Pakatan Harapan's written safeguards now uncertain, leaders say

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 30 — Pakatan Harapan's (PH) “formal agreement” that would have prevented PKR from unilaterally negotiating with PAS now exists only in a “grey area”, said the pact's leaders.

While acknowledging clauses in the agreement signed by member parties last year that expressly forbid independent negotiations on electoral matters, they said the document has since been superseded by a Pakatan Harapan constitution.

The safeguards were introduced to convince the public that the pact would no longer allow issues to be sidestepped using the “agree to disagree” approach to conflict resolution.

Pakatan Harapan secretariat chief Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah said the formal agreement lapsed when Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM) entered the pact, but suggested that the contents of the two documents were fundamentally similar.

“The constitution is silent on this kind of details, but it generally says that all decisions is to be made at the presidential council,” he told Malay Mail Online when contacted.

Saifuddin explained that the coalition submitted a new constitution to the Registrar of Societies (RoS) after PPBM was accepted into the pact.

The previous “formal agreement” specifically stated that member parties may not negotiate with non-members on election matters without the express approval of the presidential council.

Member parties are also forbidden from independently negotiating with other parties after elections about “any matters”, including the formation of government, without first informing the presidential council.

Despite the formal agreement that allows a PH component to seek the removal of the offending party, PKR deputy president Datuk Seri Azmin Ali sought an electoral cooperation with PAS without express permission of the presidential council.

The PH presidential council finally ruled to prohibit the courtship of PAS on Monday night, but only after the matter led to public expressions of disapproval from Amanah and DAP.

A former ally from the Pakatan Rakyat days, PAS has severed ties with all Pakatan Harapan parties and are openly hostile to DAP, Amanah, PPBM, and PKR.

PKR's Rafizi Ramli, who is among those opposed to the continued courtship of PAS and who called for his party to hold a special congress to decide the matter, suggested that the crux of the formal agreement remained valid.

“In my opinion it [the formal agreement] stays because PPBM joins an existing coalition,” he said.

“However, one may argue that with the new constitution, it becomes the supreme document,” he added, after describing the agreement as currently existing in a “gray area”.

Amanah communication director Khalid Samad said, however, that he was unaware of a new constitution.

“As far as I know, PH sent a new logo and design to the RoS… nothing about a new constitution,” the Shah Alam MP said.

Khalid's party is understandably opposed to courting PAS, as Amanah was formed by former PAS members who quit the party after the so-called “progressive” faction was wiped out during an internal election.

Both parties also vie for the same voter audience.

All three PH leaders also said the coalition had only been informally notified of PKR's attempt to court PAS, and agreed that this did not occur formally before the presidential council as previously required by the “formal agreement”.

It is unclear what current safeguards exist in PH to prevent the unilateral actions of any single party from causing divisions in the pact or its possible disintegration.

The “agree to disagree” approach has so far led to PAS's bid for stronger Islamic law, PKR's so-called “Kajang Move”, DAP's unilateral announcement of Pakatan Rakyat's demise, and now, Azmin's continued pursuit of PAS.

Azmin is among holdouts in PH who insist that PAS must be brought into the Opposition fold to prevent multi-cornered fights in the general election that may split the Opposition vote.

He recently convinced PKR's political bureau to allow him to coax Selangor PAS to agree to a direct fights in the general election, as his position as Selangor mentri besar was made tenuous after PAS officially severed ties with PKR at the Islamist party’s muktamar this year.

Azmin is also politically indebted to PAS as it was its nomination that allowed him to be appointed the MB of Selangor, following the controversial “Kajang Move” to depose Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim, a rival of the PKR deputy president.

Allies DAP and Amanah have both expressed misgivings about Azmin’s continued pursuit of PAS, but to no avail.