OCT 15 — An American solution. No, this is not about the impending TPPA agreement, it’s about arriving at a solution to the opposition parties’ coalition-forming headaches.

Not by resuscitating Pakatan Rakyat, reinvigorate with Pakatan Harapan or bedazzle with befuddling multi-level co-operations — radiated versions of friend of a friend is kind of a friend, and enemy of my enemy is not certainly an ally but just a frenemy. Bypass the nonsense arrangements.

By holding US-style primaries.

There seems to be no path of reconciliation in the concurrent spats involving the Islamists PAS, secularists DAP, pseudo-secularists PKR and passed about Parti Sosialis Malaysia (PSM).

Yet, grudgingly they all admit that to topple the sliding Barisan Nasional (BN) — which has enough ticks in the local politics checkbox — would require all hands on deck. To disable three way fights any way possible.

That is why it’s a mountain when everyone is together. Apart, it’s like scaling Everest beyond Camp Four breathing carbon monoxide tanks.

So how to play nice when nice is not an option anymore?

By adding a preliminary election which is the norm in the US. Both the Democratic and Republican Parties have primary elections to select their party’s candidate — in varying formats of all voters, party members only or members plus independents casting votes.

The format differs from state to state, but in essence when there are more than one person seeking the opportunity to be candidate to the House of Representatives or Senate the larger population decide.

Barack Obama had to defeat several other Democratic candidates in 2002 when seeking to become the party’s senate candidate, and then went on to defeat others including the Republican candidate in the inter-party contest. Prelim before the final election.

No more square pegs, my round friend

Here even when there is relative coalition harmony, negotiations for both parliamentary and state seats have been infernos.

Months of discourse did not stop unilateral declarations for Temerloh, Gelang Patah and Bentong before GE13 in 2013 nor stop sabotage in Kota Damansara and Semenyih for PSM leaders turned PKR candidates by friends from PAS.

So perhaps the present open dissent can force a change in approach. Not whether PAS and DAP can stomach each other in compromises but to let PAS, DAP, PKR and PSM directly contest candidates in a preliminary election to determine the final candidate to face off Barisan Nasional come the general election.

The parties can retain their co-operation and vision for the general election, but they will be spared the need to win the fictional argument of which one of them is really preferred by the people for any seat. 

Asking the small teams the parties have at each division to unscientifically call where voter sentiment is and then relaying the information to national leaders who then sit in small rooms and argue in a vacuum about how the will of the people of Kapar is with PKR not DAP and definitely not PAS when there is never an effort to calculate the sentiment of the voters is disingenuous. 

Because all the local leaders of PAS, PKR and DAP are convinced that if they — not the other parties — contest against BN, they would win the most number of votes.

Time to call everyone’s bluff. Unlike the US primaries which are between members of one party, in our situation each party — including PSM — are allowed to put candidates and let all those registered to vote in the constituency as per the Election Commission (EC) roll select their preferred candidate.  

This would be an actual count of sentiments, not just guesstimates.

Logistics

As mentioned above, the latest EC roll will be used.

The real challenge is in when to have the primary elections when the prime minister can interrupt by calling the general election prior to the primaries. The prime minister, thanks to his own woes, will not be eager for polls before 2018 and therefore the window is either late 2017 or early 2018.

The parties can set ground rules in terms to certifying voters, counting votes and a healthy campaign period. With resources limited, the separate primaries from state to state can be stretched out rather than held on one day.

The boons

PAS will be dissuaded from rejecting the results of the primary. This is their chance to directly appeal to the people in Kota Damansara and tell them that they do not need to vote a PSM candidate because of their opposition of BN and refrain from voting the PAS candidate because they fear splitting the votes and benefit BN. There will be no BN, just PAS having a chance to prove that indeed the Selangor suburb is much more enamoured by their platform.

And if they lose, they would look like sore losers if they still place a candidate in the general election despite having lost in a primary among opposition parties.

PKR would be able to test their presumption of being the true masters of mixed seat races. DAP can put up candidates in Kelana Jaya, Petaling Jaya Selatan, Subang and Segamat and parade the gains of inclusivity initiated by them over the last decade.

The people opposed to BN are often at the mercy of the opposition parties in that they trade seats and thereafter name candidates as they prefer. Primaries will also act to allow voters to decide among candidates not just parties.  DAP may have a great track record in Penang but — hypothetically — if the man or woman they name for Serdang is below the expectation of voters, then they can opt for a more worldly and dynamic candidate from PAS or a grassroots supported local boy from PKR.

The quality of candidates and use of campaign time will matter when choices are not binary and reasonable time is available to persuade voters.

Even if the wait period between primaries and the general is long, it can — despite reduce the value of the mandate and increase the likelihood of BN trying to buy candidates — result in more time for the media-starved opposition candidate to appeal to the people directly and lay more pressure on BN to name their own prestigious candidate for the seat.

Primary election winners are also not at the mercy of party factionalism as senior leaders in all the defunct-Pakatan Rakyat coalition are known to use their influence to undermine capable candidates and name instead those who deserve their patronage. “Dear Leader” thinking is not limited to BN unfortunately.

The solution

The remaining question is whether voters will bother to vote one time before the actual election, but that is about the parties working to win votes. No one in Bukit Bintang will be asked to travel to Sabak Bernam to vote, they vote in the locality and when these opposition parties explain why they cannot determine on their own the balance and multi-candidate fights hurt the higher aims of democracy for the country, enough Malaysians will be eager to vote.

Is this another task for the opposition? Of course. But how else can they overwhelm their own deadly sins other than changing the dynamics?

It is not wrong asking for a reroute, as long as there is clarity in the navigation. Malaysians can appreciate a clear vision of allowing Malaysians to vote who they deserve and not lose out because the incumbent relies on split votes to lord over them. They are increasingly appreciating it with the developments in the last two years.

So Pakatan, oops opposition leaders, does this deserve some serious consideration? Don’t split too many votes on it.

* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.