KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 9 — Pakatan Harapan’s pledge to uphold Malay and Muslim interests in its official agreement is timely and necessary to counter accusations that the federal opposition pact is anti-Malay and anti-Islam, political pundits say.
Analysts who spoke to Malay Mail Online also believed that while the coalition’s agreement was a step in the right direction, Pakatan Harapan’s challenge was to ensure that leaders from the three member parties—DAP, PKR and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) — remained committed to the spirit of the pact, especially in inter-party disputes.
“What has surprised the opposition is how much traction racial and religious issues can have with the Malay ground. This has shown member parties of Pakatan Harapan that they had overestimated the public acceptance of their agenda on good governance and inclusive politics.
“It was after all racial and religious issues that so easily caused Pakatan Rakyat to break up and that are tempting PAS to collaborate with Umno,” said Dr Ooi Kee Beng, deputy director of the Singapore-based Institute of Southeast Asian Studies (ISEAS) Yusof Ishak Institute, referring to Pakatan Harapan’s predecessor.
Malay Mail Online reported yesterday the contents of Pakatan Harapan’s official agreement, in which prominent pledges were made to protect the special position of the Malays, the Malay Rulers, Islam as the religion of the federation, and Bahasa Malaysia — the same provisions of the Federal Constitution that Umno considers its main “thrusts”.
Pakatan Harapan leaders are scheduled to sign the agreement at its convention in Shah Alam later today.
Ooi said that the agreement was aimed at countering the anti-Malay label and at the same time, at promoting Pakatan Harapan’s acceptance of the Federal Constitution.
Dr Faisal Hazis, associate professor at the Institute of Malaysian and International Studies (IKMAS) in Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said the Pakatan Harapan Agreement was a good start to finding a common platform between the opposition parties.
He said the three parties needed to publicise the contents of the agreement so that Malaysians could gauge the pact’s viability as an alternative to the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN).
“They need to publicise the agreement, especially the provision in upholding the main tenets of the Constitution in order to counter BN propaganda,” he said.
But the analyst noted that Pakatan Harapan’s greatest challenge would be to manage the many personalities within the three parties.
“Often, self-serving politicians tend to go overboard and make statements or take actions that could jeopardise the coalition,” he said.
Political analyst Dr Oh Ei Sun, however, believed that the fear of Pakatan Harapan, especially DAP being anti-Malay, was only prevalent in rural areas of peninsular Malaysia, and that such issues were of no concern in Sabah and Sarawak.
“It would only somewhat allay the fears of conservative Malays against the supposedly secular DAP especially in the rural areas, which are still under the heavy propaganda of both Umno and PAS.
“The urban Malays and East Malaysian Bumiputeras have little of such fears in any case,” the senior fellow at S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Singapore’s Nanyang Technological University told Malay Mail Online.
Dr Lim Teck Ghee of the Centre for Policy Initiatives said that comparatively, BN did not need a formal agreement as the long-ruling coalition, which has been in power since independence, has had a longer experience in managing member parties.
“While power and position have been unevenly distributed within BN, it is difficult for dissident component parties — even those seen to be marginalised — to speak out openly against BN policies when they are enjoying some perks and positions.
“Umno’s leadership is smarter and more aggressive; and has been at least one or several steps ahead of the leadership of other component parties in pushing successfully for the party’s interests and concerns to become dominant in the larger BN platform,” he told Malay Mail Online.
