MUCH of the criticism and brickbats politicians get in Malaysia are well-deserved. But some are just downright petty. For example, the brouhaha over the newly-announced Pakatan Harapan logo, basic electoral promise and new (finally agreed upon) national leadership lineup.

First, the logo. They got so much flak over the logo and colour of choice, it was quite ridiculous. The logo was compared to the Star Trek symbol, an elevator button, half the DAP rocket, and even Dr Mahathir’s nose. The colour of choice, red, was also mocked as being reminiscent of Umno’s own colour, or DAP’s.

Even if all of the above were true, and the logo resembles a red Mahathir-Umno-DAP-rocket-nose, why not? Any meaning to what a logo symbolises is only valid should you choose to attribute it to that logo. For example, some may attribute positive values to Barisan’s Election Commision-assigned scales- justice, equality or balance. Others may, well, not.

More important than the logo, perhaps, is the new structure. The length of time taken to reach an agreement on who leads and how to accommodate everyone speaks volumes on how tricky it was to put this coalition together.

If PAS-DAP-PKR’s problem with compatibility was one of ideology, then PPBM-DAP-PKR-Amanah’s would arguably be one of personality. PPBM and Amanah, both splinter parties from the country’s largest Malay parties, are both seeking their footing to prove that they have managed to make inroads into the traditional support bases of the parties they broke away from.

That the leaders of the parties are able to come to the negotiation table itself was a remarkable achievement, let alone coming to a consensus on a leadership lineup. Many of the PKR, DAP and Amanah leaders present, have, after all, spent the better part of their lives opposing their new Chairman.

It is understandable, therefore, if  internal party cadres oppose this leadership lineup. But most of the noise came from outside the parties involved – either from jaded supporters or from their opponents in the Barisan. The problems highlighted are similar.

One of the issues that people seem to have is that for a young party, PPBM seems “over-represented”, with the chairman and one deputy president, while DAP seems ‘under-represented’ with no representative in the top three posts despite contributing a large number of seats. Some were critical of the confusing titles used, with a ‘chairman’ a ‘de facto leader’ and a ‘president’ – so who has the last say in any issue?

But titles are there only to appease their followers. With this set up, it would appear that consensus between all, or at least the majority of, the four parties is required to move forward in any issue. Perhaps not having a clear leader could work in Pakatan’s advantage this time around.

While Barisan Nasional undoubtedly has a more structured, defined leadership, it is also clear that one party has the largest say in most issues. The consensus BN often talks about is mostly pertaining to party discipline and membership, while policy issues appears to be mostly left to the Chairman and his Deputy, both from Umno.

In its previous incarnation, even an out-of-jail, elected Anwar could not “control” Pakatan Rakyat. It wasn’t very long before certain groups in PAS were pushing for the PM’s post. Having no clearly vested leader would force the leadership back to the drawing board every time they were faced with difficult questions. While this may be tedious, it could for now, at least, ensure they do not end up with a dominant party, which would turn Pakatan into a second Barisan.

In the mid-to-long term, of course, clearly defined decision-making procedures should be put in place, alongside provisions for electing a leader, inclusion of leaders and parties from East Malaysia, cooperation with other non-member parties, including PAS, and perhaps rotational leadership would stretch the relevance of the Pakatan Harapan leadership to beyond the lifetimes of their veteran leaders.

But for now, for Pakatan Harapan, this seems like the right first steps in the long walk ahead of the next general election. – July 18, 2017. 

* 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.