Although the formidable Umno challenge has been fobbed off, the slim Pas majority in Manek Urai by-election in Kelantan yesterday is nonetheless a shocker.
It is a salutary warning to Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders who think that Pakatan Rakyat can indulge in the luxury of excesses and internal strife, mistakenly believing that Pakatan Rakyat is riding on such an irresistible political wave that it could not possibly lose in any by-election or in the next general elections.
Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders must go back to the drawing board to sustain public confidence, support and hope which suffered grievous blows particularly in the last month.
Pakatan Rakyat’s string of by-election victories in Permatang Pauh, Kuala Terengganu, Bukit Gantang, Bukit Selambau and Penanti have fed a false sense of security and worse, the notion of the inevitability of Pakatan Rakyat victories in the next general elections.
If Pakatan Rakyat parties and leaders do not immediately pull themselves up by the bootstraps, public confidence, support and hope will be the major casualties.
The Pakatan Rakyat leadership council meeting this Friday can be a turning point. The slide in public confidence must be acknowledged, checked and arrested.
An immediate mechanism must be established to end the internal haemorrhage from self-inflicted wounds arising from inter and intra party differences irresponsibly aired in public instead of seeking to address and resolve them in Pakatan Rakyat channels, demonstrating a lack of cohesion, coherence, unity, discipline and common sense of purpose which can only redound in the loss of public support and confidence in Pakatan Rakyat.