Pakatan needs a reboot

Lim Kit Siang may have fallen short of his usual astute discernment when he recently warned Pakatan Rakyat against complacency and called on the coalition to renew its commitment to the Common Policy Framework and Operational Principle of Consensus.

PR needs a total revamp and a reboot, not just a refocusing or re-commitment if the coalition harbours the hope of governing Malaysia someday.

The dichotomy within PR is just too wide and too irreconcilable. The Common Policy Framework is just a Panadol, not a cure. It states what the coalition partners agree on, but it ignores or denies its disagreements.

It is a matter of time before the disagreements simmering beneath the surface erupt into open fissures.

The common policy framework must override individual party policies. If it mandates parliamentary democracy, then we can’t have any party in the coalition still believing in a theocracy. If it says rule of law and secularism, then we can’t have a party within the coalition still insisting on hudud.

It may be time for all the coalition partners to do two things:
they must subscribe to the common policy framework fully and unequivocally and they must abandon all the policies and beliefs which are in conflict or contradict the common policy framework. If they can’t do these two, then it is better for each of the parties to be on its own fighting for its own cause and objectives.

PR’s Operational Principle of Consensus may sound reasonable but is impractical. Making decisions based on consensus is making decisions based on expediency or even hypocrisy. PR should be making decisions based on agreed principles and policies; otherwise there is nothing to prevent the coalition from having a “consensus” to make stupid decisions or to do stupid things.

Right now, each of the parties within the coalition is recruiting members or courting support from among Malaysians based on its own core policies. So PAS has its Islamic state and hudud, PKR has its equality (with a little of ketuanan), and DAP has its democratic secularism. If they have recruited people and solicited support based on different objectives, how then is the coalition able to promote one common policy framework and one objective?

It is time for PR to be upfront with what it stands for, not what PAS, PKR or DAP individually stands for.

Many have argued that getting rid of BN is already a sufficient reason for PR to exist despite its inability to forge a common stand. Well, the Selangor MB saga has shown that a common enemy is not enough. Once the coalition has attained power, component party’s policies and objectives would start to rear their ugly heads.

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