• Skip to main content
  • Skip to secondary menu
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
  • Contact
  • RSS
  • Archives
  • Subscribe
The Nut Graph

The Nut Graph

Making Sense of Politics & Pop Culture

  • Projects
    • MP Watch
    • Found in Conversation
  • Current Issues
    • 6 Words
    • Commentary
    • Features
    • Found in Quotation
    • News
  • Columns
  • Interviews
    • Exclusives
    • Found in Malaysia
  • Multimedia
    • Audio
    • Pictures
    • Videos
  • Corrections
  • Letters to the Editor
  • Vault
    • Found in Translation

“PR needs to formalise its coalition”

By Shanon Shah

June 25, 2009

Random mouths discussing PR's lack of shadow cabinet

PETALING JAYA, 25 June 2009: Pakatan Rakyat needs to, among others, form a shadow cabinet in order for Malaysia to start having a two-party system, a political scientist said.

Monash University Sunway Campus’s Prof Dr James Chin said Pakatan Rakyat (PR) had to first formalise itself as a coalition before talk about Malaysia having a two-party system could be realised.

“In addition to this, a two-party or two-coalition system requires two equal, competing coalitions which are roughly of the same setup,” he said in a phone interview.

Chin noted that as a coalition, the PR was not yet of equal strength to Barisan Nasional (BN) and questioned whether the opposition could even be regarded as a coalition at this juncture.

“They are more like three people driving in the same car, and are unclear even about who the driver is,” he said, adding that conversely, the BN was a coalition with a very clear driver in Umno.

Khalid Ibrahim
Khalid Ibrahim
Chin added that if the PR failed to formalise itself immediately, for example by announcing a shadow cabinet, the only other option for a two-party system to emerge would be if it wins the next general election.

After the PR’s victory in the 7 Apr 2009 Bukit Gantang parliamentary by-election, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim announced that the opposition would not set up a shadow cabinet.

Instead, the PR would create panels comprising representatives from PKR, DAP and PAS to monitor the ministries. To date, however, the PR has yet to make public what these panels are or if they have come into force.

“We are definitely on the way to a two-party system, but if PR loses the next general election, its current structure will fall apart,” Chin said.

He was responding to Selangor Menteri Besar and Selangor PKR liaison chief Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim’s statement on 23 June 2009 that Malaysia’s “current two-coalition system” would provide better checks and balances compared to a unity government.

The unity government idea was mooted by Umno and PAS in recent months, but was effectively rejected by the PR on 22 June.

Challenging Umno

“A two-party system is only considered desirable in Malaysia because we have no history of a truly working democracy,” Chin stressed, adding that many citizens now consider anything that alters Umno’s one-party dominance as “a success”.

James Chin
James Chin (© Monash University,
Sunway Campus)

“People are just looking for a peaceful transfer of power now,” he said.

Nevertheless, Chin said that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak had a 50-50 chance of leading the BN to victory at the next general election.

“BN still has a unified machinery and money, while the PR parties’ machineries have not actually merged on the ground,” he said.

According to Chin, the PR’s strong cooperation now was only driven by its common hatred of Umno, a basis which might not be tenable for long-term cooperation. Favicon

Share this:

  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window)
  • Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window)

Related Stories

Filed Under: News Tagged With: coalition, General Election, james chin, Khalid Ibrahim, Malaysia, monash university, shadow cabinet, Shanon Shah, two-party system, Unity

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Tshiung Han See says

    June 25, 2009 at 10:15 am

    I’m glad Chin said that malaysia doesn’t have a history of a workable democracy. It’s a fact we need to absorb before we invoke all the other stable systems of government in the world and pine that Malaysia doesn’t work like any of them (except Indonesia). Even the constitution points to non-democratic origins and opposition and civil society efforts to subvert that can’t possibly succeed until we admit we have to work with what we have.

