Give up on Pakatan - NO WAY! Malaysians must back Anwar, Guan Eng for standing up to DIRTY Umno warfare

Of late, a number of other writers have already thrown their brickbats at Pakatan Rakyat.

In this article, I shall try to deal with yet another question playing on our minds. In fact, it was a friend who had sent me an SMS: “I no longer trust Pakatan. Pakatan is no different to Barisan Nasional. I no longer have any hope in Pakatan.”

Although in my heart, I was saying, “This is simply a naïve response. This person is too idealistic”, but, rather than to get into an argument of who is right or wrong, I kept my cool.

The pertinent question one has to answer is: “Are we saying that, because of the recent spat between PAS and Pakatan, and some other issues, Pakatan no longer has the silver lining behind the dark cloud of Malaysian politics?”

As Malaysians, are we saying that we will be better off just supporting UMNO and Barisan Nasional, as one writer tries to suggest that she would rather go with the devil that she already know, rather than the angel who cannot find a common stand but continues to blow a lot of hot air.

This gentleman, a 20 plus-year-old Kelantanese Malay, who is apparently a member of PAS, is saying that, after all these years of being sidelined, he no longer sees any hope in Pakatan Rakyat. Less than a year ago, he was shouting, “Reformasi!” and “Ubah!” alongside his fellow Pakatan members. How interesting!

Now, he rather join those who are “spitting” at the Pakatan Rakyat State Government in Selangor, after the spat between his leaders and the other two component parties.

Confused and Disillusioned

Without realizing it, this young man who was once an activist and holding placards, is now confused and lost his direction. He has, in my opinion, fallen into the “trap of disillusionment”, which was designed for young people like him.

In his despair, he was prepared to hit out at both PKR de facto leader, Anwar Ibrahim and even president of his own party, Abdul Hadi Awang over the Selangor MB crisis.

Over the issues that cropped up, Pakatan, in particular, Selangor MB Khalid Ibrahim’s own party, has been made to appear as the wolf in sheep’s clothing. One issue after another has been played up to destablise the Pakatan state.

What is obvious to me is that there are concerted efforts to both destabilize the existing Pakatan state governments in Selangor and Penang and to discredit the coalition as a whole. In Selangor, there is this MB Crisis, and in Penang, 150 Voluntary Patrol members were arrested by the police and the state agency being declared “illegal” by the country’s top cop. The entire Federal machinery is at the disposal of the powers that be.

In Selangor, we have seen a number of other issues being played up. At a time of the year, when the country normally suffers from the dry season, the Pakatan State Government was blamed for the water crisis in Selangor because of its refusal to proceed with construction of the Langat 2 dam.

In the case of raid on the Bible Society and Damansara Utama Methodist Church by the Selangor Religious Enforcement Division (JAIS), until the Selangor Religious Council (MAIS) claimed responsibility, the people in Selangor were initially confused thinking that JAIS came under the jurisdiction of the Selangor State Government.

Behind the Scene Dynamics

What this young man failed to grasp is that there are real people known as strategists working full time in UMNO’s war room to carry out psychological warfare against the Opposition.

This is why they can laugh over the loosely knitted coalition, because Pakatan cannot afford to hire strategists to draw out a consistent psychological warfare against the BN. All that they have are ordinary people who are willing to step out to make a change, as we saw in both General Elections in 2008 and 2013.

Our young man has also failed to realise that behind the scene, there are BN cyber troopers who are hired to write and harp on clichés such as, “Pakatan is a loose coalition, formed out of convenience”, “Old Guards in Pakatan must go” and “Pakatan is no different to BN.”

These warlords are also playing on issues such as the hudud laws, trying hard to drive a wedge between PAS and the DAP. This strategy of “divide and rule” is not uncommon.

