What fighting already before honeymoon is over? I rest my case. The DAP should respect the Regent’s decision. After all you collaborated to ask him to arbiter and to drag him into this issue that was supposed to be resolved between yourselves. Between yourselves you could not even resolve to submit one name – that of the person representing the Opposition party that secured most state seats. So what kind of leverage DAP has in this coalition of Barisan Rakyat or Barisan Alternatif, whatever you call it?

The Opposition (Barisan Rakyat comprising DAP, PAS & PKR) had campaigned successfully the 2008 general election on the platform that UMNO/BN were wrong to leverage on communal issue of Ketuanan, and that race should not be a factor….

What we’re seeing now is that race is. That’s reality but it is anomalous because it was DAP/PKR & PAS that told UMNO/BN that it ought not to bve the case!

Wasn’t it true that it was PAS (supported by Anwar’s PKR) who objected to DAP’s Ngah Khoo Ham being made Mentri Besar (even if DAP won the majority of Perak’s state seats) on technical grounds that under the state constitution, the menteri besar had to be a Malay Muslim? Have PKR and PAS say that they would help amend the state constitution in this regard? I don’t recall.

In Selangor it seems the state ex co is also in contention. Maybe even the deputy menteri besar post, whether (1) or (2) has to be a Malay Muslim. Have PKR and PAS say that they would help amend the state constitution in this regard? I also don’t recall.

The results of 2008 general election show all the three Opposition parties did well, which due to DAP’s supporters voting for PKR – and PAS – in straight fight against BN’s candidates, PKR did as well as DAP in terms of winning seats and PAS also did well though not as well as the other two.

Yet out of the 5 state seats that fell to or continue in Opposition parties’ control, outwardly at least PAS benefits most when its candidates take top MB posts in 3 out of the 5 – Kelantan, Kedah and now Perak, in each case with PKR taking side of PAS (quite reminiscent of 1999 when the Terengganu Government passed the Hudud and Qisas bill which drew much opposition, and eventually prompted the DAP to leave the Barisan Alternatif coalition when PKR refused to back DAP (even though their mutual multiracial agendas are purportedly congruent and similar) and instead stayed on in collaboration with PAS…

Isn’t it also true that just in the wake of the successes of 2008 general election, PAS leaders (principally president Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang) had announced that PAS (with 2/3rd majority) planned to introduce Hudud (Islamic) criminal law in Kedah to become part of the state laws, despite the same move made in Kelantan and Terengganu before had sparked controversy as it ran contrary to the Federal Constitution??? Why is it that we don’t hear either PKR and DAP publicly opposing what Hadi Awang say?

Is this a sign of things to come that in place of UMNO’s hegemony to which MCA/Gerakan were criticized by DAP to be subservient there, is now evolving, in the incubatory stage, another kind of hegemony – a theocratic hegemony by PAS – to which even the DAP is subservient in consideration of the benefit of “Penang jewel” obtained from the loose tripartite cooperation of DAP, PAS and PKR? But apart from crown jewel of Penang what about Malaysia?

I have said before the leopard never changes its spot – and I mean PAS truly committed to its theocratic agenda, which as Lee Wang Yen said, it is willing to make temporary concessions, wear a softer face (one recalls that before elections it dared not even mention the forming of Islamic state) before slowly, unveiling the true face when it consolidates positions and power (as it has done so in considerable extent in this 2008 general elections, and hence the daring mention of introducing hudud in Kedah!)

Come next elections if Opposition parties win more and even dislodges the BN, is there a doubt that PAS will not be doing even better and asserting its will to form the Islamic state in the face of acquiescence of Anwar and PKR, not siding then with DAP on principles (as Anwar and PKR repeatedly had not do so in the past as well) and the helplessness of the DAP (resorting to feeble and ungracious boycott of the swearing-in ceremony for Perak Mentri Besar scheduled tomorrow when the DAP was party to agree to the Regent’s determination?????)

My stand is that there is wisdom in the MB’s position being given to a Malay because that is in the state constitution, because DAP still has the majority in the State executive council but most important Non Malays should behave themselves : just because you ‘win’ the elections – and with considerable help from Malays – is no excuse to step on Malay community’s sensitivities, custom and usage and institutions like Mentri Besar position based on race – these things will take time to evolve and change, coming from Malays themselves. In Penang, you can operate on merits on appointments but no reason to immediately broadcast that you wanted to do away with the NEP to make some Malay supporters wary of you and your detractors on the other side to whip on sentiments against you….

That there is wisdom (unity of all races in Parak inclusive of Malaysian Malays identification with Opposition’s cause) in having a Malay as the MB according to existing constitution (until such is changed) is but one issue quite separate from the other in which you don’t seem to have the support of PAS, backed constantly by PKR on any major issue – and my concern is if the other two can unite against the DAP on the MB issue, wouldn’t they do so onbn the Islamic state issue later on when and if they could dislodge BN from seat of power??? You’re slowly becoming to PAS/PKR what MCA is to UMNO in both instances used – and your supporters used as well. When are we going to realise that we are always taken for a ride? :)