Is the third force realistic?
While we wait for Zaid Ibrahim to launch Kita, the other Ibrahim, Haris, is splitting hairs over the ‘third force’ label. In the meantime, the Human Rights Party (HRP) raised eyebrows with the 15 Parliamentary seats they want to contest.
While we wait for Zaid Ibrahim to launch Kita, the other Ibrahim, Haris, is splitting hairs over the ‘third force’ label. In the meantime, the Human Rights Party (HRP) raised eyebrows with the 15 Parliamentary seats they want to contest.
To my dismay, HRP earmarked Sungai Siput in their list. Dr Michael Jeyakumar Devaraj - Parti Sosialis Malaysia’s MP for the constituency and sole PSM Parliamentarian - should rightly be considered a comrade in arms and his party a pre-existing third force element.
Dr Jeya (right) is a study on the mechanics of a third force; someone who believes there is a need for check and balance on the “feudal and pro-corporate elements” seeping into Pakatan Rakyat.
Yup, the third force is coming in because Pakatan factions are selling out.
Winning Samy Vellu’s former seat on his third try, Dr Jeya had nonetheless been servicing the constituents for years before March 8, 2008. A people’s man, he’s a walking role model for the Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) slogan that the third force is really people power.
PSM is a non-member of Pakatan that shares “an understanding” with the axis. In the last general election (GE), Dr Jeya and two colleagues contested under the PKR banner. The accommodation was described by him as “the Keadilan leaders know - ‘We’re standing on your ticket; we’re not joining your party’.”
I’d asked Dr Jeya during the GE campaign how he would vote as a legislator in Parliament. He replied, “When the differences come up, we’ll be taking up our own [PSM] analysis, not other people’s”.
Pakatan-friendly to a degree
MCLM, a London-registered society, was launched in the UK capital and funded by Malaysians living overseas who have pledged donations amounting to RM10 million (pssst, rumour is that the Umno war chest has billions).
Its chairman Haris Ibrahim addressed the obvious bone of contention, i.e. toeing the party line. “Yes, we will abide by the whip and we will vote with the party. But we will break ranks if the policies are not pro-rakyat. Our candidates will not just be ‘Independents’... they will be independent-minded.” 
Haris’s idea is to offer MCLM ‘independent’ candidates to the non-Barisan parties to run on their party ticket. Let’s assess MCLM’s debutant nominee - Malik Imtiaz Sarwar (left).
PAS is not likely to endorse Imtiaz as he has previously been singled out by Islamists as murtad (apostate) for holding a watching brief in the Lina Joy case. In August 2006, Imtiaz even received a death threat following accusations of being anti-Islam. As a human rights lawyer, Imtiaz would be on the horns of a dilemma vis-à-vis the PAS fundamentalist stand on issues like women’s and gay rights.
Haris has been bashing PKR left, right and centre, as has MCLM advisor Raja Petra Kamarudin. Hence both cannot in good conscience urge Imtiaz to stand under that party.
Syed Akbar Ali, pro-tem president of Bloggers for Malaysia recently pointed out, “[H]ere is the DAP’s multiracial lineup for Selangor: Teresa Kok (chairman), Tony Pua (deputy), Teng Chang Kim (vice chair), Ean Yong (secretary), Ng Suee Lim, Hannah Yeoh (treasurer), Lau Weng San, Teo Nie Ching, Janice Lee, Lim Soon Hong, Tiew Way Keng. As you can see for yourself, all the eleven very important posts above are very multi racial.” 
In fact, the Selangor DAP central committee comprises 15 office-bearers, and not a single Malay or Muslim among them. Of the 15 in Perak DAP, none are Malay-Muslim. Although there was a field of 88 (wow! suddenly so many are so ‘auspiciously’ eager to jostle for the privilege of serving in Penang), no Malay-Muslim prevailed in the contest for the 15-seat central committee.
How will someone of Imtiaz’s profile - sticking out like a sore thumb against the 45 elected central committee members in Selangor, Perak and Penang DAP, all non-Muslim - fit into the DAP scheme of things?
But then again, bear in mind that this first MCLM nominee refuses to join PKR, PAS or DAP. Imtiaz is only hoping to run on their ticket.
On the same basis that DAP let Tunku Abdul Aziz parachute in, the party might just welcome Imtiaz for the Muslim window dressing they desperately desire. While Imtiaz has merit, the DAP’s democracy (i.e. procedure where a DAP man rises through DAP ranks supported by DAP members) is at times mere lip service.
How will grassroots Ah Pek-Ah Soh take to such an arrangement (using DAP logo, not DAP member) and more importantly, will they, on D-Day, cast their vote for this independent Bangsar Malaysia individual who does not care to join their party? Or will they return to MCA instead?
Pride goes before a fall
Jeffrey Kitingan leads the United Borneo Front, a movement which arguably fits the bill of ‘third force’.
However, Sabah’s Batu Sapi by-election was a litmus test on how PKR are essentially like Umno in their muscling into Sabah. PKR garnered 3,414 votes and SAPP 2,031 to BN’s 9,773 - the result a foretaste of how opposition votes end up split.
