After Former Gerakan Deputy Secretary-general Datuk Lee Kah Choon accepted the state appointments as Penang Development Corporation (PDC) Director and InvestPenang Executive Committee Chairman, he was immediately served with a show-cause letter by the party's central working committee. He had no choice but to quit as Gerakan member eventually. Such development was not surprising.
In fact, it is not easy to have both the ruling coalition and the Opposition to govern the country together, and it would be harder to implement such cross-party cooperation in our country in which the ruling and the opposition parties are still confronting each other and at the same time, the country is still struggling with countless complex racial issues.
It is not rare to see cross-party cooperation in some Western democratic countries, and of course, some of them did it successfully and some failed. But the fact is, it is still a dream for us as we have only experienced alliances for political parties over the past 50 years.
Whether such appointments by the Pakatan Rakyat was a political ploy, it is for sure a very brave and forward-looking attempt for creating a cooperation mechanism between the ruling party and the Opposition.
Unfortunately, our political culture is still narrow-minded which is still insists on confrontation, hostility and no compromise. Thus, Lee could not help but to quit.
After the 8 March general elections, the BN government lost its two-thirds majority in the Parliament for the first time. It lost also five states to the Opposition. The new political structure brought the establishment of Pakatan Rakyat and has led to a new political situation for Malaysia.
Leaving personal grudges aside, we can understand that Gerakan had no choice but to take action against Lee because of the principle of BN. But such a good opportunity to create a new political structure for the country has been wasted just like that.
The people are happy but at the same time worried about the political situation after the general elections. This is because in the past 40 days, both BN and Pakatan Rakyat seemed could not wait to have another battle.
The current situation is out of expectancy before the general elections. Not only the people are yet to adapt to it, but BN and the newly formed Pakatan Rakyat seemed to be somewhat at a loss. They are still in shock and cautiously, exploring the way for survival and development.
In Western democratic countries, other than the major ruling and the opposition parties, there are also one or two small parties which can play an important role in critical moments. Looking back to our country, only two major parties – BN and Pakatan Rakyat – could be found in the Parliament, while small parties had lost their foothold. Is such political environment good or bad? Is it healthy? We can only wait and see. However, we can expect that there would be a lot of noises came from the Parliament from now on.
As BN has lost its two-thirds majority, it means that it would have to gain support and cooperation from the Opposition when it wants to have any constitutional amendments. In other words, both BN and Pakatan Rakyat cannot run away from the cross-party cooperation. BN can no longer do whatever it likes while Pakatan Rakyat cannot oppose for the sake of opposing. Instead, both of them should take the country as the priority, to cooperate for the country's interests and the welfare for all.
In fact, it is a norm for the government of a democratic country to negotiate and achieve a compromise in the legislative process. Most importantly, such negotiations and compromises should be transparent and must not turn out to be a power carve-up. Of course, for some wrong policies, the Opposition must still adhere to its principle and to oppose until the end.
Whether the ruling and the opposition parties should carry out some degree of reconciliation and to selectively cooperate? Perhaps, not to trust each other and to confront until the end? This is not only a huge challenge to be learned and faced by the ruling and the opposition parties, but it is also significant to the political development of Malaysia.
Reconciliation or confrontation? Please tell me which is the way. (By LIM MUN FAH/ Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE/ Sin Chew Daily)
MYSinChew
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