Wednesday, 11-Feb-2004 8:32 AM

HARAKAH DAILY

Kedah, the state to be emulated

Raja Petra Kamarudin

“Kedah is a state that should be the role model for the rest of the party,” said Zamri Yusuf, the Secretary of Parti Keadilan Nasional’s (keADILan) Election Bureau for Kedah.

“We have finalised the seat negotiations with PAS and have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to cement our agreement. I think Kedah is the first state to resolve this and to put it in writing. Now we can focus on the more important issue like getting our election machinery in place. At least, if a snap election is called, we will be ready.”

“No doubt there have been difficult periods in the negotiations involving overlapping seats,” added Zamri. “But, in the spirit of solidarity and compromise, these problems were easily ironed out and an amicable solution was reached.”

“Understandably, there will always be some disagreement in any negotiation, especially when both parties want to gain the maximum advantage for their party. But if both parties can put aside personal interests for the sake of the coalition, then anything is possible.”

In response to the statement by Azmin Ali in Malaysiakini yesterday that the MoU may not get the endorsement of the top leadership in the Barisan Alternatif presidential council, Hafiz Mustafa, keADILan Kedah’s Information Chief said, “We were told that all seat negotiations are to be handled at state level.”

“For example, when the Penang seat negotiation between the Democratic Action Party (DAP) and keADILan stalled and the DAP wanted to talk to pusat, they were told to go back to the state as it would be up to the state to decide and pusat will not interfere in the matter.”

“It is not that we gave in to PAS or allowed PAS to bully us as what some may think,” argued Hafiz. “It has been agreed that Perak, Selangor, Penang and Pahang will be keADILan’s frontline states while Kelantan, Terengganu, Kedah and Perlis will be PAS’. Therefore we have to allow PAS to take the lead in Kedah.”

“And this makes sense,” added Hafiz. “Penang has only 25% Malay voters and Selangor and Perak about 50% or so. So keADILan should lead in these state.”

“Kelantan and Terengganu, however, have about 95% Malay voters while Kedah has more than two-thirds. Therefore, the dependence on Malay voters is very high in these states and rightfully PAS should lead the charge there.”

“Further to that, in the 1999 election, we did not contest even one seat in Kedah. We cannot lay claim to any ‘traditional seats’ other than the Lunas seat, which even then we won in a by-election. Therefore, anything we get would be a vast improvement over 1999.”

And what would they do if pusat does not recognise the MoU? Will keADILan Kedah be prepared to dishonour it?

“Certainly not!” echoed both Zamri and Hafiz. “As far as we are concerned it is a done deal and we will stand by what has been agreed. It is a matter of honour and principles.”

“Even if pusat decides to pull the rug from under us and ‘disown’ us, we will still proceed. But then maybe we will not be allowed to contest under our own party banner. In that case, we will have no choice but to contest under the PAS banner.”

There certainly seems to be a disagreement of sorts between keADILan Kedah and the central election committee. But what is perplexing, why must all this ‘dirty linen’ be aired in public through the media?

Earlier, disagreements between DAP and keADILan in Penang were debated through the media. Then, recently, the personal feud between the keADILan Youth Leader and his Secretary were bandied about through the issuing of press statement after press statement.

Can’t these leaders find another, safer, avenue to settle problems other than making press statements? They must certainly realise that going public on matters of internal disputes or disagreements only offers ammunition to the ruling party, which already controls all the mainstream media.

The opposition grumbles that the mainstream media is unfair to it and looks for any minor fault to play up. However, most of the time, it is the opposition that is giving them the issues to play up.

The perception of the general public is that the opposition is so fragmented with inter-party and intra-party bickering. The voters are beginning to ask whether the Barisan Alternatif is really that alternative government-in-waiting after all. Many have expressed their disappointment that the Barisan Alternatif has not turned out the way they had hoped and whether it may actually lack the maturity to run this country.

This is a very alarming perception indeed and something that needs to be addressed in a hurry if the opposition wishes to regain the confidence of the voters. 1999 was the high point for the opposition. Though, then, there were only four coalition partners in the Barisan Alternatif, it still managed to garner 46% of the popular vote against Barisan Nasional, a coalition of 14 political parties.

Keadilan, which was then only six months old, in turn, managed to garner about 17% of the popular vote. This is no small feat for any political party and just goes to show the strong support the voters gave it.

But the voters are no longer going to vote for the opposition based on just giving it the benefit of the doubt like they did in 1999. Today, the opposition will need to put its money where its mouth is and prove that it is a capable and viable alternative to the ruling party.

And publicly aired bickering is certainly not going to achieve this. Instead, the reverse will happen and the voters will end up convinced that the opposition has not yet got its act together.

It is not like the ruling Barisan Nasional is free of internal problems. It too has a host of problems, in fact, worse than what the opposition is facing. But it is very careful about what becomes public knowledge. And this is where the ruling coalition shows more maturity than the opposition.

Just take UMNO as one example. The new Prime Minister is under tremendous pressure. Internally, UMNO is like a gunpowder keg. There is even talk the Prime Minister may not last a full term in office, let alone the minimum two terms he hopes to serve.

But one can only speculate on this. Rumour has it his new Deputy was forced upon him by the recently retired Prime Minister. There is even talk he was blackmailed into announcing his new Deputy’s appointment.

But everything remains just that; rumours, talk and speculation. The opposition, however, is too generous with its information and not only willingly confirms the rumours of internal problems, but adds more spice to it by issuing press statements making it very interesting reading indeed.

Barisan Nasional’s “unity” is not based on mutual agreement. There is much unhappiness amongst its ranks. But it maintains its solidarity nevertheless for the sake of the common interest of the coalition. Though it has 14 member parties, it is able to keep the lid on all problems and not allow them to spill over. The opposition, however, with a mere four members now reduced to two (after the exit of the DAP and the merger of keADILan and PRM) cannot see eye-to-eye.

And the worst thing, the first resort is always to go crying to the press instead of sitting down to find a middle-of-the-road solution. Then they scream about how unfair the press is. Can you blame the press? No one likes good news. Only bad news sells newspapers. Ever wonder why they prefer to report all the bad news, especially that involving the opposition?