What’s next for Pakatan?
The impasse over snap polls in Penang shows that the parties in the alliance, after all these years, still cannot get their heads together.
The question of snap polls in Penang seems to be causing a division in Pakatan Harapan that’s deep enough to worry its supporters.
The proposed election is seen by many as nothing more than an attempt by DAP to prove that support for Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng is intact despite the charge of corruption against him.
After consulting with several civic groups, PKR announced that it would not support the call. This prompted statements of outrage from DAP leaders aligned with Guan Eng. Tony Pua, for instance, made a reference to friends who don’t stand by you despite your standing by them in a similar circumstance. That was of course a reference to DAP’s fight on behalf of PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim.
However, the argument against holding a snap election is compelling as voter apathy and disenchantment with the opposition are real enough, meaning it could end up with BN becoming stronger in the state.
Last week, there was quite a furore over the exclusion of Amanah from discussions on the issue. That certainly was ill thought because it solidified the notion that Amanah is subservient to DAP. Nevertheless, Amanah has chosen to support DAP’s proposal, heading off any potential confrontation at that end, but at the cost of any hope for an image change before GE14.
While Guan Eng has promised to continue consulting with PKR and pledged that there would be no unilateral decision by DAP, the question revolving around the graft charge against him has not changed.
So what happens now? He has spoken of his imprisonment as more of an eventuality than a question yet to be decided by the courts. Attorney-General Apandi Ali has protested against that assertion. But then, the public probably agrees with Guan Eng.
Should Guan Eng be found guilty, he might become a martyr and Penang may become stubbornly pro-opposition in defiance, undoing whatever BN may have earned by way of a swing back to it by some sections of the Chinese community.
But then again, as some analysts have said, a measure of voter apathy has set in since the break-up of Pakatan Rakyat and the opposition’s failure to show any dynamism. This could mean that some voters would be less than willing to travel home to Penang to cast their votes. They might even be put off by DAP’s apparent sense of self-importance.
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While the current impasse in Pakatan Harapan may not lead to something as drastic as the split of Pakatan Rakyat, it shows that the opposition has yet to fix a problem that has haunted it since GE13. The members of the alliance still cannot get their heads together.