“There will be no opposition coalition that is stronger than Pakatan Harapan (PH).”

Or so said an opposition politician of their confidence regarding the potential of PH in the upcoming 14th general election. Now, a year since this declaration, has the potential been fulfilled?

Beginning with the three main roles in the highest leadership positions of PH which are yet to be satisfactorily justified, the constant backwards and forwards games within PH (especially PKR) to entice PAS to return home, the leadership crisis in PKR Kelantan, the internal rifts in PKR and a 100-day manifesto that makes little sense, PH looks to be set to wait another 5 years to capture Putrajaya.

The actions of Latheefa Koya who uploaded statuses in social media which spoke of her disapproval towards Rafizi Ramli, labelling him as cancerous and the main cause of the internal rifts within their party, clearly shows that PKR’s leadership crisis is getting worse. Moreover, the decision to remove PKR Kelantan’s youth chief, Hafidz Rizal, so abruptly without any transparent discussions taking place in their meetings shows how deep the rot goes.

This is not to say that disagreeing camps within a single party is uncommon, however a party that has such high ambitions to beat Barisan Nasional has to be more mindful of their strategy to face any opponent including PAS. This is following from the meeting of the Presidential Council of PH yesterday which solidified that there will be no cooperation between PH and PAS in the GE14, at once foreshadowing three-cornered fights.

Another reason why the general elections would not favour PH is the fact that there is no strong and influential leadership in each of its component parties. PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail had clearly failed to personify a character which is bold in setting the opposition’s direction. Leave alone this, she has even failed to settle problems within her own party such that now there are rifts between certain key individuals crucial to PKR.

The 100-day manifesto presented by PH a few months ago includes within it a few items that would be difficult to be implemented within the first 100 days of the PH rule, assuming they capture Putrajaya. The abolition of the goods and services tax (GST) is a step that makes no sense. It is clear that our country will incur a loss in revenue amounting up to RM42 billion a year to ensure the robustness of our national income. There is no use in abolishing GST if PH were to just introduce another form of taxation. In fact, PH should look into the implementation of the tax system itself. The GST, also referred to as value added tax (VAT) overseas, is used by almost every country in the world. From their example, it is seen that this tax is truly beneficial as a source of income for the country to ensure economic growth.

If PH is serious in making sure our nation is clean from such corruption scandals and abuses of power that they have been lamenting in any ceramah, the question remains why have they not included the separation of the role of the prime minister and the portfolio of the Ministry of Finance? Why have they not included asset declaration as one of their items in the 100-day manifesto? PH knows very well how incredibly powerful the Ministry of Finance is in propelling the nation’s economy. The very chairman of PH, Tun Mahathir, helped shaped our economy during the 1997 Asian economic crisis while conveniently absorbing the ministry into his role without a solid reason. His actions have rippled to the effects felt today and it is clear that PH had overlooked the need to accept and detail this fact.

If these issues are not addressed and solved immediately from the very roots of the coalition’s leadership, PH will be forced to wait another 5 years to return as serious contenders of Barisan Nasional and PAS as GE14 does not look to be PH’s. – August 30, 2017.

* Haissazc Shuqkin Hisham is an intern at the Institute for Democracy and Economic Affairs (Ideas).

* 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.