  2. wisely says

    June 25, 2009 at 10:56 am

    You got that right …

  3. Yeap Cheng Liang says

    June 25, 2009 at 12:30 pm

    Basically we don’t need a dominant driver in a partnership. But we need to know PR’s stand on major policies of this nation and they have to make it clear how they are going to govern once come into power. Even in a formalised coalition, a dominant driver will only become anthoritarian, a repeat of BN’s mistake. Forming a “shadow cabinet” or panel is very important to make their stand clear on each policy and that, to a certain extent, will make clear PR’s governing philosophy.

  4. wazuma says

    June 25, 2009 at 2:37 pm

    A shadow cabinet shows us what the opposition may do and whether we can believe if they can take over successfully. The lack of a shadow cabinet by PR leads me to believe that unity within PR is shaky (cannot decide who gets what) and that they recognise the lack of experience and competence if they were to take over.

  5. Tshiung Han See says

    June 26, 2009 at 1:23 am

    I love Dr Chin’s description of the PR, not as a coalition, but as “three people driving in the same car, […] unclear even about who the driver is.”

    The flaw in the image — they’re car pooling!

  6. Hong says

    June 26, 2009 at 5:52 am

    Tshiung Han See,

    I agree that it is important to note that Malaysia does not have a history of a workable democracy but I fail to see the relevance of your point regarding the non-democratic origins of our constitution with regards to the issue of PR forming a shadow cabinet.

    Also, I doubt very many constitutions in operation today have “democratic” origins, in the sense that they are almost always designed by an elite group professing to have the best interests of the people at heart.

  7. Tshiung Han See says

    June 27, 2009 at 1:27 am

    Hong,

    My point was that when the social experiment called Malaysia first gained sovereignty, the goal was not to give each and every Malaysian a voice or a vote. The goal was to give Malay Malaysians enough of the economic pie. This was a response to the 1931 population consensus, when Malay Malaysians found out that they would soon be a minority race in their own land. This is borne out through the citizenship disputes, over which Onn Jafar resigned from Umno. This is borne out through the government’s reluctance to re-absorb Chinese-rich Singapore.

    In advocating for change, we take democracy as the goal. We have never achieved it, nor come close. Let’s admit that and move on to bigger and better things.

Primary Sidebar

Search

Twitter

My Tweets

Recent Comments

  • Wave33 on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Adam on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • PSTan on The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Andre Lai on The Nut Graph stops publication

Recent News

  • The Nut Graph stops publication
  • Nasihat tentang sepupu yang mengganggu perasaan
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: The Sunni-Shia split and the answer to Muslim unity
  • Why Malaysia needs the national unity bills
  • Challenging government in the digital age: Lessons from Kidex
  • Najib’s failure
  • Babi, anjing, pondan: Jijik orang Islam Malaysia
  • Kidex and the law – What the government’s not telling you
  • Beyond Dyana Sofya
  • Uncommon Sense with Wong Chin Huat: Does Malaysia need hate speech laws?

Tags

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Anwar Ibrahim Barisan Nasional BN Bukit Selambau by-election dap Deborah Loh Ding Jo-Ann Election Commission elections Found in Malaysia Found in Quotation Gan Pei Ling government high court Hishammuddin Hussein ISA islam Jacqueline Ann Surin Khairy Jamaluddin KW Mak Lim Guan Eng Malaysia MCA Menteri Besar MP Watch Muhyiddin Yassin muslim Najib Razak Pakatan Rakyat Parliament Parti Keadilan Rakyat pas Penang Perak PKR police politics prime minister Selangor Shanon Shah Umno Wong Chin Huat Zedeck Siew

Footer

  • About The Nut Graph
  • Who Are We?
  • Our Contributors
  • Past Contributors
  • Guest Contributors
  • Editorial Policy
  • Comments & Columns
  • Copyright Policy
  • Web Accessibility Policy
  • Privacy Policy
The Nut Graph

© 2023 The Nut Graph