Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing
KUCHING: PRS president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Dr James Masing has attributed Pakatan Rakyat (PR)’s demise to insincerity of DAP in handling its relationship with its partners PKR and PAS.
Masing, who is Land Development Minister and Baleh assemblyman, said DAP should be blamed for the break-up in PR due to the way it treated its partners that did not allow for a lasting relationship between them.
“Unless and until DAP learns to be sincere in handling their relationship with others, they will have difficulty in attracting a ‘sleeping partner’,” he told The Borneo Post when contacted yesterday.
Masing, a senior state minister, was commenting on the declaration by DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng that PR had ceased to exist.
Lim, who is Penang Chief Minister, made the announcement after the DAP central executive committee (CEC) meeting on Monday which unanimously resolved to accept PAS’ motion during their Muktamar to sever ties with DAP.
As he had mentioned before, Masing said PR is a ‘rainbow coalition’, thus the pact would not last, adding: “When the sun sets and darkness comes in, the rainbow will disappear. So is PR coalition.”
He said even though PAS, DAP and PKR had been sleeping on the same bed, they had different dreams and therefore, upon waking up they would realise their differences.
SUPP Youth publicity secretary Milton Foo said the dissolution of PR was something expected, stating at the outset, the political struggle and route of the three parties were different and the only common goal, if it ever existed, was to topple the ruling BN government.
From the perspective of BN, he said the dissolution might be seen as good news in the sense that voters could truly see the true colour of the three opposition parties, adding their ideology of ‘changing the government’ had became a mere talk or slogan that could never be realised.
“Most Malaysians are peace lovers and we want stability in terms of politics and economy. We want to move forward to be a developed country with economic strength, capable of competing with the western countries and some Asian countries like China, Japan, Korea or even Singapore.”
He said while BN, comprising 13 political parties, might not be the best government of the day, it was a more reliable coalition in terms of its political goal and mission compared to the pact among PAS, DAP and PKR.
Meanwhile, Universiti Malaysia Sarawak Social Science senior lecturer Dr Jeniri Amir opined that what happened within PR for the past few weeks would have far reaching implications on PR.
In addition, he said the conflict among the coalition partners would also affect the state governments of Selangor and Penang, besides affecting their performance in the upcoming general election.
“They are really in dilemma now. If a wrong decision is made (by any of the parties), the state governments (held by them) will crumble.”
Despite that, Jeniri, who is a political analyst, believed the PR partners would have realised the political implication and probably would come up with a loose kind of coalition to ensure that they remain in power.
“If they fail to come up with a win-win solution, the (Selangor and Penang) governments will topple and maybe, they will have to call for a snap election.”
Jeniri believed, if possible, the PR parties would try to avoid a snap election and try their level best to maintain the state governments.