In one particular website, Today’s Zaman, (LINK: http://www.todayszaman.com/anasayfa_presidential-hopefuls-make-last-minute-pitch-as-they-wrap-up-campaigns_355036.html), a Turkish commentator wrote about the Turkish’s president: “Erdoğan's harsh discourse indicates that he will cause more polarization in Turkish society, trying to pit different groups against one another in order to survive politically and to distract people from talking about corruption and other wrongdoings in the government.”

The situation is repeated many times all over in a number of other political landscapes around the world. There is nothing new here in Malaysia. The BN strategists are hoping that, with greater polarisation, they, too, will be able to break up the existing coalition led by Anwar Ibrahim in the same manner that BN under Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s era, had broken the will of other Opposition fronts such as Semangat 46 and Barisan Alternatif.

Our dear young Kelantanese lad has failed to see that he, too, has become a victim of the psychological warfare, which is aimed at breaking the will of the people. He fails to look beyond the issues that were spun craftily into a web to entrap the “Pakatan spirit” once on fire in him.

Now, unless our young friend starts putting on his thinking cap and look up, he will not see the silver lining in the dark clouds.

True Nature of Politics

What most people like this young man also fail to understand is that, even within PAS, there are different factions. There are those such as Mat Sabu and Mujahid Yusof Rawa who have been engaging with other Pakatan leaders, but lately, we have seen the clerics, mainly based in Kelantan and Terengganu, becoming more vocal and they appear to be a bane to the Pakatan coalition. There are also some who prefer to form a unity government with Umno.

Mujahid himself admits during a forum at the Kuala Lumpur and Selangor Chinese assembly hall: "I don't deny there are forces from Umno who are trying to cause a split within PAS itself. But history shows that those who are trying to work with Umno would have their careers in PAS ended.”

Despite earlier understanding that PAS would not submit a PAS candidate to the palace, PAS president, Abdul Hadi Awang’s office has even unilaterally submitted a different list of Selangor MB candidates to the Sultan of Selangor based on the latest report. The list is said to be different from the one endorsed by the party's central committee.

Dubbed “Hadi Move” by the media, the letter has rocked both PAS and PKR, even threatening a split within PAS.

True Nature of Politics

The same crises have happened to all political parties. One cannot forget that even UMNO was split between Team A under the party president, Dr Mahathir Mohamad in 1987 and Team B, which was led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah. The crisis even caused UMNO to be deregistered – and UMNO was declared “illegal”.

Mahathir formed what is known today as UMNO Baru, with all his supporters now helming the key positions within the party. It was not difficult to understand how Mahathir was able to unseat Abdullah A. Badawi, despite an overwhelming support from the country during the 2004 General Election.

There are signs that Mahathir is doing the same now with current president, Najib Abdul Razak, but whether Najib will survive depends on his game of strategy within UMNO. However, with the current spate of sedition cases against a broad spectrum of political leaders, activists, academics, students and media, it is likely that UMNO will lose its two trump cards – race and religion.

The true nature of politics is that people hold on to their ideologies, and there are bound to be a clash of ideologies. MCA also went through a major crisis, with those loyal to former party president, Chua Soi Lek and party stalwart, Ong Tee Keat.

Ong was investigating into the scandal behind the PKFZ, until Najib took it away from him and gave it to former Chief Secretary, Mohd. Sidek Hassan.

Finally, both Soi Lek and Tee Keat go into oblivion, along with their supporters. Pundits are predicting that its current president, Liow Tiong Lai is also facing a possible onslaught from the grassroots.

This, after all, is what politics is all about. Yet, how naïve can we get when we lambast at the Pakatan coalition, because we see the ongoing spat between PAS, and the other two component parties.

My conclusion is simple. Although the gentleman in my description is nothing but a fictitious character, it represents the sentiments that some Pakatan supporters have towards their white knight in shining armour.

From being idealistic, they have to be realistic that we are not talking about a perfect coalition that will outshine the Barisan Government. Instead, the bigger picture as someone pointed out recently is to have two parties equally strong and competing for our votes. Only then, can we become kingmakers. - Malaysia Chronicle