THE NEW PAKATAN RAKYAT MUST AGREE TO AGREE

PAS has every right to disagree with all these. But when it comes to voting it needs to vote together with PKR and DAP. PAS wrongly thought that if it did not agree then that means it also does not need to vote in support. You can disagree but when it comes to voting you must vote together with the others and not against the others.

THE CORRIDORS OF POWER

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“We must learn from these mistakes in Pakatan and ensure that the new coalition, to be formed with the new Islamist party by Merdeka Day, will have more unity of purpose, and is more cohesive and united in effecting far-reaching political changes in Malaysia,” said Lim Kit Siang in a speech in Johor Baru last night.

“Looking back, it may be a blessing in disguise that Pakatan failed to win the majority of the parliamentary seats in the 13th general election. If the majority had been a slim one, Pakatan would be at the mercy of the PAS president, who had never accepted Anwar Ibrahim as the coalition’s candidate for prime minister,” he said. (The Malaysian Insider)

By or before 31st August 2015, Malaysia is going to see yet another Islamic party being formed, the fourth one to be formed since 1951. The first Islamic party in Malaysia, of course, is PAS, which started as the Pan-Malayan Islamic Party or PMIP before it changed its name to PAS.

PMIP was a breakaway party from Umno, which was formed five years earlier in 1946. What is interesting to note is that both Umno and PMIP are acronyms for the English names of the party. It was only later that PMIP decided to adopt a Malay name.

The two other Islamic parties are Berjasa (Barisan Jemaah Islamiah Se-Malaysia) and Hamim (Parti Hizbul Muslimin Malaysia), which were breakaway parties from PAS and which were formed in 1977 and 1983 respectively. Both these parties did not make much gains in Malaysian politics, though, basically because they were independents and not aligned to any coalition.

This latest breakaway Islamic party would definitely suffer the same fate as Berjasa and Hamim if it were to become independent. But since it has the backing of DAP, financial backing included, then it would have a better chance of success and would not suffer the fate of Berjasa and Hamim.

The main mistake that PAS made was that it did not toe the party line. No doubt the spirit of the Pakatan Rakyat marriage is that they would agree to disagree. However, while you may disagree with certain things that does not mean that gives you the right to vote against the coalition.

One major issue against PAS is that it did not support the Kajang Move and the ouster of Selangor Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim. It then did not support the appointment of Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail as the replacement to Khalid but supported Azmin Ali instead.

PAS has every right to disagree with all these. But when it comes to voting it needs to vote together with PKR and DAP. PAS wrongly thought that if it did not agree then that means it also does not need to vote in support. You can disagree but when it comes to voting you must vote together with the others and not against the others.

That is the same in Barisan Nasional. MCA, MIC, Gerakan, PPP, etc., can disagree with Umno on certain issues. You do not need to agree 100% with everything that Umno does. But when it comes to voting you must vote together with Umno and not against Umno.

Basically, toeing the party line and party solidarity are crucial. If one party votes opposite to the rest in the coalition it affects the coalition. This is the practice in Barisan Nasional and also the practice in Pakatan Rakyat. And PAS thought that since they did not agree to what was happening in Selangor they need not support the move.

The second issue, of course, was the amendment to the Kelantan Sharia Bill that had been passed by the Kelantan State Assembly in 1993. PAS wants to implement Hudud. And PAS did say it would never abandon Hudud, and in fact never did. But that does not mean PAS can go ahead and push for Hudud without the agreement of DAP and PKR. PAS has every right to aspire to implement Hudud as long as it remains just an aspiration and never actually gets done.

The latest and fourth Islamic party to be formed since 1951 would most likely take heed of the mistakes made by PAS and the warning by Lim Kit Siang and not do anything that DAP and PKR do not like. It can’t, anyway, since its survival is in the hands of DAP and PKR. If this new Islamic party demonstrates independence then it is going to suffer the same fate as Berjasa and Hamim. And where are Berjasa and Hamim today?