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The importance of being KeADILan

THE BARISAN Alternatif is a dead duck. If it was not, it died when the National Front (BN) and PAS decided they would not proceed with election petitions against the other so one could retain power in Trengganu and the other in Kelantan. It was half dead when it was formed: The DAP would not be in any coalition in which PAS was in. Self-interest survives principle every time. The three opposition political parties would not agree to a common minimum political programme to make the Barisan Alternatif (BA) to work. The DAP stayed away. Each had a high opinion of its role in the opposition coalition. But that is not how to be an government-in-waiting.

When general elections were called, the scramble for seats got more prominence than a common political programme. The BA had PAS and KeADILan as members. It went into the March elections in high hope, but not enough workers on the ground. The Election Commission made a mess of it, but after the polling, the rhetoric of unfairness is forgotten and buried as the legal challenges that must did not surface. The DAP wanted an electoral deal over candidates, but that was resolved only at the last minute. All this gave voters an idea of the confusion and arrogance it would reflect if it is, in the remotest of chances, voted into office.

In the present set-up, PAS and DAP, in their extreme positions, cancel each other. The two can neither get together nor modify their political positions. The DAP needs the Chinese vote to survive, and this is brainwashed into accepting as fact that PAS will amputate hands and legs for theft. It believes BN would not, but in the politics of today, the battle royale is between BN's UMNO and PAS over who could turn Malaysia into an Islamic state quicker; their political debate is which of their brands of Islam - UMNO's Islam Hadhari (Progressive Islam) or PAS's fundamentalist creed - should be adopted. When push comes to shove, there is no difference. But the Chinese vote is sure there is. The DAP cannot ignore it. PAS is unwilling to change either.

The three opposition parties - PAS, DAP, KeADILan - face an internal crisis of confidence, not evident to the outsider or even many a member. But it is there, as clear as day and night. The fight for its soul is unrelenting in the three political parties. Until that is resolved - and it would not be any time soon - no change is discernible. In PAS, the ulamahs resent the non-ulamahs, the Malay professionals who joined it in belief but does not agree on a theocracy as its electoral goal. Neither is prepared to give way, and one cannot take a stand without the other debunking it.

The DAP faces a similar crisis of leadership. It is not admitted, but it is there. This inhibits new members from joining the party. Many feel it is in the grip of the old timers led by its chairman, Mr Lim Kit Siang. Within the Chinese community, the DAP is used as its foil to raise issues the BN Chinese parties would not. But it is not the DAP it wants in Parliament and the state assemblies, but individuals. In other words, the DAP is seen as a gadfly by the Chinese community to keep the government in check. Should it ever be in the government, this community would desert is as quickly. That is the DAP dilemma.

This leaves Parti Keadilan Rakyat or KeADILan. The Registrar of Societies insists it be known as PKR, not KeADILan, but how is it going to enforce that? It was formed after the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, was jailed on trumped up charges of sodomy and corruption when he showed his metier and frightened the BN prime minister of the day, Tun Mahathir Mohamed. He is its eminence grise. But for too long he was its raison d'etre. But if it wants to exist as a political party it must go beyond commitment to its eminence grise. This is where the difficulty begins. Too many among its leaders want this to continue. But it cannot if it must have a role in Malaysia's larger affairs.

One brilliant move it made was to merge with the Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), a leftist Malay political party once a power in the Opposition but which swiftly reformed itself into a party of the young committed professional. KeADILan now had a body but still not yet a soul. It has yet to harp on its strength: its multiracial members and Malay leaders. UMNO is frightened of it, not because of its patron but its multiracial character. As UMNO veers towards theocracy, by whatever name you call it, it leaves out its secular foundations. The secular UMNO members are worried of the party's direction, and to remain in politics, look at KeADILan as UMNO once was.

Which is why the BN government is harsh of it. It refers to it with a loathing that must be seen when discussing it with senior UMNO members. It was long thought, especially in KeADILan, that Dato' Seri Anwar caused it. It did not. It is the damage KeADILan could do to UMNO. Many UMNO members are also KeADILan members. Even PAS tries to package itself as a Malay party as it girds its loins to beat UMNO at its game. This is KeADILan's best asset. But it is not looked at this way by its leaders, who have other fish to fry: where they would stand when it is properly organised after the merger with PRM; if Dato' Seri Anwar should be ditched altogether (which was how one KeADILan leader described his dilemma to me), keep him as an eminence grise, ignore him. It is, like in every party, a crisis of confidence.

The party ideals are forgotten as the leaders scramble for a place in its heirarchy. Principle is forgotten. There is fear of what would happen to many if Dato' Seri Anwar is released from prison. The leaders scramble for their place. Some have approached UMNO to be allowed to return. There is a sense of uncertainty. Those who believe that KeADILan must reflect its position as an alternate to UMNO and PAS, while attracting the non-Malay with his innate distrust of race-based political parties. If it is cleverly positioned, it could well be to the Malay what UMNO was to the Malay in the late 1940s and 1950s, a political party which fights for his rights as a Malay spelt out in cultural not Islamic terms. This is its greatest strength, one that UMNO realised but not yet KeADILan leaders.

The young Malaysian who wants to join a political party is more eclectic in his choice. Whereas once they would move smartly to the BN parties, now they have a view of their own and act accordingly. One who wants to make lots of money go to the BN, one who wants to be in politics to PAS, DAP or KeADILan. The non-Malay is split between DAP and KeADILan; the Malay between PAS and KeADILan; the theocratically inclined towards UMNO or PAS. The Malay and non-Malay face the same pressures: he has the choice between theocratic and chauvistic politics on the one hand and a secular and multiracial politics on the other. If it is the latter he veers to, it is inevitably KeADILan.

This importance of KeADILan in Malaysian politics should not be lost by default. The petty mudslinging and political drift must stop. It must go out and make its presence felt. It has the men. The presence of the PRM leaders, with their experience in running a political party long on principle, would give it a fillip. It must decide on its core principles, and stick to it. Some leaders would fall by the wayside, but that must be expected. KeADILan functions remind me of the sepulchral calm in a death house, its leaders more intent of ensuring gravitas than rouse the crowd. It should instead write position papers, state its views forcefully, make a nuiscance of itself if it must, to show the average Malaysian that it is a political party that looks after its needs, without forcing him to be theocratic or chauvinist. It is a tall order. It can be done. Would it?

[This is my column in the Seruan Keadilan, the official organ of the Parti Keadilan Rakyat, in its latest issue, out today, 29 June 2004.]

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@streamyx.com