ADUN SPEAKS | There is no end to analyses as to why Pakatan Harapan lost not in the recent Johore election but also in Melaka and Sarawak.
The failure to make comeback in the elections has been attributed to low voter turnout, too many competing parties, lack of opposition coherence in formulating an agenda and the strength of BN/Umno.
These reasons have a role in why Harapan lost the elections and why component parties such as Amanah and PKR had a disastrous performance.
Even the intact DAP lost some seats in all these recent elections.
Harapan reached its political height in the 2018 general election.
What was thought impossible was made possible by the capture of federal power by the opposition.
With Mahathir Mohammed as the prime minister, the victory was a pyrrhic one, it was just a matter of time it became a political disaster for Harapan, something that has come to be a nightmare for PH as a whole until today.
Even though Harapan was in power for only 22 months, a heavy damage was inflicted on the coalition due to its association with Mahathir.
Mahathir’s whim and fancies
Twenty-two months was not a long period, but it was enough to sink the Harapan as a whole in the quagmire of politics.
During these 22 months, Harapan accommodated too much with the whims and fancies of Mahathir who was never comfortable with his association with Harapan in the first place.
Harapan was used and manipulated to serve the short term interests of Mahathir especially to prevent the return of the former ousted prime minister Najib Tun Razak.
Harapan’s reform agenda articulated in its manifesto could not just take off.
Mahathir was the biggest stumbling block in the implementation of the manifesto.
It was an unmitigated blow experienced by Harapan, something that the coalition has never really recovered and possibly the cause of the recent elections defeat.
Harapan, before the general election in 2018, gave so much hope and confidence to Malaysians to break out of the vicious cycle of the extremism of race and religion.
Mahathir single-handedly put a full stop to Harapan’s reform and change agenda.
His opening and speech at the Malay Identity Conference were enough to suggest that he did not care about Harapan’s reform agenda.
Ouster of Harapan government
The ouster of the Harapan government by the “Sheraton Move” to some extent made possible by Mahathir the “saviour” himself was a death blow to Harapan but more precisely its much talked about the reform agenda.
Even after the Harapan was ousted from power there was no attempt made to take stock of things, especially on the mistakes made. There was not even a feeble attempt to resuscitate the reform agenda.
For many opposition supporters, the catch-all phrase “reformasi” became shrouded in mystery and emptiness.
The focus seems to be more on return to federal power, power-sharing or having some kind of agreement with the government in power.
The very government that ousted Harapan from power.
MOU with government
Was it surprising then there was a move to have a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the government of then prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin ostensibly to ensure the non-return of kleptocrats?
There was much opposition within the ranks of the opposition on the proposed move.
However, as soon as Muhyiddin was ousted, Harapan found no difficulty in signing an MOU with the new prime minister Ismail Saberi Yaacob.
This MOU was predicated on the need to restore political stability by bringing about certain reforms.
For Ismail it was not about reforms but to prolong his stay in power.
The most fundamental of the reforms was the need to pass the anti-hopping law.
The move to press with the reform agenda was narrowed down to the MOU with the PN government.
Reforms predicated on cooperation with the government in power were not something endearing to the diehard supporters of the opposition.
For some, it was nothing but a betrayal of the mandate given to PH.
Rather than pursuing a full and major reform agenda expected of a serious-minded opposition, Harapan stuck with the limited agenda of reform by signing a MOU with the government.
It was in other words a shared reform agenda with the government in power, the very government that the opposition needs to oppose by presenting an alternative reform agenda.
Harapan is supportive of the MOU, maybe some concrete things could be achieved by this shared formula.
Beyond this, Harapan seems to have lost the mission and vision that was so clear and loud before the 2018 election.
Due to the earlier reform agenda, Harapan could aspire for federal political power and could capture three state governments.
The powerful sting that Harapan had has been lost after the last general election.
Harapan is no more the powerful opposition that it was once. It remains a feeble and weak opposition force.
It would virtually take wonders to restore the once-powerful opposition coalition to be a force to be reckoned with.
The coalition has not only lost the powerful mission to bring about changes but seems to depend on the government in power to bring about changes.
MOU has become a joke!
Why has Harapan lost support?
What Harapan was before
The answer must be found in what Harapan was before and what happened after it became the government.
To put it briefly, the metamorphosis experienced by Harapan in putting forward a bold and unadulterated reform agenda to one of cooperation with the government in power is the cause of the underlying dissatisfaction or frustration.
This seems to be the entry point of BN/Umno to weaken the opposition or Harapan.
It might be difficult to put back Humpty Dumpty on the wall unless there is a serious attempt made at introspection, where the coalition was before, where is it now, why it has lost its popular appeal, and why the BN is making a comeback to fill the vacuum despite its massive unmitigated misdeeds.
Maybe the faults are not so much in the BN (stars) but what the component parties of the Harapan have brought upon themselves.
Let us not do the same thing repeatedly expecting different results.
P RAMASAMY is Perai assemblyperson and Deputy Chief Minister II of Penang.
