Coalition in Perak resilient despite cracks

Coalition in Perak resilient despite cracks

Posted by Raja Petra
Sunday, 16 March 2008,MT

Commentary by Kevin Tan, THE EDGE

The coalition consisting of PAS, DAP and PKR in Perak appears fragile on the surface.

Just when all seemed settled with Perak PAS secretary Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin chosen as the mentri besar, DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang sprang a shocker at the eleventh hour.

In a statement on Wednesday night, Lim said that all 18 DAP assemblymen would boycott Nizar’s swearing-in ceremony as the party did not approve of the appointment of a PAS representative as mentri besar.

Within hours of the statement, which was posted on Lim’s personal blog, hundreds of responses streamed in, mostly criticising the DAP stalwart for his action.

As of 8pm yesterday, there were a total of 816 comments.

One reader known as “BlueBear” summed up the general feeling saying that the DAP would need to compromise even though its supporters were disappointed by the choice of a PAS representative for the top post in Perak.

“Please do not worsen the situation by publicly displaying your disapproval. You can potentially undo all your good work in the elections with this action,” BlueBear said.

By yesterday morning, Lim had apologised for his statement and it was reported that all 18 DAP assemblymen would be attending the swearing-in ceremony.

However, all was still not well when the swearing-in ceremony, which was scheduled to take place yesterday, had to be postponed. This time, it is PKR’s turn to throw a spanner in the works.

Malaysiakini reported sources as saying that PKR’s Behrang assemblyman Jamaluddin Mohd Radzi had apparently disputed Nizar’s appointment as the mentri besar.

When contacted by The Edge, PKR deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali, however, revealed a different story. According to him, all three parties were still working out a new power-sharing formula.

He said PAS and DAP had agreed to a 6:2:2 formula, whereby DAP would get six executive councillor posts while PAS and PKR would get two each.

“We want a fairer distribution and we are approaching a compromise,” Syed Husin said.

He also stressed that PKR was not pulling out of the coalition and it was not a big problem for the three parties to resolve their outstanding issues.

Despite the political dramas that are unfolding in Perak in the past few days, there are reasons to believe that the partnership between PAS, DAP and PKR is not as shaky as it appears to be.

According to a report in Financial Times on Monday, political analyst Bridget Welsh of John Hopkins University said there was “tremendous goodwill among them to succeed”.

Despite their differences, the three parties are unlikely to throw away their victory after an election that proved voters were willing to cross ethnic lines to support them.

Some political observers even believed that what transpired in the past few days were just “political theatres” or posturing by the different parties to placate their respective supporters.

Whatever their ideological differences, PAS, DAP and PKR are pragmatic political actors that understood the need to work together.

It is not too far fetched to suggest that the leadership of the three parties have already reached a common understanding on some broad issues that allows them to function as a coalition.

On whether what happened thus far has eroded the people’s confidence in the coalition government, Syed Husin said: “Once we set up the government, we will do things that restore confidence in the people.”

Among the five non-BN dominated states, Perak is where the opposition has the narrowest simple majority to form a government as the PAS-DAP-PKR coalition garnered only 31 seats in the 59-seat state assembly.

Although the opposition will see its coalition’s resilience stretched to the limit in Perak, all three parties stand to benefit if they succeed in overcoming their differences.

For the DAP, this will be a golden opportunity to dispel its anti-Malay image and to restrain the more chauvinistic elements in the party.

The Chinese-dominated party can get a lot of goodwill from the Malays by allowing PAS to assume the top post in Perak even though DAP has more seats.

At the same time, it can strengthen the hands of PAS professionals’ faction against the ulamak (religious scholars) who are dogmatic.

With cooperation from DAP and PKR, chances are PAS would become more moderate, especially if the modern Islamic professionals in the party gain more influence.

On the other hand, DAP could capitalise on this opportunity to educate its supporters, especially the Chinese, that PAS is not as threatening as they think it is.

Meanwhile, PKR, which is the bridge between DAP and PAS, could boost its power base in the mixed constituencies, especially if its elected representatives could offer good services to all across the ethnic divide.

All in all, the “tiga sekawan” (tripartite) partnership among PAS, DAP and PKR is a win-win deal provided they reinforce the best of one another.