KUALA LUMPUR - A power-broking rift within Malaysia’s opposition alliance is spurring fears that the unlikely multi-racial coalition, which inspired millions to imagine an alternative to the country’s decades-old regime, faces potential collapse.
Unprecedented electoral gains have enabled the diverse three-party Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Pact) to paper over wide religious and social differences in its six-year history.
But an impasse over a key political appointment has reignited nagging doubts over its cohesiveness.
“I think Pakatan’s basic viability is being severely tested,” said Tony Pua, a leading parliamentarian with the Democratic Action Party (DAP), a Pakatan component.
Failure to heal the rift would mean “the whole question of us staying together becomes moot.”
In 2008 polls, the opposition for the first time won Selangor, the jewel in a run of recent electoral spoils nationwide that have rocked the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO).
But top figures in PAS support retaining Selangor incumbent Khalid Ibrahim.
A former businessman Khalid is respected by many for his running of Selangor, which Pakatan retained in elections last year. He refuses to budge.
Leaders pledge unity
PAS is accused of violating an agreement against meddling in each party’s appointments. Anwar’s party — which controls Selangor — this week threatened to expose alleged corruption by Khalid unless he steps down.
Malaysia’s UMNO-controlled mainstream media has gleefully pounced on the unseemly spat, forcing Anwar and other top Pakatan leaders to stand shoulder-to-shoulder last weekend to vow the alliance would not collapse.
In a statement Tuesday, Anwar added Pakatan must “resist all attempts to break it apart” while warning that failure to close ranks “may warrant some difficult decisions to be made.”
He did not elaborate. His office has declined comment.
PAS’s top leadership is expected to decide a potentially make-or-break final stance on the matter Sunday.
Political analysts expect Pakatan to make peace to avoid throwing away its recent gains, but add that the affair fuels questions among voters and markets over whether Pakatan is stable enough to govern nationally.
The bloc won a majority of the popular vote last year, but failed to make history by winning national government. It blamed an UMNO-tilted electoral system.
With the next elections not due until 2018, Pakatan faces a challenge sustaining momentum amid its members’ differences, said political pollster Ibrahim Suffian.
“Assuming Pakatan Rakyat survives this, the question is what will it be able to do over the next three to four years? Even if Selangor is patched up, there could be problems elsewhere,” he said. -AFP
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