PKR Needs To Choose Its Sleeping Partner, But Who?

 

By Kanda Mohamad

KUALA LUMPUR, 17 Jun — The inevitable will happen and the question is – which party will vacate the bed and sleep with PKR – and when will this occur, given the irreconcilable situation between PAS and DAP.

Both parties with ideologies poles apart and clawing at each other are now pressuring the other to leave – the unregistered pact of Pakatan Rakyat (PR) has no written laws or procedures on how to throw a party out.

Thus in the absence of such written procedures, the only thing they can do is pressure the other to leave as the ‘marriage of convenience’ tied some seven years ago has no written contract.

However, both parties are not going to leave the pact because each knows the strength the pact can give them in the next general election and when harnessed in the right way, the pact can even take over Putrajaya given the current change in political environment and climate in the country.

However, for the DAP, it seems like the Chinese-based party is confident it can go with PKR to capture few states or rather retain Penang and Selangor instead of attempting Putrajaya where the end result will be a feud on who will be the Prime Minister.

While the warring parties had decided to cut ties at all levels and the chance of them making-up is very impossible like the term irreconcilable, PKR is under pressure as to which party it prefers to ‘sleep’ with or try hard to have both on the bed again.

With PKR president Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Ismail seemingly weak and her voice not taken seriously as reflected in her announcement to try to bring PAS and DAP together which DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng snubbed, PKR has got a big problem now.

Stuck in the middle of a war, PKR knows it cannot go on its own as it does not have a base solid enough to capture a state and in such a situation, it needs both the parties alongside it.

It does not want to lose Selangor which it held for a second term now and not capable of going alone, it needed both the parties – DAP and PAS – as without any one of them, Selangor will surely slip away in the next general election despite Barisan Nasional (BN) seen as weak.

Caught in a Catch 22 position, PKR needs to play its card right and since its de facto chief Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is in jail and is considered as forgotten – out of sight, out of mind thing – the party needs a leader respected by all to ‘glue’ back the already dismantled pact.

At present, it only has Selangor Mentri Besar Azmin Ali to help Wan Azizah as he is considered as being more acceptable to PAS while DAP would prefer Wan Azizah for reasons known to the Chinese-based party leaders.

PAS, who had just concluded its party poll where the ulamaks are in full control of the party, will not be expected to take  a step out of the pact as the party leaders insisted DAP or rather Lim himself has been hasty in words and actions without even making room to listen.

DAP on the other hand insisted PAS in particular its president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang had ‘betrayed’ the pact by taking actions on his own such as the implementation of Hudud in Kelantan.

Under such circumstances, PKR has got a heavy burden to decide with which party its wants to sleep with and making the wrong choice will see the party’s future hanging in limbo and faces the wrath of one of its ‘partners’.

— KLites