Friends of Convenience
Datuk Lokman Noor Adam had been sacked from UMNO for spreading a conspiracy theory about the party.
According to the former UMNO supreme council member, there is a plan to form a new government comprising of UMNO, PAS, Bersatu and other component parties of Pakatan Harapan, but excluding DAP, Anwar Ibrahim and his supporters.
The new coalition that could be the new government was dubbed as Pakatan Nasional.
This ‘ideal’ government would only lead to racial tensions as its component parties are made up of race-based or religious-based parties.
MCA and MIC, the core parties of BN since its Alliance day, were not even mentioned when it comes to the alleged plan of forming Pakatan Nasional.
DAP is not welcomed to the party for the same old reason – being a “communist” party.
DAP has been constantly accused of supporting the communist ideology, with the latest issue being the Chin Peng ashes.
In fact, DAP is a multiracial party. However, it is undeniable that its top leadership is mostly Chinese and Indian, with lesser representative from the Malay race.
Without DAP, MCA and MIC combined only have three seats in the Dewan Rakyat, hence the voice of the minorities would be condensed.
Hence, the Malay-Muslims will be dominating the nation’s politics if Pakatan Nasional becomes the government of Malaysia.
The UMNO and PAS collaboration, known as Muafakat Nasional, made some parties worry about the future of Malaysian politics, for creating a coalition that are leaning towards the right spectrum in a Muslim-majority country.
Regardless, Muafakat Nasional promises that it will protect the minorities in the country, plus was endorsed by MCA and MIC during its official collaboration ceremony.
Overall, the idea of forming Pakatan Nasional is just like playing fantasy football, selecting the top players while disregarding the compatibility between them.
According to the results of the past general elections, Malaysians in the urban areas were hoping for a reformation in the country, while the ones in the rural areas were more conservative in nature and voted for the coalition who built the nation, Barisan Nasional.
Thus, Pakatan Nasional would have difficulties to tap into urban areas that are not so keen on racial politics, limiting their territories which would only lead to infighting.
But that could be the future of Malaysian politics, forming temporary alliances in order to be in power before falling out and rebuilding themselves with new allies.