PAS supporters have been identified as the section of the concert booing and thowing water bottles at the rock performers. Lead vocalist Alak the rock band Carburetor Dung who was allegedly assaulted after exposing his boxer shorts to the crowd said he used the word “jilat” meaning ‘apple-polishing’ in context of the lyrics and not “liwat”. Crowd was bias or Alak twisting his words?
[It is, after all, a season of word twisting. It seems MP Bung Mokhtar showed an obsecene gesture of ‘palm hitting a clenched fist’ and he said it was not obsence because, according to him, “No, I did not do that. I just did this (hitting his palm on the back of his other hand)…I did not until now that anger could be expressed by “palm hitting on the back of his other hand. That’s a new gesture???].

Anyway back to PAS and its supporters.

Earlier PAS Youth did not approve of the band’s musical inclinations and felt it was inappropriate for the event. In protests 700 volunteers from PAS-run Unit Amal pulled out of the event. I don’t see others supporting the Oposition cause in the concert reacting to the rock musical and the boxer short episode in a maner as PAS its officials and suporters.

This “difference” in thinking and approach of PAS and its officials and supporters from others underscores the perennial problem besetting the Opposition coalition : the lack of common approach in just any matter apart from the common agenda of booting out the BN.

This is the headache that Anwar Ibrahim faces as he tries to weld and glue the disparate and often incongruent elements within the Oposition together.

Take for example the allegations of sodomy by Saiful Bukhari Azlan. It is not only his BN detractors to swear in the name of God on the Koran that he is innocent of the sodomy allegation. Pas and its spirituall leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat, the Menteri Besar of opposition-held Kelantan state, also backed the BN supporters’ calls! I don’t hear Party Keadilan Rakyat or the DAP supporting such calls.

This is just one example of the schism within the Opposition Parties.

The other recent example is PAS Youth submiitting a memorandum to Selangor MB to protest over scheduled performance of rock queen Ella and dangdut singer Mas Idayu in the coming Sultan of Selangor Cup matches between his Selangor and Singapore, which not only Sultan of Selangor does not agree but I suppose the PKR and DAP as well.

Pakatan Rakyat now faces not only the threat of perennial divergent approaches of PAS from the rest but now also the larger threat of being unglued by the sodomy allegations – should they culminate in prosecution – against the person who glues all disparate sections together within Paktan Rakyat.

//PR is a different sort of alliance// – a “different sort” must not amount to “misalliance”….

It is all good and idealistic to speak of strength and unity within diversity and the freedom to express different opinions and aproaches. But what is the reality that collective hopes for change of government cannot change?

A coalition is a partnering of groups in order to engage in joint activity and achieve a common purpose, which in PR’s context is to replace the BN as government – and which each group by its own alone cannot achieve.

For the coalition to be successful, the basic ingredients are :

1. that your goals are similar and compatible;

2. that working together will enhance both groups’ abilities to reach their goals, and

3. that the benefits of coalescing will be greater than the costs.

Here the conflicts and divergence of goals assert and manifest themselves at every juncture and at different points (even before they form the government) let alone after.

The coalition builder – DSAI – needs focus and concentration to place PR on even keel to make the final thrust to take over the govt.

He is beset by two major problems:

(a) thus far his approach in leading PR has not focused at all in resolving and ironing out the differences between DAP & PR. He has not tries to forge an agreement whereby one side gibves in a little in quid pro quo of the other side making similar concession. He has not even taken side. Wherever PAS creates a problem in conflict with the common understanding forged during the last general election, Anwar keeps quiet, takes no stand, sides no party on principle, and just hoping that the differences will resolve by themelves!

(b) his concentration and energy is now diverted and sapped regarding how to resolve his personal problem of the sodomy allegations made by Saiful. It is not clear now even his agenda of whether to proceed with canvasing other defections to build up the PR to larger coalition or to galvanise supporters to protest reformasi on the streets to presure the govt’s resignation. You will notice that either the course of canvassing defections or reformasi street protests – have not been openly endorsed or supported by either of PKR’s coalition partners PAS or DAP, they and their supporters sem to drift along in whatever Anwar initiates. These uncertainties would cause would-be-supporters of the scheme to defect to keep non committal. SAPP itself is not united and has postponed its plan to move a no-confidence motion against PM.

(c) He has also issued predictions that have proven more rhetoric than factual based. This pertains the issue of credibility. Eg Calling for 1 million show of people power turns out 20-30,000 within the stadium; promise of Sept 16 of takeover though judging from defections todate, the promise seems unfulfillable.

(d) PR has no one or viable leader next in line aceptable to all to step into the void should for any cause or reason Anwar be brought down by the allegations made against him.

In response to AhPek’s last posting, the sad thing is that it looks like PR’s defacto head not only hasn’t stitched component partners of PR together or the much tiouted crossovers from BN, but also might be unable to stitch a solution to his personal problem of Saiful’s allegations!

It is interesting that the PKR de facto leader has now announced that he is turning to the Syariah court to clear his name over the sodomy allegation against him by his former aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan”. He is doing this by filing a complaint (qazaf in Islamic law) of slander relating to sexual crime against Saiful if Saiful is unable to produce four credible witnesses to back up his claims. See malaysiakini’s report by Syed Jaymal Zahiid | Jul 9, 08.
Sodomy & other sexual crimes are under our “secular” Penal Code applicable to both Muslims and Non Muslims.

The defacto head is sending out a very wrong signal that Muslims prosecutable by the state for crimes under Penal Code could circumvent and neutralise the rigours of the law just be unilaterally opting for Syaraih if it suits his convenience of raising the standard of proof to require 4 witnesses.

People are entitled to ask if Pakatan Rakyat on day rules the country what would happen to (say) a girl victim of rape relating to which DNA proves under our Penal code that the accused is the rape perpetrator but the accused being a muslim could escape the conviction and the law under penal Code by opting for Shariah that acquits him just because there were no 4 witnesses.

For a sexual crime how does one get even 2 witnesses let alone 4???

Is the defacto head of PR ushering us into an Islamic theocratic state that administer Sharia for Muslims in ordinary crimes otherwise covered by the seclar Penal Code all along???

And if one denies the accused the way to resort to Shariah, he could just defend himself by citing the precedent of the PR’s chief who did precisely that to circumvent the prosecution under the Penal Code.

The Pakatan Rakyat coalition has announced that it planned to move a motion of no-confidence against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.

Is this a bluff or what? The last time SAPP/ Yong Teck Lee talked of the same thing but when Shahrir moved his government motion, PR were defeated by BN majority. That was even before Saiful’s allegations. From then until now you mean there are substantial defections unknown to the public that have been stitched for a motion of no confidence to be carried?

I am skeptical. It sounds like a desperate throw of dice on the Roulette table.

I also read it as someone taking advantage of religious precept and beliefs in respect of the higher standard (in relation to civil law) of requiring 4 witnesses to prove allegations of sexual misconduct but rejecting the other part of swearing on the Quran to testify to the truth. There is an internal inconsistency here. How does that (in terms of credibility) help the PR’s cause esp the motion for vote of no confidence that requires defectors ???