the opposition coalition for GE14. This week, it was PKR President Wan Azizah Ismail’s turn to shock us. She suggested that PKR could talk with PAS about the upcoming by-elections in Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar.
Why does PKR want to do business with PAS? Joining up with PAS and Hadi Awang is like taking a step into the unknown. Can Hadi be trusted after all his machinations against the opposition coalition and the deals he has made with UMNO-Baru?
Is Wan Azizah a stickler for punishment, or has Azmin Ali managed to convince her of PAS’ shining qualities? Is there a plot of some kind that we’re yet to uncover?
Does Wan Azizah remember how Hadi humiliated her when she was nominated for the post of Selangor MB? Hadi kept the nation waiting for one month, saying that he could not divulge the reasons for his opposition to Wan Azizah’s nomination. In the end, he said a woman could not serve as MB. He even hinted that he feared people would go to hell if they were ruled by a woman as MB or PM. Malaysia does not need politicians who are misogynists.
At the 2014 PAS muktamar in Johor, Hadi insulted two PAS assemblymen because they supported Wan Azizah’s nomination. He called them “baruah,” using a loaded Malay word for “lackey”. It’s original meaning is “pimp”.
For all we know, Hadi is still in discussion with UMNO-Baru for a unity government. Doesn’t Wan Azizah remember Hadi’s arrogance? He said he would attend Pakatan Rakyat meetings only when he felt like it.
PKR, which some people have always seen as a party of UMNO-Baru rejects, is now in danger of gaining a reputation as a party of indecision. Why is PKR afraid to take a firm stand? If it’s policies are good for the nation, it should forge ahead with them with confidence and thereby strengthen public trust in it. However, if it shows indecisiveness and teams up with PAS, whatever trust the public now has in it will be eroded.
The rakyat have waited 59 years for a leader they can trust. They will not mind waiting a few more years for the right party to present such a leader. PAS is not that party. Hadi is not that leader, and neither is anyone who plays footsie with him.
Mariam Mokhtar is an FMT columnist.
Din Merican: the Malaysian DJ Blogger 
PKR without Anwar is a political gonna. It will likely disintegrate after GE-14. It is possible that some of its leaders will return to UMNO’s fold while the Parti Rakyat elements will likely form their own party, join DAP or work with Dr. Michael Jeyakumar’s Parti Sosialis Malaysia. Pakatan Harapan will just fade. –Din Merican
Mr. Merican, I have worked extensively with PSM, argued against DAP apparatchiks who have mocked Dr. Jeyakumar’s party as a “mosquito” party and DAP leaders who have lied and vilified PSM as some sort of socialist/communist bogeyman mainly because PSM has dared point out contradictions in Pakatan’s policies and behaviour.
I have argued against working with PAS even though I have worked with their grass roots bureaus and propaganda wing. I have pointed out that PKR’s dependence on PAS is detrimental to the so called reformasi agenda in terms of social and economic policies.
I ranted on another blog of the DAP’s evangelical wing’s courting of the so called moderate elements of PAS arguing that any schisms should be allowed to form without any external interference.
The so called alternative media stereotypes PSM as an “Indian” party mainly because of Arutchelvan and Jeyakumar all the while subverting PSM’s message as detrimental to the goal of removing UMNO.
Meanwhile the mandarins of the DAP seem to have no problem relying on plutocrats and the subsidiaries of UMNO to buttress their power base in communal politics that they claim to reject.
I have very little hope that there will ever be a credible alternative front. I’m not saying that the present Regime should stay just that anything else will be some sort of compromise that would enable elements of the Najib Regime to remain in power, while perhaps ejecting Jibby and Kak Ros.
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Dr. Jeyakumar is a good man with lofty goals for his country. I am having second thoughts about DAP. And I have written of Mat Sabu’s Amanah. PKR is UMNO in disguise. Yes, there is viable alternative to UMNO-BN.–Din Merican
Why is the country the way it is today?
Principles or rather the lack thereof.
“A people that values its privileges above its principles soon loses both.”
― Dwight D. Eisenhower
Mariam is spot on. PKR courting PAS is because they want the Malay votes and not because of principles . DAP should leave Pakatan Harapan. They will not win the GE for a long time unless there is a paradigm shift in the thinking of the Malays but at least they will be a party of principles.
PKR has its version of “My Way”
PAS has its version of “My Way”
Why don’t Pakatan Harapan come up with “together with the Rakyat we overcome all trials and tribulations and march to a brighter future”
Without being racist, let me say this: Malays are not made to be business people eg Najib. Like wise Malays do not know the modern political liberalism. They prefer feudalism.
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That is a colonial mindset. –Din Merican
Criticising PKR on PAS without criticising Anwar is NAIVE. Truth is the top leaders take their cue from Anwar likely mostly by choice. Anwar himself do not have the guts to break away from PAS. He himself plays the religo card his entire career and well aware of its extreme potency. More than anyone he likely understand the huge challenge before Amanah and he is too ambitious for himself to take it on. Despite his idealistic language, Anwar is an opportunistic politician from UMNO tradition some he set himself. If Mahathir has no guts to break from PAS in his campaign against Najib, Anwar will not and so neither will PKR.
Truth is if Anwar was out, he would just only be more skilled to persuade PAS, not break away
Since we are here already, let’s just dig the dyfunctionality further. Malays, almost all Muslim, and it’s all at least to some degree, is afraid of their religion. It’s fear not just respect and cherish. It’s actual fear indoctrinated.
