The new opposition coalition would emerge stronger if conservative elements are absent.

Head of think-tank Institute of Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas) Wan Saiful Wan Jan was commenting on PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim's statement that the opposition would rise stronger from the ashes of Pakatan Rakyat.

"I agree that if the conservative elements, especially those from PAS are removed, a new more progressive group can rise up from that.

"If that can happen then the possibility is very real, that the new opposition coalition will be stronger," he told Malaysiakini .

Wan Saiful ( photo ) said this would also depend on whether the progressive faction in PAS was "brave enough" to take a bold step and leave the party to form a new one.

Nevertheless, he expressed some concern regarding Anwar's remark that the re-organised opposition would be stronger with the assistance of new forces such as NGOs.

"I'm a little bit concerned that both the government and opposition are increasingly saying that they will strengthen themselves with support of NGOs.

"Legally there's nothing wrong, but morally, it is quite deceiving if a particular NGO claims to be a NGO, but sides with a specific political party to champion a particular political cause," he said.

NGOs part of civil society

Wan Saiful pointed out that NGOs are part of the civil society for a reason, that is, the independence that they have.

"I think it's a very worrying scenario for civil society in Malaysia if they start taking specific sides," he said.

He however admitted that NGOs definitely could play a role in either strengthening or weakening both the opposition and the government as the public has a higher regard for civil society.

"But if a civil society organisation suddenly abuses that trust and ignores the requirement to be independent as a member of the civil society, that makes them no better than another politician,” he said.

Meanwhile, Wan Saiful also commented on the differing views of the state of Pakatan; on whether it is in fact dead or alive.

"Every single one of them is actually right. In the context of Selangor, if the three parties continue to work together and have a common agenda, in practice, people will see that as Pakatan Rakyat," he said.

Pakatan at federal level broken down

Elaborating further, Wan Saiful said there should be no problems should Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali, together with PAS and DAP could come to an understanding that they want to defend the state government.

Nevertheless, the same cannot be said on the state of Pakatan at the federal level.

"Pakatan at the federal level has broken down in the same way that DAP was the one who broke up Pakatan in Sarawak.

"DAP started the trend, they cannot run away from this blame. It's a little bit rich of them trying to claim that they have done nothing wrong,” said Wan Saiful.

Azmin ( photo ), whenever pressed by the media has consistently insisted that Pakatan still existed and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang likewise said so since PAS and PKR were still in cooperation.

However, the DAP continue to claim that the opposition coalition is dead as Pakatan could only exist with all three parties in it.