THERE is no end to analyses as to why Pakatan Harapan lost not only in the recent Johor election but also in Melaka and Sarawak.
The failure to make comeback in the elections has been attributed to low voter turnout, too many competing parties, lack of Opposition coherence in formulating an agenda and the strength of UMNO.
These reasons have a role in why Pakatan lost the elections and why component parties such as Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah) and PKR had a disastrous performance. Even DAP lost some seats in these recent elections.
Pakatan reached its political height in the 2018 General Election. What was thought impossible was made possible by capturing Putrajaya.
With Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad as the prime minister, the victory was a pyrrhic one as it was just matter of time it became a political disaster for Pakatan, something that has come to be a nightmare to us until today.
Even though Pakatan was in power for only 22 months, a heavy damage was inflicted on the coalition for many reasons, including for its association with Mahathir.
The 22 months was not a long period but it was enough to sink the Pakatan as whole in the quagmire of politics. In that period, Pakatan accommodated Mahathir’s whims and fancies too much.
I must stress that Mahathir was never comfortable with his association with Pakatan in the first place. He manipulated the coalition to serve his short-term interest, which was to oust former PM Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak.
Our reform agenda could not take off as Mahathir himself became the biggest stumbling block in the implementation of our manifesto.
It was an unmitigated blow experienced by Pakatan, something that the coalition has never really recovered and possibly caused the recent election defeats.
Pakatan, prior to the general election in 2018, gave so much hope and confidence to Malaysians to break out from the vicious cycle of extremism.
The ouster of Pakatan government via the Sheraton Move, to some extent made possible by Mahathir the “saviour” himself, dented our reform agenda.
But even after the Pakatan was ousted from power, there was no attempt made to take stock of things especially on the mistakes made. There was not even a feeble attempt to resuscitate the reform agenda.
Supporters disenfranchised, lost hope
For many Opposition supporters, the catchphrase “reformasi” became shrouded in mystery and emptiness.
The focus seems to be more on return to federal power, power sharing or having some kind of agreement with the Government in power…the very people who ousted Pakatan from power!
So was it surprising when there was move to have memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of the then-PM Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin, ostensibly to ensure the non-return of kleptocrats?
There was an uproar within the Opposition ranks on the proposed move. However, as soon as Muhyiddin was ousted, Pakatan found no difficulty in signing an MOU with the new PM Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob.
This MOU was predicated on the need to restore political stability by bringing about certain reforms. For Ismail it was not reforms but to prolong his stay in power.
In essence, the most fundamental of the reforms was the need to pass the anti-hopping law. However, the reforms predicated on the cooperation with the Government were not something endearing to the diehard supporters of the Opposition.
For some, it was nothing but a betrayal of the mandate given to Pakatan. Rather than pursuing a full major reform agenda expected of a serious-minded opposition, Pakatan stuck with the limited agenda of reforms by signing a MOU with the Government.
It was, in other words, a shared reform agenda with the government in power, the very Government that the Opposition needs to oppose by presenting an alternative reform agenda.
Maybe there are some concrete things that could be achieved by this shared formula but beyond this, Pakatan seems to have lost the mission and vision that was so clear and loud before the 2018 election.
In essence, Pakatan is no more the powerful Opposition that it was once. It remains a feeble and weak force. It would virtually take wonders to restore the once powerful Opposition coalition to be a force to be reckoned with again.
The coalition has not only lost the powerful mission to bring about changes but seems to depend on the government in power to bring about changes.
To put it briefly, the metamorphosis experienced by Pakatan in putting forward a bold and unadulterated reform agenda to one of cooperation with the Government in power is the cause of the underlying dissatisfaction or frustration.
This seems to the entry point of BN/UMNO to weaken the Opposition. It might be difficult to put back Humpty Dumpty together again unless there is a serious attempt made at introspection, where the coalition was before, where is it now, why it has lost its popular appeal, and why the BN is making a comeback to fill the vacuum despite its massive unmitigated misdeeds.
Maybe the faults are not so much in the BN but what the component parties of the Pakatan have brought upon themselves. Let us not do the same thing repeatedly expecting different results. – March 19, 2022.
Prof Ramasamy Palanisamy is the state assemblyperson for Perai. He is also deputy chief minister II of Penang.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
