The evolution of opposition politics

2016 has brought with it some of the hottest temperatures on record. Along with that, we’ve seen tempers rise and egos inflated to rarefied levels , especially during the Sarawak state election. Ugly attacks, underhanded tactics, and the constant infighting in Pakatan Harapan plagued the process, making the election seem like a rank, dirty chore instead of a celebration of democracy.

Voting should be an expression of the rights that citizens enjoy, but it has become a tiresome task. That’s a shame when we think about how the political tsunami of 2008 ignited the hope that we could have a better, more transparent political system either through the installation of a new government or the diligence of opposition parties in their role as watchdogs.

What if Pakatan Rakyat had won in 2008? Perhaps, things would be different from what they are today. Perhaps, we wouldn’t be facing the dissolution of Pakatan Rakyat’s second incarnation, Pakatan Harapan. There’s now a real threat of such a dissolution, and for that we must blame PKR’s tendency to cosy up with PAS, which of course would welcome the break-up of Pakatan.

PKR was once the lynchpin of the opposition through the authority of its supreme leader, Anwar Ibrahim. There’s no denying that his absence from the scene has cost his party the clout it once had over the opposition alliance. But the current leaders in PKR only have themselves to blame for their inability to fill even half the pair of shoes Anwar left when he went to prison.

DAP has since taken the spotlight to make itself, at least by reputation and impact, the most important party in Pakatan at this time.

There is merit in Zaid Ibrahim’s suggestion that Amanah and DAP form the nucleus of a new opposition force. We would go further and suggest a merger of the two parties. They already exist symbiotically. Merging them would produce Malaysia’s first truly multi-racial party, and that’s the next step in the evolution of opposition politics that Malaysians would like to see.

The biggest problems standing in the way of such a merger are, of course, egoism and ambition. Some will not take kindly to the inevitable demotions that would follow.