Game over for Pakatan Harapan?

In order to actuate meaningful change a particular set of circumstance, an individual or group must be able to first translate its idea into a message, have a set of principles it abides by and, most importantly, be able to convince its audience. 

The foundation to all of these is to have an ideology, the driving force which propels that individual or group forward which in turn allows the audience or subjects to be able to trust the message being delivered.

That is in essence what Pakatan Rakyat failed to do.

And what Pakatan Harapan is failing to do.

It has no clear ideology as a coalition, does not have a vivid set of ideas and principles its willing to put on paper to abide by, which has led to a trust deficit among many Malaysians towards its capabilities.

Inevitably, this coalition of parties is a ticking time bomb which will be blown into smithereens, much like how the first edition ended.

All of this became clear over the weekend as I moderated a panel centred on the need for a coalition founded on a recognisable ideology, much unlike the Pakatan Harapan of today.

Maria Chin Abdullah, chairman of Bersih 2.0 was “disappointed with the performance of all political parties” and stressed that there was “a lot more to be done”.

S. Arutchelvan of Parti Sosialis Malaysia made it clear that Pakatan Harapan is indeed Pakatan Rakyat 2.0 as most sensitive issues have been swept under the carpet, and that no coalition can proceed with an “agree to disagree” policy.

Meanwhile, DAP Kluang MP Liew Chin Tong admitted the importance of an ideological background but stressed that a particular ideology must also take into account its “winability”.

And undoubtedly so.

But a coalition cannot win without a clear ideology on which to base itself on.

It was a resounding consensus among the audience that Pakatan Harapan does not have any resemblance of an ideology, which is a hugely contributing factor in its ability to mount a sustained assault on Putrajaya.

Among the many questions raised by the audience began with: “I’m a disgruntled opposition supporter.”

And that is precisely the case.

Absence a clear and coherent set of principles is exactly the reason supporters of the opposition are beginning to feel disillusioned.

The current makeup of each party in Pakatan Harapan is alike to a box of chocolates; you never know what you’re going to get.

DAP prides itself on operating within a social democratic framework, although they have veered a great deal to the right instead of staying true to its social democratic tradition.

PKR are said to believe in liberal democracy, although the more likely believe in family values than anything else.

And while Amanah tries to preach liberal Islam, the jury’s still out on them, but many have already begun to dismiss them as being “PAS-lite”.

All three then have very different ways of thinking and have been unable to come up with a common ideology.

Without a common ideology, one cannot work on a common platform.

Lack of a common platform definitely means that Pakatan Harapan is setting itself up to fail.

Umno is a populist government. The last thing we need is a populist opposition.

If it does not regain the controls to the rudder, the opposition coalition is heading for a disastrous crash which it might not be able to recover from.

In the following articles, I will try to go beyond the surface of the three opposition parties within Pakatan Harapan and dig deeper into what actually motivates them, and whether or not they truly are able to regain trust from the disgruntled people of Malaysia. – November 25, 2015.

* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insider.