The Pakatan Harapan logic

OPINION

By Raja Petra Kamarudin

A week ago, one-time PKR Deputy President Abdul Rahman Othman, aka ARO, said if you are not a member of one of the four Pakatan Harapan parties — DAP, PKR, PPBM and PAN — then you do not have locus standi to speak about the nomination of Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the opposition’s Prime Minister-in-waiting.

Over the last week, many writers and political analysts, local as well as foreign, have spoken or written commentaries, opinion pieces and special reports regarding Pakatan Harapan, in particular regarding their interim Prime Minister Mahathir and Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail. And none of these writers and political analysts are members of DAP, PKR, PPBM or PAN.

For decades people like Joceline Tan and Wong Chun Wai of The Star have written opinion pieces and political analyses regarding every single political party in Malaysia, even ones that are now extinct or dormant. Joceline and Chun Wai are not members or any of these political parties — unless they are members of MCA — so does this mean they, too, must stop writing?

To earn the right or gain locus standi to write about politics, politicians or political parties by first joining that political party is ludicrous. Does this mean you cannot write or talk about Theresa May or Donald Trump unless you first become members of their party?

The argument these people put forward is that whether Pakatan Harapan chooses Mahathir, Wan Azizah, Anwar Ibrahim, Azmin Ali, Mukhriz Mahathir, Mat Sabu, Lim Kit Siang, Lim Guan Eng, or whoever, as their Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister is an internal party matter and if you are not a member of any one of the Pakatan Harapan parties then it is no business of yours.

If the nominated interim Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister are Pakatan Harapan’s and not Malaysia’s interim Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, and hence is an internal party matter and is of no business to non-members, that would mean whether Datuk Seri Najib Razak and Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi should stay as Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister respectively are also internal matters of Umno and Barisan Nasional and is of no business to non-Umno and non-Barisan Nasional members.

Umno and Barisan Nasional decided that Najib and Zahid should be their Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. So if you are not a member of Umno or Barisan Nasional you have no locus standi to comment about this and you have no business asking them to resign. In the same spirit that if you are not a PPBM or Pakatan Harapan member you have no locus standi to comment about Mahathir and Wan Azizah, if you are not an Umno or Barisan Nasional member you also have no locus standi to comment about Najib and Zahid.

Mahathir is talking so much about ‘saving Malaysia’ by ousting Najib, Zahid, Umno and Barisan Nasional. So why can’t Najib also talk about saving Malaysia by preventing Mahathir, Wan Azizah, DAP and Pakatan Harapan from taking over the country? Mahathir calls Najib a kleptocrat. What proof has Mahathir offered these last three years to support that allegation? On the other hand, so many books have been written about how RM100 billion of the taxpayers’ money was wasted in the 22 years that Mahathir was Prime Minister while an estimated RM100 billion more had been siphoned out through Umno and Mahathir has thus far never sued these writers and publishers, some of whom are in Malaysia.

There are those who say if you do not live in Malaysia you have no locus standi to talk about Malaysia. Does this apply to bloggers and writers such as Clare Rewcastle Brown, Hussein Abdul Hamid, Ganesh Sahathevan, KTemoc Konsiders, and many more Mat Salleh who do not live in Malaysia? Many people do not live in Malaysia and some are not even Malaysian citizens but they all write about Malaysia and Malaysian politics?

It appears like this ‘do not write or talk about Malaysia if you do not live in Malaysia’ is targeted only at those who criticise the opposition and not those who support the opposition. If you support the opposition then continue writing about Malaysia even if you do not live in Malaysia.

* The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Malaysia Outlook