SINCE taking power last year, Pakatan Harapan (PH) appears to have been struggling with retaining in its squeaky clean image. The latest PR gaffe came in the form of a well-meaning Facebook post by someone from within PH’s own Cameron Highlands by-election campaign team. The now-infamous photo of a lady in PH campaign attire distributing cash to some other people has been attacked by Barisan Nasional (BN) supporters as vote-buying and defended by PH as reimbursing campaign workers for their petrol.

Perception, they say, is everything in politics. Malaysians tend to align their political beliefs with the party they support or empathise with. Had the situation been reversed, PH supporters would likely be the ones casting stones against BN for doing so.

The same applies to other previously criticised political moves, like having elected representatives plastering their faces on items like school bags or packets of essentials, or using a party convention as an open platform to ask for contracts, appointments and largesse.

Issuing racially tinged statements, granting allocations based on political support, threatening appointees with sacking for failure to support a government party, politically, and the laundry list goes on.

The general Malaysian public, however, tends to be forgiving of PH, usually choosing to give them the benefit of the doubt, for being new, and writing off their blunders as the minority view, and that the majority in PH are still by and large, doing right by the rakyat.

At the same time, the overwhelming unpopularity of the BN leadership, disgusting excesses and blatant corruption, abuse of power and the abject silence by its lower members in the face of it all, has cast more than reasonable doubt on BN’s sincerity in the anti-Pakatan statements they make. The messenger, in this case, has yet to earn the right to carry the message.

But when entire party divisions bay for blood of certain ministers or leaders just for calling them out when they step out of line, are they really the minority, or will the cancer eventually be seen as the cure?

With most of the reforms promised put on hold, direct negotiations yet to be abolished, contracts and projects by and large still dominated by the usual suspects, how long will the public support hold before the rakyat concludes, however unfair that the statement seems, that all politicians are the same?

To maintain public confidence, PH should commit to its own timelines and keep the public informed of the status of its many promised changes. While it is understandable that all these cannot occur in a day, having a yardstick would keep not only the politicians focused, but serve as a guide of sorts, even for the civil service and related agencies, who themselves, may be finding their own footing in the new political climate.

BN, on the other hand, would probably benefit more politically, and earn more goodwill points with a suspicious public by playing as much an advisory role as it does a critic’s one. Sweeping general statements and attempting to paint themselves as blameless innocents misguided by one man does not automatically buy them a right to pontificate from a moral high ground, especially when they were staunchly critical of that same high ground just months ago. Sharing their experience in a less annoying way, would go further.

While they manoeuvre their way around a complex government in getting their policies executed, PH should not lose focus on their electoral promises to improve transparency, but perhaps also in their best interest, to simplify and demystify the complex workings of government, making it simpler for the people, more manageable for the government, and more accessible both ways. In finding their own way of being government, don’t lose track of the promised reforms that got you there. – January 16, 2019

* Emmanuel Joseph firmly believes that Klang is the best place on Earth, and that motivated people can do far more good than any leader with motive.

* This is the opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of The Malaysian Insight. Article may be edited for brevity and clarity.