The unveiling of Pakatan’s Game of Thrones

As season 7 of the Game of Thrones is gearing for release, the much-awaited TV series exemplifies everything you need to know about politics at its finest hour. Minus the violence, gore and sex, the Pakatan Harapan leadership line-up has been revealed by Dr Mahathir Mohamad, who is the chairperson.

It was a historic occasion that was marred by last-minute lobbying which dragged the announcement to midnight. It's anyone’s guess on what was used as the bargaining tool. But one thing was very clear: the minorities in Malaysia have been abandoned.

The minorities have been reduced to dust in this line-up. Of the 12 top leadership positions, only two are filled by a Chinese and an Indian, which is clearly a lopsided deal. The Chinese and Indian representation is inadequate to show the level of support they have been giving the Pakatan coalition till date. It is an ungrateful act by the Pakatan leadership to ignore the prominent roles played by the minorities, especially the Chinese in swinging the votes towards Pakatan and bringing the coalition to the forefront of Malaysian politics. The struggle and the support of these minorities have been in vain.

It’s even more pathetic to see the Indians being sidelined all these years under BN and Mahathir, and it continues to be the case with Pakatan as well. M Kulasegaran is the sole representative of the Indians in the line-up, where some might beg to differ as he is not Indian but a Sri Lankan. Beggars cannot be choosers, so for all it’s worth, Kulasegaran has been given token responsibility of being the treasurer. Indians are reduced to mere abettors in the hands of the master puppeteers.

As Malaysiakini columnist S Thayaparan aptly puts it in his column titled "Playing the Losing Non-Malay Race Card": “So, someone like Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu) president Muhyiddin Yassin can go on about a Malay tsunami, and the DAP and MCA can bicker on about who better represents the Chinese community but whenever the Indian issue comes into play - and truth be told this is mainly an opposition tactic - everyone suddenly becomes race-blind."

I went through the line-up. I had a second look at it, even a third. Yet I am still confused as to who is actually leading the coalition. The ultimate question is, who will be the prime minister once Pakatan clinches Putrajaya. Which house would you support to sit on the throne? Normally the party with the most MPs in Parliament would be able to nominate their leader as the prime minister.

So, in Pakatan’s case, it is clear that DAP would be the prime candidate to lead the nation. Will Pakatan be true to its policy of racial impartiality? It is, of course, nonsensical to conjure up such image but would Malaysia ever have a non-Malay prime minister?

We are back to square one after all these years. The struggles of reformasi and "ubah" have been obliterated. The man who single- handedly split Malaysians into pockets of racially charged communities now controls the Pakatan’s ship.- Mkini