Ku Li backs Hadi's 'unity govt' call
Published: Feb 28, 2009 12:20 PM | Updated: Feb 28, 2009 12:34 PM
The influential Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has echoed PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s calls for a unity government to tackle the ailing economy and ensure political stability.
The influential Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah has echoed PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang’s calls for a unity government to tackle the ailing economy and ensure political stability.
Razaleigh is the first leader to come out in support of Abdul Hadi’s statement, which had again renewed speculations that PAS was again warming up to Umno after clandestine talks between the two parties broke down last year.
“There is a real danger of our falling into a long-term loop of decline, with job losses, crime, social conflict, institutional breakdown and political instability feeding upon each other.
“Our problems are fundamental, and must be faced immediately. But BN cannot do this alone,” said Razaleigh in his latest blog posting today, in response to Abdul Hadi’s interview with The Malaysian Insider yesterday.
In his blog, Razaleigh argued his case for a unity-government chiefly, because he believes that Barisan Nasional is imploding and seeking to hang on to power through undemocratic means.
Razaleigh said the BN system has broken down because the negotiated power-sharing arrangement which held the coalition together since independence has stopped working.
‘BN can’t win elections anymore’
Part of the reason, explains Razaleigh, was because Umno was undemocratic and patronage-driven while its largest coalition partners - MCA, MIC and Gerakan - were in tatters.
“With the very basis of the BN in question, we cease being able to win elections and find ourselves taking increasingly desperate measures to stay in power,” he said.
“As Umno drifts further from the Malaysian mainstream, the temptation to find support in racial and religous sentiment grows. There will be a tendency to maintain power with the instruments of state.
“Such actions achieve victory without confidence, power without legitimacy. They undermine the legitimacy of the government and of key institutions such as the police and the judiciary. They undermine the rule of law.
“Lately even the sanctity of Parliament has been dishonoured. As a government loses legitimacy the only instruments left to it will be those of brute power,” he added.
On the other hand, Razaleigh opined that the opposition coalition too were unable to handle the country’s current problems on their own due to inexperience and conflicting ideologies.
“Without some kind of a unity government solution, at least in the interim, the Malaysian rakyat will not have a government that can do more than hang on grimly to a deteriorating status quo,” he said.
Razaleigh is the first leader to come out in support of Abdul Hadi’s statement, which had again renewed speculations that PAS was again warming up to Umno after clandestine talks between the two parties broke down last year.
“There is a real danger of our falling into a long-term loop of decline, with job losses, crime, social conflict, institutional breakdown and political instability feeding upon each other.“Our problems are fundamental, and must be faced immediately. But BN cannot do this alone,” said Razaleigh in his latest blog posting today, in response to Abdul Hadi’s interview with The Malaysian Insider yesterday.
In his blog, Razaleigh argued his case for a unity-government chiefly, because he believes that Barisan Nasional is imploding and seeking to hang on to power through undemocratic means.
Razaleigh said the BN system has broken down because the negotiated power-sharing arrangement which held the coalition together since independence has stopped working.
‘BN can’t win elections anymore’
Part of the reason, explains Razaleigh, was because Umno was undemocratic and patronage-driven while its largest coalition partners - MCA, MIC and Gerakan - were in tatters.
“With the very basis of the BN in question, we cease being able to win elections and find ourselves taking increasingly desperate measures to stay in power,” he said.
“As Umno drifts further from the Malaysian mainstream, the temptation to find support in racial and religous sentiment grows. There will be a tendency to maintain power with the instruments of state.
“Such actions achieve victory without confidence, power without legitimacy. They undermine the legitimacy of the government and of key institutions such as the police and the judiciary. They undermine the rule of law.
“Lately even the sanctity of Parliament has been dishonoured. As a government loses legitimacy the only instruments left to it will be those of brute power,” he added.
On the other hand, Razaleigh opined that the opposition coalition too were unable to handle the country’s current problems on their own due to inexperience and conflicting ideologies.
“Without some kind of a unity government solution, at least in the interim, the Malaysian rakyat will not have a government that can do more than hang on grimly to a deteriorating status quo,” he said.
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