Three parties can’t form the federal government

If Barisan Nasional can’t make it with just three political parties even with everything working in its favour (plus election fraud and vote rigging thrown in), what makes you think that Pakatan Rakyat can do so when the playing field is extremely far from level?

NO HOLDS BARRED

Raja Petra Kamarudin

Way back in 1969, Umno already realised that it can’t form the federal government with a coalition of a mere three political parties. At that time the coalition of Umno, MCA and MIC was called the Alliance Party. That was why Barisan Nasional was formed a few years later -- so that they could enlarge the three-member coalition to include more parties.

A total of 7,944,274 Malaysians voted in the 2008 general election. Umno garnered 2,381,725 votes while MCA and MIC garnered 840,489 and 179,422 votes respectively. Combined, the ‘Alliance Party’ managed only 41.89% of the votes.

In terms of parliament seats, Umno, MCA and MIC won 79, 15 and 3 respectively. But we must remember that Umno’s 79 seats included 11 from Sabah. Therefore, minus Sabah, Umno won only 68 seats -- which means the ‘Alliance Party’ minus Sabah won only 86 out of the 222 seats in Parliament (or 97 seats if including Sabah).

With or without the 11 Umno Sabah seats, the ‘Alliance Party’ of Umno, MCA and MIC can’t get enough seats to form the federal government. They need Barisan Nasional to be able to form the federal government. And, today, Barisan Nasional is a coalition of 14 political parties (if you do not include the Election Commission, Police, Judiciary, AG’s Chambers, etc. -- which would then make it a coalition of 20 or more members).

The bottom line is: with a mere three political parties, Barisan Nasional can’t form the federal government. It needs 14 political parties to do that.

Now let us look at Pakatan Rakyat. It is also a coalition of three political parties. If Barisan Nasional can’t form the federal government with just three political parties (even with the help of the Election Commission, Police, Judiciary, AG’s Chambers, etc.) can Pakatan Rakyat do so (with the Election Commission, Police, Judiciary, AG’s Chambers, etc., all working against the opposition)?

I have said this before and I am going to say it again: Pakatan Rakyat must enlarge the coalition to include more political parties. It can’t expect to form the federal government with just PKR, DAP and PAS. It needs more parties to join Pakatan Rakyat, not only from West Malaysia but also, and in particular, from East Malaysia.

Pakatan Rakyat, in particular PKR, must not be sombong. It can’t make Pakatan Rakyat an ‘exclusive club’ of three parties. It has to reach out to more parties and invite them to join Pakatan Rakyat. If not Pakatan Rakyat is never going to form the next federal government.

The 2008 general election was the peak for Pakatan Rakyat. Pakatan Rakyat can’t expect to better the 2008 general election result with just three parties. Even if Pakatan Rakyat can just maintain its 2008 election result that would be a consolation enough. My fear is that in the next general election Pakatan Rakyat will drop from its 2008 height of 82 parliament seats to a mere 52 seats or so (a repeat of what it did in 1999 when it used to be known as Barisan Alternatif).

Pakatan Rakyat, in particular PKR, should stop making enemies and start making friends. It should remove that chip from its shoulder and stop looking down on those who share the common agenda of seeing change in Malaysia. There are many who share this aspiration for change. But Pakatan Rakyat acts like only it has that exclusive right of fighting for change. That is very sombong.

Let me repeat that: if Barisan Nasional can’t make it with just three political parties even with everything working in its favour (plus election fraud and vote rigging thrown in), what makes you think that Pakatan Rakyat can do so when the playing field is extremely far from level?

There are ten non-Barisan Nasional political parties. But only three are in Pakatan Rakyat. Why can’t Pakatan Rakyat become a coalition of at least seven parties even if it can’t be a coalition of ten parties?