Friday November 20, 2009

Putting the cart before the horse

COMMENT
By BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

Pakatan Rakyat’s jockeying over positions and titles indicates deep divisions in the coalition over leadership, political ambitions and presenting a common platform.

THE debate in Pakatan Rakyat as to who should be the next prime minister – PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim or PAS spiritual leader Datuk Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat – is like putting the cart before the horse.

The subject is not only premature but it borders on the presumptuous to argue over who between the two leaders is better qualified to be prime minister or Pakatan leader when the next general election is months away and nobody can say for sure how the dice will fall.

PKR newcomer Datuk Zaid Ibrahim, who often courts controversy with his statements, boldly announced that he thinks Anwar should not take on the job as prime minister, presumably because of the sodomy charges.

He even proposed PAS president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and DAP adviser Lim Kit Siang as better alternatives to Anwar in a blunder that has everyone in Pakatan red in the face.

Immediately, Zaid, who is pro tem chairman of the yet-to-be-registered Pakatan coalition, did an about-turn and announced that there was nobody who could replace Anwar and therefore Anwar should remain the candidate.

In another howler on Monday, he proposed Nik Aziz as the spiritual leader of the Pakatan coalition, comparing him to the incomparable Mahatma Gandhi and immediately inviting adverse comments from his own Pakatan colleagues.

Zaid, the former Umno minister who gained popularity for resigning over the unrestricted use of the ISA, might be popular among the rank and file but in Pakatan he is walking on a political minefield.

As a newcomer to PKR, he has a lot of detractors in the party and they include most of the senior PKR leadership that see him as a rival to Anwar, their supreme leader.

They are also suspicious because he came from Umno, which the PKR leaders see as their oppressor.

Zaid also does not have many friends in the DAP, which is just as suspicious of him, having been on the receiving end of Barisan Nasional/Umno for most of its 40 years as an opposition political party.

But they are willing to play along.

PAS leaders are more suspicious of Zaid because he took the lead to try to stop the passage of hudud laws in Terengganu when Hadi was Mentri Besar between the years 1999 and 2004.

PKR’s Wangsa Maju MP Wee Choo Keong made an apt comment when he said the whole debate was premature because Pakatan was not even registered.

Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin, in his usual blunt style, said Nik Aziz was not the right candidate because, unlike Gandhi, he was a politician and could not play the “above it all” role as Pakatan chairman or spiritual leader.

His suggestion that a “non-partisan ulama” like Datuk Seri Harussani Zakaria be appointed Pakatan’s spiritual leader would not make any headway either with the multi-ethnic PKR or the DAP.

DAP chairman Karpal Singh was equally forthright.

“Pakatan Rakyat does not need a spiritual adviser,” he said, adding that Anwar should continue to lead Pakatan politically.

“Pakatan doesn’t need spiritual motivation.”

It has not been explained how and why a religious person should be spiritual leader of a multi-ethnic Pakatan coalition that has undertaken to defend a secular constitution.

In any case, Zaid’s odd proposal to exclude and later include Anwar as future prime minister and elevating Nik Aziz as Pakatan spiritual adviser and opposition to the suggestions indicate the deep divisions in Pakatan over basic issues of leadership, political ambitions and presenting a common platform.

Instead of arguing over who should be the next prime minister, Pakatan should pay attention to the fact that it is haemorrhaging public support with its constant squabbles and inability to work together as a team.

At the same time, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak is powering ahead with numerous schemes for the people that were ironically originally promised by Pakatan, like static and mobile health clinics for the urban poor.

Najib has appropriated the Pakatan agenda of change, made it his own and gained ground over his political opponents.

In arrogance or humility, politicians always propose. Lest anybody forgets, ultimately, it is the people who decide who wins, who forms the next government and who becomes prime minister.

That’s what Pakatan should focus on – the people who gave them a handsome mandate on the promise that they would serve them with distinction.