OCT 14 — PKR’s supreme council made a very disappointing decision to expand Pakatan Harapan by way of incorporating PAS, a move seen by many as shortsighted, selfish and opportunistic.

Some 25 members of the supreme council signed a joint statement to call for a special meeting on continued cooperation with the Islamist party.

Why can’t PKR just let go of PAS? The party’s vice president Tian Chua recently told the media the constituencies contested by PKR were mostly mixed constituencies with majority Malay voters. In the absence of PAS’ support, the party would suffer tremendous setback especially where there are three-cornered fights.

So the party has to cling on to PAS for fear of losing out in elections! PKR leaders seem to have overlooked the fact that PAS has betrayed Pakatan Rakyat for pressing on with its hudud agenda.

PKR must never abandon its principles just for the sake of winning the elections.

While PKR may be able to retain some of its Malay votes through a tie-up with PAS, it risks losing the support of non-Malay voters. Chinese voters have already lost their faith in PAS, and are strongly against the implementation of hudud no matter how hard DAP tried to convince them.

PKR must not bring in conservative political forces just because of such an opportunistic altitude, in the end bringing down the entire opposition pact with it.

Most PKR leaders appear to have lost their vision of the country’s political development reality. The current situation in the country is absolutely favorable to the opposition pact, but a wrong move might turn the tide against itself.

Thanks to the 1MDB issue and RM2.6 billion “political donation”, Umno has found itself under tremendous pressure now. The Conference of Malay Rulers has voiced up while the rural Malays begin to grow skeptical. All these are bound to shake up Umno’s fundamental support base.

Former PM Tun Dr Mahathir teamed up with several BN veteran leaders yesterday to hit out at the government, showing that a crack may have already opened up within Umno and BN.

As if that is not enough, the dismissal of former AG and transfers of senior MACC officers, Bank Negara’s instruction to get 1MDB to repatriate some US$1.83 billion of funds, and MACC’s insistence to carry out the 1MDB investigation—all these will further hit the country’s public services sector. Civil servants have always been the insurmountable vote bank of BN. What if these people begin to ponder over these issues and subsequently turn against the ruling coalition?

Against the backdrop of such possible shift, we may not even need PAS to help consolidate the support of Malay votes. Parti Amanah Negara alone could do the job just as well!

As a matter of fact, Amanah is beginning to gain momentum. Its future is looking bright and promising. For instance, the party has managed to recruit 11,000 new members in Kelantan, its best ever performance nationwide.

Amanah has gained some ground in PAS’ fortress state. That probably explains why PAS has wanted so badly to hold a 60,000-strong rally in Kota Bharu this weekend in hope of consolidating its grip. I wonder why PKR has failed to visualize this.

In the meantime, given the way the BN is running the country, it is anticipated that the national economy will only slide further. GST and weak ringgit aside, the government’s inability to continue its subsidy and compensation policy means public transport fees are going up, as a dozen of highways increase their toll rates with effect from this Thursday. All these will only aggravate the already heavy financial burden of Malaysians.

What the public want now is good governance, not radical racial and religious policies. If PKR echoes PAS’ hudud advocacy, it is a matter of time voters will find a new outlet for their frustration in the party.

DAP and Amanah have seen the opportunity and have re-allocated their resources to the frontline state of Johor, while PKR is still struggling to retain ts own grassroots support.

 * This is the personal opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail Online.