KUALA LUMPUR - Pakatan Rakyat (PR) will soon have to return to the drawing board and re-evaluate its ties if it continues to struggle to keep its act together in the chaos over the Selangor mentri besar seat, analysts say.
With the continued inability of the three PR partners — DAP, PKR and PAS — to come to a consensus on who should replace embattled Mentri Besar Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, some observers think it may be too late to salvage whatever goodwill they have managed to foster since 2008.
“What PAS is doing is inching towards a point of no return for PR. I don’t think PR will be the same again,” independent analyst Khoo Kay Peng told Malay Mail Online when contacted recently.
Khoo said the about-turn by PAS’s top leadership in backing the now-partyless Khalid, despite initially agreeing to PKR’s move to install their president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the new mentri besar, left the nascent coalition’s public credibility in tatters and possibly a step closer to breaking apart.
Even if PAS decides to agree with their PR partners come their much anticipated party meeting this Sunday, the damage has already been done, Khoo added.
“PR is already on the verge of that (breaking apart). Even if they reverse their position and make a call in accordance with the two other component parties, it will take years to rebuild that sort of (public) confidence.
“This situation (shows) just how cohesive the coalition is... PAS has no one else to blame, since the ball is in their court,” he said.
Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) chief executive Wan Saiful Wan Jan said a PR breakup would be bad all around for the opposition, but stressed that it is the Islamist party PAS that stands to lose out the most.
Notwithstanding the fact that it was PKR that initiated Khalid’s ouster attempt, Wan Saiful said the public will heap the blame squarely on PAS if the coalition actually tanks.
“If they leave PR because of this, it simply shows that PAS cannot be trusted and this concept of ‘amanah’ (trust) they have been speaking about for so long is just nonsense.
“People will see that the weaknesses or demise of PR, if it happens, would be because of one dishonest party... PAS will be deserted,” Wan Saiful said.
The Ideas chief, however, noted that it is unlikely that the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) will see a revival of its past fortunes in the event of a PR split, as there is still strong public appetite for a two-party political system.
Ibrahim Suffian, who heads independent pollster Merdeka Center, agreed that how PAS goes about this situation will weigh heavily on the public’s perception of the party, but noted that PKR likewise needs to be more forthcoming with its partners to make the coalition work.
While PAS needs to decide whether they will uphold the interests of their powerful ulama faction or focus on national issues, PKR needs to start sharing their plans with their partners, he said.
“A lot of people may not be very clear as to what PKR’s agenda is with regards to the ‘Kajang move’ and Tan Sri Khalid,” he said, referring to last March’s by-election engineered by the party to make Wan Azizah a member of the Selangor state assembly and qualify to be made mentri besar.
“They need to win over the confidence of their allies, particularly PAS... PAS being a large and conservative party doesn’t take surprises very well,” Ibrahim said.
But Assoc Prof Shaharuddin Badaruddin believes there is still some breath left in PR and expects the young partnership to eventually pull through this imbroglio.
The political scientist attached with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) said this is not the first time PR has dealt with internal disagreements, citing the 2009 Perak constitutional crisis and PAS’s controversial former Kedah Mentri Besar Tan Sri Azizan Abdul Razak as examples of how the three parties managed to deal with their problems “gracefully”.
PR lost Perak after three defections and two years of legal wrangling that ended in favour of rivals BN.
The late Azizan, meanwhile, drove a wedge in PR relations with his combative leadership style that antagonised not only PKR and DAP leaders but also members of his own party.
“It’s just another case happening in Selangor. They have managed to solve (their problems) from time to time... these three parties are balanced in terms of strength, so everything needs to be negotiated,” Shaharuddin said.
Khalid, who was sacked from PKR last weekend for insubordination, threw the state into a tailspin after he removed all PKR and DAP representatives from his executive council despite both parties making up half of the state assembly.
Khalid is currently running the state with four PAS executive councillors, the bare minimum as required by the Selangor constitution.
He has also refused to step down as mentri besar, relying on support from the Sultan, Umno’s 12 assemblymen and for now, PAS’s unknown position on the matter.
Struggling to stay in power, both PKR and DAP are now heavily dependant on PAS to finally take a stand in the crisis but the Islamist party will not be rushed, insisting that it will only meet this Sunday for a decision. -Malay Mail
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