Harapan members can blame themselves for their demise

MP SPEAKS | The so-called “Sheraton Move” held the attention of the entire nation and its drama gripped the rakyat in apprehension of what transpired. In the fight for the post of the eighth prime minister, the people were treated to a rollercoaster of emotions.

This episode also finally exposed the weaknesses, acrimonious disagreements, and untenable relationship within the Pakatan Harapan coalition for all to see. Harapan's collapse had unfortunately also dragged the entire economy through the mud for the past two weeks. 

Yet, despite all that, the DAP had not uttered a single word of apology for their role in the failure of this sham of a coalition. True to its character, the DAP would rather heap the blame on others and look for scapegoats for their failure.

In the interests of serving their respective political agenda, Harapan had fought the 14th General Election with a loose and hastily scraped together alliance that had barely reached consensus. There is little to wonder why Harapan had collapsed due to internal differences. The straw on the camel’s back came in the form of Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s resignation as prime minister.

Subsequently, the DAP went on to claim that others had wronged Mahathir, and pleaded with him to stay on as PM but secretly rooting for PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim behind his back. When this tactic was stalling, they turned their sights to blame the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS), ostensibly for not being on board with their schemes. Their mistakes seem to always be caused by others.

I would like to ask the DAP: if the situation today enables you and PKR to join forces with newfound partners to form the government, wouldn’t that still be called a backdoor government?

It is due to Mahathir's resignation that Harapan collapsed, and led to a necessary process to determine who commanded the most support among the MPs. This is a government formed under a democratic system as enshrined in the Federal Constitution, the very same one that the DAP claimed to have upheld in the past. How can they claim it is a backdoor government now?

DAP’s notions of creating its own form of democracy has now burst.

To the DAP, their actions are excusable. They can flip-flop in their support for Mahathir and Anwar to their hearts’ content. But they will condemn others for making their choices for PM.

I will point out that even Mahathir himself had acknowledged his own mistake of resigning as prime minister on Feb 24 which caused Harapan's collapse, admitting he had lost the majority support and had no choice but to resign. In this case, why is it called a backdoor government?

The initial position of the alliance seemed to support Mahathir. But in the hubbub of the coup, with Harapan itself breaking up and seemingly swinging back and forth in their support for Anwar and Mahathir, including the DAP, how could anyone then risk giving support to either of them?

At the time, if there was no majority support for the incumbent PM, the only solution would be to call for snap elections to return the power to the people. However, it would be wrong to wantonly use hard-earned taxpayers’ money to pay for the mistakes of irresponsible politicians. It would drag on the political uncertainty and waste unnecessary public funds. Therefore, considering the national interest and the well-being of the rakyat, we have chosen the side that can bring order to the chaos.

Don’t forget that the reason the DAP would even make noise at this "backdoor government" is because it happened to their own coalition.

They thought their position was comfortably safe with 42 MPs. But it is an outrage now that the tide has turned against them. If they really had a stable majority as a government, why not stand firm and call for new elections when Mahathir resigned?

Under a democratic system, parties that cannot trust each other will inevitably collapse because alliances must have cooperation, compromise and consensus to survive. The DAP cannot continue to mislead the people and garner political capital by intimidation and playing with racial issues.

As an MP, I will do the right thing and fight for the rights of all Malaysian communities to ensure the turnaround of the national economy to better days. I urge the DAP to do the same in Parliament. Put aside your political differences and give your full support to me for the good of all.

The GPS is an example of reaching internal consensus. No matter where we stand or who we are, the only goal is to fight for the rights and interests of all Sarawakians under the Malaysia Agreement 1963, specifically, to regain the payments of the oil sales tax.

I am also making this statement as a response to the swearing-in of the new prime minister amid other changes in Malaysian politics.

The past Harapan coalition members and their supporters, especially the DAP, in seeing the handover of power to others, had not hesitated to immediately attack the current government online and in the papers. Emotional reactions worsen negative perceptions to the new coalition and extreme demonising has already taken place.

But I believe that the people are not blind to the fact that the Harapan government collapsed due to infighting and its internal problems. They have no one else but themselves to blame.

It is safe to say that the DAP had learnt nothing from their failures and instead, looked for scapegoats. This reflects what they truly are, an insecure party without principles and self-awareness.

We should ask why the relationship between Mahathir and Harapan had been so fragile in the first place. It was clear that there were serious differences among them. Looking back to the coalition's collapse and Mahathir's resignation, what is the lesson here?

The DAP had realised that the entire Harapan cabinet would be no more after Mahathir resigned. Therefore, they scrambled to negotiate with Mahathir and bow to him in order to stay in power. But due to insufficient seats, the PM had no choice but to resign anyway.

The irony is that Harapan formed for their mutual interests and now those same interests had torn them apart. A coalition with no consensus is not destined to last, because the cracks are a timebomb that will bring them down.

There will be no rationalising the faults and abuses that brought down Harapan and DAP. They should now focus on rectifying their own problems and humbly learn from their lesson.

There is no such thing as absolute power under a democratic system that can make a government immune from falling. Today’s alliance needs to learn from this coup crisis and ensure the same does not happen to them.

We need to keep in mind that an honest, service-oriented government for all that focuses on the people and commits to fixing the national economy, and regain international investor confidence will stand the test of time and comfortably remain in power.

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TIONG KING SING is president of Progressive Democratic Party (PDP) and Bintulu MP.  - Mkini