Note also that Linda Tsen (left), the PBS candidate, contested under the BN logo. Pakatan does not yet carry a common logo nor have they formally registered their coalition. They’re chugging along the road to Putrajaya not together in one bus but travelling in separate vehicles.
And the third force is pedalling behind on their bicycles.
What’s in it for Pakatan to give way? Of the 166 seats up for grabs in the peninsula, MCLM is proffering 30 ‘suitable’ names, which is a chunky bite of the pie. Are there enough urban slices to go around when the PAS-PKR-DAP strongmen and selendang women are all fighting tooth and nail for their share?
By promoting integrity and quality, MCLM is appealing to voter interests. But Pakatan are more interested in counting their chickens before they hatch, such as God’s gift of the premiership to Anwar Ibrahim, a deputy PM post for Lim Kit Siang (only if he’s Muslim, adds the PAS Mursyidul Am) and cabinet portfolios.
It is the same arrogance seen earlier when Gerakan diced with Teng Hock Nan, Chia Kwang Chye and Teng Chang Yeow for one of them to succeed Koh Tsu Koon as chief minister. The toss-up between the three was on whether Penang ought to have a Mandarin- or English-speaking CM, blithely ignoring the reality that Malays had by that time made up half the state population.
Pakatan is similarly ignoring the facts on the ground, i.e. the BN fixed deposit vote bank comprising Rela’s some 2.5 million members, the Territorial Army’s more than half a million reserves, and the wives of police officers and soldiers who are the new postal voters.
Et tu, Karpal?
“If you don’t like one side or the other, what do you do?” Imtiaz is quoted as saying.
Imtiaz was instrumental in Article 11, the civil society initiative for upholding freedom of religion. HRP pro-tem secretary-general P Uthayakumar has been at the forefront in defending the religious rights of the minorities. I expect that they’ll both be courageous where Lim Guan Eng has been spineless in safeguarding non-Muslims from creeping Islamisation (he has on the other hand voluntarily given the process a boost).
Prior to March 8, Lim Kit Siang would have called those civil servants who demonstrate “an increasing intolerance of the rights and sensitivities of other religions” Little Mullah Napoleons (rather ironically I was credited in Lim’s blog on Feb 8, 2008 with coining the acronym ‘LMNs’).
Yet currently, other religions are non-existent in the Marilah-kita-berdoa-Guan Eng vocabulary. Terence Netto made an interesting observation that Guan Eng had “resorted a little too much to Islamic tropes” at the Pakatan convention last year.
At this year's convention, Karpal Singh was given thumping applause and a standing ovation when he said the issue of an Islamic state “boleh dibincang dan dicari jalan penyelesaian” (can be discussed and resolved).
Johor DAP leader Norman Fernandez blogged yesterday that Karpal’s remark had “sent PAS into a state of euphoric dizziness”. PAS were overjoyed, taking it “to mean that DAP has finally softened its long-held objection” and that the last roar - the Lion of Jelutong - is finally tamed.
Sreekant Pillai (right), the second MCLM nominee, said: “I chose to be independent because … the existing parties are not doing a lot what the rakyat wants.”
Perhaps a third force articulating what the rakyat wants would serve as a good wake-up call to DAP.
DAP should ask if supporters truly want them to implement ‘doa’ at their party functions?
Do DAP supporters want their leaders to encourage surau-hopping while appropriately wrapped in selendang, to spout ‘amar makruf nahi mungkar’ incessantly and as recently as last weekend at the Pakatan convention, to mangle Arabic pronunciation in Quranic verses as well as to keep deathly quiet on the History textbook’s five chapters (out of 10) brainwashing on Islamic indoctrination.
Why HRP has no choice
Only the spunky David-against-Goliath HRP has drawn a line in the sand against pandering to Islamism. DAP’s elegant silence - despite being led by a Caliph aspirant - on a host of Islam-related issues, is consent.
DAP, choosing in the balance to pursue Malay votes, had abandoned Indians as well as little Tan Yi Min to the wolves. It is for this reason that HRP must necessarily pursue Uthaya’s empowerment strategy. Its potential to power may not be realistic but it is legitimate. And necessary because the Tamil working class whom HRP speaks for has few options.
We must learn from the Gerakan experience.
Gerakan was an opposition party co-opted into BN. Over time, Gerakan succumbed to the ruling ideology of ketuanan Melayu. Chinese and Indian oppositionists gave their votes to Gerakan (who in turn got Penang for themselves) and we’re now suffering the consequences of Gerakan’s capitulation to ketuanan Melayu.
On a much quicker beat than the Gerakan’s appeasement, DAP (who in turn got Penang themselves) are pied piping their followers into ketuanan Islam.
Therefore HRP is not to be faulted as third force ‘spoilers’ for rolling up their sleeves to get the job done. If not, then Indians will otherwise have to wait till the cows come home for either BN or Pakatan, on their own volition, to remedy the religious harassment and acute marginalization suffered by the community.
The writer has previously conducted a two-part interview with Malik Imtiaz Sarwar.
HELEN ANG used to be a journalist. In future, she would like to be a practising cartoonist. But for the present, she is in the NGO circles and settling down to more serious writing and reading of social issues.