I have a funny feeling that YAB Dato’ Sri Azmin Ali. (AA) (and Tun M) are plotting to make PKR collapse and close the book on the party and it’s founder, DSAI together with his family members and their cronies once and for all. That will be the end of DSAI. At the meantime, AA is working with some members of UMNO’s inner circle (also kingmakers) to return to UMNO and to be positioned at the highest level possible, VP or Deputy head, just below the President even. AA is a very ambitious person, he wants to be the next PM, nothing less. He will steamroll Zahid and put aside Hishamuddin if any or both of them together try to counter his moves. Here’s where Tun M will play his role and help AA achieve his ambition. If he gets to become the next PM, Hishamuddin will be his choice for Deputy President and DPM and he will make Zahid retreat quietly. He (AA) knows that to be PM, he has to go back to UMNO because only UMNO can providechim with all the necessary ammunition, the people and the logistics. He will then strike a deal with Najib, negotiate a smooth takeover with the latter and promise not to prosecute or take any action against Najib, his wife Rosmah and the immediate members of his family. AA will keep his promise. AA has to work and realise his ambition within the next two years, before GE14. A bold and large countrywide cleanup work to remove all the deadwoods, drifters and hangers-on in order for him to make sure that he and members of his team are able to put back the country onto the right track and move on from there. So if you think what PKR is going through now is not good for the party, looking like they have committed a strategical error, believe me, it’s designed to be such. AA’s plan, if it succeeds, will catch many people with their pants down and AA has made sure that there is no time for them to launch a counter attack either individually or severally because they will not have the time, the money and the needed support to do that.
No, I am not involved with AA’s plan in any way whatsoever.
There is Amanah already.
Why should DAP, PKR, work with with Hadi Awang and his version of PAS ?
The vast majority of the Chinese will not vote for PAS anymore, since PAS is sectarian and willing to tolerate high level corruption in the 1Malaysia regime and damage the Opposition coalition in the process.
Chinese-Malaysians should vote for Amanah and teach Hadi Awang and PAS a big, well-deserved lesson that this is multicultural, multireligious Malaysia.
Sorry, let me correct the above, Malays, almost all Muslim, fear their own community, the Umat itself, not the religion per se, the practises and it’s members. Being afraid of what they belong. It’s dysfunctional to chose to belong to fear.
In a previous thread about the Opposition, I suggested that the only way that Malaysia can have a meaningful Opposition is for DAP and PKR to form a new Party. The recent Sarawak results proved that Coalitions simply won’t work.
There is no reason why PSM cannot be in at its inception, especially if she can persuade the new Party constitution to include some of her 7 manifesto points.
I presume PKR and PSM have no party constitutions of their own as I can’t find them. Nonetheless, their ideologies in Wiki do not differ much from DAP’s. There is definitely a basis to work on.
A new Party with a new Party Constitution will not only get rid of DAP’s Chinese image, it will also rid PKR of its BN roots.
You can take the malay out of the kampung but you cannot take the kampung out of the malay. All said and done, UMNO, PAS and PKR are all the one and same.
Heard from the grapevine that the alleged spate between Azmin and PAS Selangor is only an attempt by some irresponsible people to slander AA. No smoke has been seen either. AA is taking the ‘status quo’ position.
The same question remains. Who is fit to be the next opposition PM, after DSAI? Brave New World!
http://partisosialis.org/borang-keahlian
is there a reason why parti sosialis still do not have borang for friends of partisolialis outside the nation? Dato.Din, I wonder if you could contact Dr Michael Jeyakumar to see how other Malaysians residing outside the nation could help further his cause?
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You can visit his party facebook.https://www.facebook.com/partisosialis/. I have not seen Dr. Jeyakumar since 2009. –Din Merican.
There is a grand conspiracy working against the people by the political elites and parties in cohorts.They are wasting too much time and energy in running down each other instead of focusing in running the country.
Both the oppositions and the power that be lack quality leadership and party discipline qualities, creating confusion, distraction and divisiveness, courting and back-stabbing to gain personal and political mileage,
It is a mistake to trust them anymore because show little commitment to serve the people in priority.
katasayang one of the many ways ways one can help Malaysia get back to even keel is to contact the foreign minister of the country you reside in and keep emailing all about how corrupt the UMNOMelayus are and how the country is being ruined. Email to local NGOs. Persuade local media to take interest in the repugnant racial discrimination practiced by the UMNOMelayus. Email your local chamber of commerce to boycott Malaysia unless until the UMNOMelayus dismantle their ketuanan melyu policy.
Unless the UMNOMelayus are disgraced in the international domain these parasitic worms will not cease to plunder the country.
Dato,
In your response to Conrad / May 25, 2016 at 8:23 pm, you wrote:
“Yes, there is viable alternative to UMNO-BN.”
Perchance you intended to write:
“Yes, there is NO viable alternative to UMNO-BN.” ?
Agree with Mariam Mokhtar analysis.Even Baru Bian of Sarawak did not detach PKR Sarawak from PAS..showing indecisiveness…we do not need such leaders…
Date: Wed, 25 May 2016 11:18:44 +0000 To: yew51@hotmail.com
Looks like Huduh, Sounds like Huduh, dress like Huduh but it is not Huduh so say Najib and Liow Tiong Lai is going to see Najib on this and then falll in line with the master.
hewhoknowslittle,
i believe PM Najib is already well known internationally today. Many in the US would not know where Malaysia is. But, PM Najib, most would recall something. Speaking on depending on the outside world tp do something concrete, we must not forget ‘Wolf of Wall Street’ is a very real story that did take place.
Probably it is best for us to spend more time getting familiar with Dr Jeyakumar. Dato Din did recommend him. I don’t know him. The world does not know him also.