If PH And PN Do Not Unite Under A Big Tent They Can Each Crawl Under A Rock

 

STATEMENT BY PROF. DR. N. SUGUMAN NARAYANAN, SECRETARY-GENERAL, MALAYSIAN ADVANCEMENT PARTY

March 16, 2022

MAP takes note of PH Presidential Council’s statement urging opposition parties
not to contest in its traditional seats.
 

I also take note of PH’s gesture to “embrace all the forces willing to resist greed
and corruption”, in hopes of fostering cooperation among opposition parties and to
defeat BN. 

I also wish to remind PH that its treatment of the opposition forces has not been
serious and there is no long term strategy or even policies formulated to project a
new clean, transparent and credible government. 

PH has always taken the monopoly of opposition votes that resulted in other parties within the opposition bloc to contest against each other. 

On another note, MAP applied for membership in PH about 2 years ago but we did
not get any reply to date even though we were partners in our predecessor
organization, HINDRAF which was represented by Senator Waytha Moorthy as
cabinet member in the short-lived Pakatan Harapan government. The continued
denial of political space to HINDRAF and MAP is incomprehensible. 

HINDRAF’s contribution in the GE and its ability to shift 40% of voters in its
direction and the more than 200 Indian-only ceramahs organised by HINDRAF in
the last GE should not be ignored by PH. 

PH’s big tent approach must not only be lip service. PH must show commitment
and seriousness. Because of PH’s casual treatment of other parties (and the
rakyat) there are already plans for the formation of a 3rd force. 

In such an alliance, in the 67 seats with more than 10% Indian voters, multiracial candidates who have contributed to human rights and promoted good, clean and credible governance will contest with MAP’s help.

My Comments :

I want to appeal to the Malaysian people, especially those of you who are opinion leaders, those who are in positions of influence, the media folks, community leaders, NGOs, activists etc that the next big struggle is not against BN, UMNO, the kleptocrats etc.

The next big struggle (which we must win) is to get the Opposition parties to unite against the UMNO/BN. This is the task ahead.

Statements by DAP's Youth rejecting cooperation with Perikatan Nasional (for example) are immature and premature.  It is true that in many constituencies the margins of wins or losses are often less than the number of Indian voters in the constituency. So the Indian voters too can make a huge difference.

To me the above complaints by the Malaysian Advancement Party suggest possibilities. Let us look on the inclusive side.

The voters and the supporters, the NGOs, activists, opinion leaders, community leaders etc have to reach out to the Opposition parties starting with the Perikatan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan and pressure them all to sit and talk terms. 

(It is difficult to see Pejuang and the PKR as part of this process for the simple reason that Pejuang is a non-starter - they lost ALL their deposits in Johor and PKR won ZERO seats in Melaka and secured only one seat in Johor). 

But there must be a 'big tent'. If PN + PH + other parties can unite under one flag and one name in the next elections then they can very likely win.

And please this time come out with a shorter Policy Manifesto. Just state clearly a TOP TEN policy initiatives which MUST be different from BN/UMNO. Different from the New Economic Policy. 

You have no choice - either you unite for GE 15 or you will get another Johor in your face.

Either you hang together or we will hang separately.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.