Umno-BN is falling, why shoot ourselves in the foot?

I read with deep concern the recent developments happening in the country within the political sphere.

The decision by fellow Pakatan Harapan component party Bersatu to accept some Umno members via the mass resignations in their fold along with the appointments of state party leaders and sudden resignations within my party, PKR, is surprising, to say the least.

It also perturbs me to learn of actions being taken by opposition members within Umno to force a wedge between Harapan component parties through nefarious means.

I call upon Harapan and its component party leaders to return to our roots and evaluate as to why the majority of the people rejected 61 years of BN rule in favour of us.

The rakyat looks to us as a 'coalition of hope' as we have aptly named ourselves, with new expectations of working towards reforms that would benefit the country under the spirit of a 'New Malaysia'.

On top of ensuring that our pledges to the rakyat are fulfilled, the least we can do at present is to not be at loggerheads either internally within the party or in the coalition itself.

Voicing this as PKR vice-president and member of the Pakatan Harapan presidential council, I ask everybody to focus towards making Malaysia's future brighter rather than inviting instability amongst ourselves.

Some of these individuals who intend to crossover to greener pastures now that their own pasture is slowly turning into a wasteland are more concerned about the present and future leadership of Harapan than being sincere to Harapan's cause.

As I had previously stated earlier, all those who want to come across are welcome, but there must be a price to pay and preconditions that need to be fulfilled.

If we in Harapan make a wrong decision about this, we will definitely get booted out come the 15th general election and become a one-term government that the opposition hopes we will be.

The rakyat who were able to vote us in could easily vote us out.

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XAVIER JAYAKUMAR is a vice-president of PKR and a member of the Pakatan Harapan presidential council.