Pakatan's hits and misses after three years

COMMENT The 2008 general election drastically changed the political landscape, leading to the emergence of the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.

But three years on, has the fledgling coalition lived up to its promises? What has it achieved? Malaysiakini takes a look some of the highlights, and lowlights, of the coalition so far:

MISSES

September 16

"We have the numbers but we want to meet the premier, show him the evidence and work out a handover because we want a peaceful transition." - Anwar Ibrahim, Sept 15, 2008.


Lets face it. This is the most memorable political misfire in recent history and it is going to haunt PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim and his political allies for a very long time.

Buoyed by the opposition's impressive wins during the March 2008 general election, Anwar told the people just a month later that 31 MPs, mostly from East Malaysia, would be defecting soon to topple the BN federal government.

He even had the gall to claim that he would become PM in "three years".

Sept 16 came, but not a single BN MP jumped to Pakatan, although Sarawak Progressive Party (SAPP) did break away from BN, bringing its two MPs along.

Anwar had to keep the charade going during a press conference that day, dragging along red-faced party officials from allies PAS and DAP.

Defections

Five months later, Anwar had the tables turned on him when two PKR state assemblypersons in Perak defected to become ‘BN friendly', setting the stage for the ouster of the Pakatan state government.

The defections didn't stop in Perak. PKR lost its MPs for Bayan Baru, Nibong Tebal and Bagan Serai in Penang, Wangsa Maju in Kuala Lumpur and Padang Serai in Kedah through resignations and had to sack its Kulim Bandar Bahru MP.

The Port Klang, Ngemah and Lunas state assemblypersons also left PKR while DAP lost its Jelapang and Malim Nawar assemblypersons.

However, on a positive note, no one from PAS has defected - yet.

Still, the string of defections has considerably bruised Pakatan's credibility and its claim that "they were bought over" rings hollow.

Losing Malay support

From independent survey groups to by-election results, everything is pointing to growing support for BN from the Malay community.

BN, or more specifically Umno, has been working overtime, singing its ketuanana Melayu tagline, although much of this was outsourced to groups such as Perkasa and Umno's mouthpiece Utusan Malaysia.

With the exception of the Kuala Terengganu by-election in January 2009, Malay support for Pakatan has been on the decline, with no solution in sight.

Losing Indian support

If failing to hold on to Malay support is bad enough, Pakatan didn't even bother to capitalise on the massive surge in Indian support in 2008.

Instead, Pakatan has since shunned the key players behind the massive swing - the Hindraf brothers - and instead has been claiming credit for itself and providing not much in return.

Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, on the other hand, has been busy trying to win the community over by a slew of gimmicks, including appearances at major festival events, receiving the Indian prime minister in Kuala Lumpur and forming ties with new Indian-based political parties.

Old habits die hard, so they say. This is especially true with Pakatan component parties.

PAS still believes in protesting at concert venues and sending out teams to 'advise' canoodling couples on Valentine's Day.

In keeping true to his character, DAP chairperson Karpal Singh still barks at PAS for its Islamist policies. At one point, Karpal even tried biting Anwar, blaming him for the many problems faced by Pakatan and demanding his ouster.

What about a shadow cabinet? Isn't that a characteristic for a government-in-waiting? Is this missing because it will open up an opportunity for BN to launch a racialist attack on the shadow cabinet's racial composition?

HITS

Common policy

Pakatan's common policy framework and 100-day plan, dubbed the ‘Buka Jingga (Orange Book)', is a whiff of fresh air. There are some new ideas and BN is not ashamed to borrow some of it.

This is the first time a detailed alternative policy, one that emphasises democracy, accountability and fair distribution of wealth, is being introduced to the public.

Bigger, better watchdog in Parliament

There has never been a din in the Dewan Rakyat quite like what we have seen since March 2008. We now have a sizeable number of opposition MPs in Parliament asking relevant questions and putting the policy makers through a lot more scrutiny.

Tangible reforms

Despite the heavy losses sustained in 2008, BN has been short on reforms but heavy on rhetoric. With Pakatan, reforms have been piecemeal, but at least that is a start.

Selangor and Penang are now showing more transparency. They emphasise open tenders and both advocate freedom of information laws. Also, their local authorities are increasingly participatory.

There were also experiments in electing Malay village chiefs in Perak, before Pakatan's ouster. A similar experiment is under way in Selangor, in the Chinese villages.

As political analyst Khoo Kay Peng (left) points out, much of these reforms has yet to be fully implemented and Pakatan governments are still pretty much operating within the framework left behind by BN.

"They don't even have a website to show which tenders are open and who gets what," he said.

Economic prudence

Selangor and Penang can boast bigger investment figures as signs of increased investor confidence in their governments. But bear in mind that these are two of the most developed states in the country, which the federal government cannot ignore anyway.

But then again, there are the annual Auditor-General's Reports, with the last two giving these two states the thumbs-up.

There is little to support talk of how Pakatan will drive the country  bankrupt.

Embracing multiculturalism

1Malaysia may be the rallying cry for BN, but its policies remain largely unchanged.

Conversely, Pakatan has been trying to portray a more inclusive multi-cultural front at the policy level by resolving longstanding issues such as land titles for non-Muslim houses of worship, the increasing of wages of religious teachers by a non-Muslim chief minister and securing aid for vernacular and religious schools.

During Pakatan's short reign in Perak, it even experimented with issuing land titles for Chinese new villages, a first move anywhere in the country.

Pakatan's effort to embrace multi-culturalism will probably be more apparent at its ceramah stages, where it is common to see leaders from various ethnic groups represented.

ANDREW ONG is a member of the Malaysiakini team.