‘Possible for DAP to join BN’

Umno's Saifuddin Abdullah believes that merging of political parties "is a good thing".

PETALING JAYA: Umno man Saifuddin Abdullah has reopened the issue of DAP joining Barisan Nasional by saying that it was “not impossible” for any opposition party to join the ruling coalition and yet maintain their opposing views.

The former Temerloh MP made this statement in response to former information minister Zainuddin Maidin’s suggestion in May that the DAP should ask to join the BN administration in order to ensure the continued representation of the Chinese community in the government.

“Of course it can happen. Gerakan was once an opposition party. Nothing is impossible. Any merging of political parties is a good thing,” Saifuddin told FMT in an exclusive interview.

“It is not impossible for any opposition party to join BN but not in all situations. They can maintain their opposing views in certain policies,” he added.

He described politics as “dynamic”, and thus did not see the merging of DAP and BN as a problem.

Rid dirty politics
Saifuddin said the standing problem with Malaysian politics is the use of dirty tactics to gain political mileage.

“To me, what is practical but equally difficult (to merging parties) is reducing adversarial politics, gutter politics and character assassination. These must be put to a stop,” he said.

“Secondly, there must also be bipartisanship in certain issues,” he added, referring to the Election Commission’s (EC) redelineation exercise of constituencies’ end of this year.

Saifuddin explained that the process would take at least two years to complete, and is subject to parliament’s approval as it involves amending the Federal Constitution.

“To amend the Federal Constitution, we need to have two-thirds majority in parliament. BN currently does not have two-thirds majority,” he lamented.

“This is the first test case, if we (BN and Pakatan Rakyat) can all sit together and discuss amicably. The EC will do the work but BN and Pakatan will have to work with the EC.”

Zainuddin’s suggestion has since been shot down by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng, who said the party could have taken up the offer over the past four decades but had chosen to forgo the perks and privileges of high office. DAP believes in pursuing a more democratic Malaysia.

DAP’s chairman Karpal Singh has also threatened to leave the party if it were to join BN. However, Karpal said DAP is prepared to work with Barisan if the ruling coalition was willing to fully accept Pakatan Rakyat’s election manifesto.

“Lim Kit Siang (DAP adviser) said it would be better if Barisan joins Pakatan.

“We can work with Barisan, only if they accept the Pakatan manifesto, then we will give serious consideration (to collaborate),” he was quoted saying this by various reports.