KUALA LUMPUR, March 30 — Sensing an imminent breakup of Pakatan Rakyat (PR), veteran opposition lawmaker Lim Kit Siang proposed a bipartisan “Save Malaysia” coalition in order to keep DAP politically relevant in a changing landscape, political analysts said.
The analysts are of the view that without the Malay-based PAS, DAP would need to find another Bumiputera-majority party to anchor a new alliance to go toe-to-toe with the Umno-led Barisan Nasional (BN) ruling coalition, leading Lim to reach out to East Malaysian parties ahead of the Sarawak state election.
“This move is not to save Malaysia, it is to save DAP,” said Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) senior lecturer Dr Jeniri Amir, in reference to Lim’s name for the proposed new coalition.
“He is doing this to salvage DAP from its current predicament. He wants to uphold the reputation of DAP.”
According to Jeniri, DAP might need to dissociate itself from PR to retain support from the ethnic Chinese and Christian community especially in the upcoming Sarawak polls, since it has been associated with political allies PAS’ push for hudud.
The next Sarawak state election must be held before 2016. In the last election in 2011, BN won 55 out of 70 state assembly seats.
“He’s anticipating a collapse. He knows well without a dominant Malay party, it would be difficult for PR to move forward,” said Jeniri’s fellow lecturer in Unimas, Dr Faizal Hazis.
“What’s he trying to do, if there’s no PR, the way forward within the context of a shrinking feeling of trust within component parties and the emergence of a right wing group, he’s proposed a bipartisan coalition.
“PR cannot move forward with just two parties. It needs a bigger coalition,” Faizal added, predicting a PAS exit that would then leave the DAP in partnership with just PKR.
A week ago, Lim started his proposal to form a new government by a “Save Malaysia” coalition to comprise lawmakers from both sides of the political divide.
Stressing that the suggestion was his personal view, the DAP parliamentary leader added that the pact’s objectives would be specifically to defend the Federal Constitution and uphold the rule of law.
Yesterday, Lim sought to win over two significant voter groups by suggesting that a woman MP from Sabah or Sarawak could be the next prime minister of his new coalition government.
He went as far as to list de facto Law Minister Nancy Shukri, Deputy Works Minister Datuk Rosnah Rashid Shirlin, and Women, Family and Community Development Minister Datuk Rohani Abdul Karim, as candidates.
A few days ago, Lim also proposed for BN lawmakers Tan Sri Joseph Pairin Kitingan, Datuk Seri Salleh Said Keruak, Datuk Hajiji Mohd Noor and Datuk Seri Masidi Manjun for the Sabah chief minister post, instead of Sabah PKR leader Datuk Lajim Ukin.
“He knows that Sabah and Sarawak has been BN’s fixed deposit. So he is looking for a new coalition with Sabah and Sarawak’s Bumiputera component parties,” said Dr Shamsul Adabi Mamat, a professor at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia.
Despite that, Shamsul warned DAP might not find it easy to forge alliance with East Malaysia-based parties, claiming they are still trapped in BN-friendly development politics.
Shamsul also warned of further hiccups for the proposed coalition down the road, as PR component parties were all born out of anti-establishment stances, and a collapse in the current PR mould will pose a great challenge for DAP.
“Lim and DAP have a huge ambition to dominate Malaysian politics. Which is why the coalition doesn’t seem to focus on Peninsular Malaysia… He is playing number politics, he sees the ethnic composition in Sabah and Sarawak as a power to form a pact,” said Shamsul.
“They have to understand that in Sabah and Sarawak, they are still not polluted by power-crazy politics. It will be a dangerous thing for national politics if this DAP experiment is successful in Sabah and Sarawak.”
Faizal, a senior lecturer at Unimas’ Department of Politics and International Relations, was also cynical that the proposed coalition could take off, noting that the ruling coalition BN had no reason whatsoever to accomodate DAP in a coalition government.
“I think he’s just throwing the idea: Let’s get our act together BN and PR and move towards more pertinent issues, such as the cost of living, Islamic State militants and fundamentalism.
“Let’s move on beyond this. He’s trying to send that kind of message rather than proposing a coalition… Maybe he’s offering a solution to move beyond partisan politics,” the political analyst added.
“It will be a win-win situation for both PR and BN. BN can still keep power with help of PR, and at the same time we can keep the country intact,” Faizal said.
