So, apologies for being away for so long! It’s taken a while to get back into the swing of things, and I admit, between (thoroughly) savouring new experiences and the sprawl that local politics and issues have become, it’s been hard to get back into the game.
But time to return!
There are a million and one really important things to write about. For now, I just wanted to do some quick words on the issue surrounding PAS and this unity talks business.
I’ve defended PAS more times than I can remember on this blog, and with good reason I reckon. I’ve also repeated ad nauseum how PAS really is extremely far from a monolithic party - an observation repeated consistently over the last few weeks with talks of the Erdogan vs. Ulama factions and so on.
I admit, the PAS elections did not go quite the way I hoped (wonder what would’ve happened if Mat Sabu didn’t contest that Deputy Presidency), but that’s democracy.
What I wanted to say mostly is this: the reason no one has been able to elaborate intelligently about the idea of a unity government is simple - it doesn’t make sense.
The idea of both having both BN and Pakatan in a single government at this time belies logic. There are rare circumstances in which such power sharing is vaguely viable, but I don’t believe that the Malaysian political landscape offers such circumstances.
What would it be like? How would they divide power? What interests exactly would be served by such an undertaking? Can BN and Pakatan trust one another in such a government?
My own feeling is that given the answers to the questions above, all this talk of a unity government can only in actuality allude to an unholy union between Umno and PAS.
It is my belief that a majority - perhaps one not as large as I would have hoped, but a majority nonetheless - of PAS members would firmly reject such a notion.
Again though, if you look at the political matrix at present (especially on the intra-Pakatan side), it is understandable why some (fools?) within PAS would think that an Umno-PAS union would be advantageous to them.
(Woe to those who think forays in such a direction could perhaps ’strengthen’ some party’s ‘negotiating power’)
It is our duty to point out why this would be folly. Why it would be the ultimate insult to everything good PAS has ever stood for, and would demonstrate the very worst traditions of putting political expediency and greed for power over principles.
We should call a spade a spade, and realise that this nonsense about a unity government is mostly just testing the water for a reprehensible alliance with the party that has done more than anyone to destroy everything Malaysia could be.
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