WHILE there are many faults and failings within PKR that I have spelt out and given justification through my writings, nevertheless, I take heart in the recent stand-off between PKR and Muda over the clash of seats in the Johor elections.

Though undoubtedly motivated by self-preservation and political interest, the tussle that has unfairly invited criticism and scorn would be an anomaly after the fragmentation of party politics since the “Sheraton Move”.

With all parties having nominated their respective candidates yesterday, it will largely be a contest between three mainstream political coalitions who have taken power at the federal level in recent years.

The next state government would most likely come from one of Pakatan Harapan (PH), Barisan Nasional (BN) and Perikatan Nasional (PN), which mirrors the electoral battlefield in the Malacca snap elections.

Interestingly, the idea of multi-cornered fights seems to have become the norm in post-Sheraton Move Malaysia especially when previous electoral politics tended to focus on the strategy of a “united front” for fear of splitting votes against the incumbent BN government.

In the face of Malaysia’s very own grand old party that had never tasted defeat before 2018 and an unforgiving first-past-the-post system, opposition parties tended to put away their differences and negotiations between them were much less about policies than ensuring their seats did not overlap with each other.

From the times of the Gagasan Rakyat coalition led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah’s Semangat 46, Barisan Alternatif of the 1990s to Pakatan Rakyat, coalitions often involved a ragtag group of political parties with different ideologies but with the common aspiration of putting BN out of power.

Aside from consolidating electoral support, the aim of that coalition was to ensure a one-on-one contest against the government of the day.

The coming Johor polls is largely about how political parties position themselves with the seats they are contesting.

The three main coalitions were initially expected to be contesting all the state seats in Johor but since then PH component parties DAP and Amanah had relinquished two and four seats respectively to Muda.

Aside from Muda, the Johor elections will also be seeing Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s Pejuang’s first foray while former Sabah chief minister Shafie Apdal’s Parti Warisan would also be dipping its hand into Peninsular Malaysia politics for the first time.

Given that there are so many political interests vying for power for the jewel state, it would be even more difficult to assess where voters would swing to and therefore, it would seem an almost impossible task to make a prediction of the performance of each party.

But perhaps it is that inability to predict how things would pan out throughout these two weeks that had caused much consternation among PKR and Muda.

The breakdown in negotiations between PKR and Muda resulted in a supposedly “friendly fire” between those two in Larkin. The Larkin seat would now see a competition between PKR, Muda, PN, BN, Pejuang and an independent candidate.

Shouts of betrayal and mudslinging had been dished out by PKR and Muda against each other, but where is the betrayal when the contest has not even started and a mandate yet to be attained?

If negotiations have indeed broken down between the two parties, Muda is perfectly entitled to contest in any seats and that includes clashing with PKR.

This is because the mandate that needs to be won does not change, and it still needs to come from the voters.

If that is the case, more political parties would only mean more choices for voters to choose who will represent them. I, for one, would be enthused in being given a choice to vote for six candidates instead of just two.

Equally, PKR should not be blamed for not ceding any seats to Muda even if it is done out of self-interest.

It is an open secret that both PKR and Muda are multiracial parties and might share similar views on national issues, and therefore PKR is merely doing its utmost to deter the advancement of a political party that might eat into its electoral support.   

Also, a clash between two multiracial parties, with seemingly progressive ideals, could potentially pit the two parties to compete on the grounds of non-racial and progressive policies.

It is still a long shot for that to be happening, but still the possibility of competition of progressivism is much higher in this case than say PKR contesting against BN and PN alone.

Also, only when Muda is prepared to clash with any established parties, including PH coalition partners, that it could be truly considered as “a disruptor of the status quo” as it mentioned when the party was founded.

Therefore, as compared to the clash with PKR, the move that should be criticised instead is Muda seeking seats from DAP and Amanah. Rather than disrupting the political consensus of the day, this move speaks more of Muda’s opportunism by aligning itself with the establishment.

Finally, there are also well-intentioned Malaysians who are disheartened by the fact of a disunited opposition and the failure of the united front strategy.

If there is any lesson that we should learn from the bloodless coup in 2020, it should be that a ragtag coalition without any ideological consensus is bound to implode and fail.

Even if Muda and PH are able to look beyond their differences to cobble up a coalition and win power, sooner rather than later, the schism would soon be visible and culminate in a political fallout much like during the end days of the PH government.

While we have begun to see how the feud between Umno and Bersatu has led to parliamentary and electoral reforms, the same should be applied on the opposition bench.

Healthy political competition should be viewed between the lenses of the opposition and the government or how the implosion of the latter could be capitalised to gain power for the former.

Instead, we should demand the opposition to furnish us with a myriad of alternative policies and make it a contest between themselves.

Thus, the disunited opposition in the Johor polls should not be frowned upon, but rather it is a sign that the country is heading towards a healthy multiparty democracy. – February 27, 2022.

* Kenneth Cheng has always been interested in the interplay between human rights and government but more importantly he is a father of two cats, Tangyuan and Toufu. When he is not attending to his feline matters, he is most likely reading books about politics and human rights or playing video games. He is a firm believer in the dictum “power concedes nothing without a demand. It never did and it never will”.