New Pattern? New Changes?

The establishment of the Pakatan Rakyat means the long-term contest between the ruling and opposition parties. They are no longer contesting only with their mouth, as the decision is in the people's hand.

Even though Prime Minister said certainly that he wants to regain the power of the five states. However, the BN is still having internal disputes, and it is not easy to do so.

The component parties of Pakatan Rakyat face the differences and contradictions of political ideology. Conservative PAS members have not give up the goal of Islamic state, but it will not cause the collapse of the Pakatan because the political situation has forced the cooperation between DAP and PAS. Otherwise, the states will back into the hands of their political opponents.

"Even though the country has seen new dawn, many people still continue with the same thinking."

These are the advantages of the Pakatan. Firstly, the three parties have equal power and no one can overtake each others. For the sake of their political interests, they have to hold their inherent contradictions. Through regular meetings and coordination, Pakatan can avoid friction, develop unified policies and strengthen their common ground. Thirdly, Pakatan is a new organisation. The people have expectations on them. As long as they have more exploration for common ground , they can find their future direction. Lastly, they have the time to restructure their thinking, so that the members would be more pragmatic and implement the objective of fair policies.

Some people have ridiculed Pakatan as a mob and is having different ideology. However, when they systematically share their political resources and talents, sooner or later they will be a threat to the BN.

On the contrary, many BN members are low in morale after the BN was defeated in the recent elections. The BN has not experienced such setbacks over the past 50 years. They do not know how to respond to the setback. The most important thing the leaders need to do now is to rebuild the organisation and boost the morale of the party members to face the new political situation. However, we can see from the recent BN's internal disputes that this effort has not got off the ground yet.

The people are worrying that the UMNO will look for scapegoats in the face of this leadership crisis, including blaming the other component parties, questioning the power-sharing formula, questioning the reasons Malay constituencies are given to other people, and even bringing up the Malay sovereignty issue again.

With the coming of globalisation, the increasing number of young voters, urbanisation and national economy downturn, if UMNO does not wake up, it will helplessly watch the power expansion of the Pakatan.

Even though the country has seen new dawn, many people still continue with the same thinking. We are still stuck in the racial and ideological dilemma. When can the country embark on the high road? It depends on the political awareness of the political leaders.

By LIM MUN FAH/ Translated by LEE MEI NYEE