Sigma’s Simulacrum of Reality

The new Perak state govt seems to be having trouble trying to be born.

All this stems from a few odd factors. But I feel the main blame should squarely be put on the shoulders of the DAP-PKR-PAS coalition (hereforth to be referred as the Barisan Rakyat (BR)).

On the seat count, DAP won 18 seats, PKR 7 and PAS 6 out of the 59-seat state assembly, making BR’s having 31 seats in total. Of the remaining 28, UMNO has 27 and MCA 1. BN thus has 28 seats.

Through this perspective, the CM of this state should come from DAP. However, the Perak constitution states that the CM must be a Malay-Muslim, but this requirement can be waived by the Raja if he so wishes.

What happened then was that BR submitted 3 names to the Raja, one representative from each party. The Raja chose the rep from PAS. This decision has now caused some consternation among the federal DAP leaders. As a result, the swearing-in of the new CM was postponed yesterday. And to add further pain, it seems that PKR has now also threatened to pull out of BR due to the exco seat allocations offered to it, which was 1 seat of out a 10 seats. State exco seats are the equivalent of state cabinet positions.

Where does the blame lie in this farce? I reckon squarely on the shoulders of all three BR leaders, but especially with the DAP Perak and federal DAP. However, I don’t think the bashing that LKS is getting is justified. He is merely doing what his DAP supporters want him to do: Namely, how does BR Perak expect LKS and other DAP leaders to explain to its voters how is it in the world did they managed to get a PAS CM after sending 18 DAP state assemblymen to parliament?? What do you think will happen to these DAP assemblymen in the next election? MCA candidates will salivate for that day. There will probably be a DAP wipe-out in Perak IF the new Perak govt shows even a whiff of Islamic conservatism. Tony Pua blogged on LKS’s predicament well here.

One is justified to ask why did the Perak Raja chose the PAS rep? But in reality this question is irrelevant and could easily have been avoided.

How? Through BR only submitting 2 names! One from DAP and one from PKR! Internal BR discussion should first be done with all three parties and it should persuade PAS to refrain from submitting their rep. The rationale behind this is simple: DAP’s win was the basis for the BR winning Perak. As such, it should have first bite at the CM post. If the Raja decides that the CM has to be a Malay-Muslim, then the second choice from PKR should be the new CM. This way, DAP can explain to its supporters that it has tried, but the Raja didn’t allow it. It should also not get too much grief from this as it could explain to its supporters that PKR is also another secular, multiracial and multireligious party and it should serve their interests well.

The Raja should have never been pulled into making this political decision by BR. This was a great tactical mistake by BR. The Royals in Malaysia are supposed to be above politics.

Right now I’m not sure what’s happening. Ideally, negotiations should be rebooted. Ultimately, a PKR candidate should be given the CM post.

And on the exco allocation, DAP went overboard. Maybe partly due to its shock at PAS getting the CM post and its leader’s perceived need to take absolute control of the exco to nullify PAS’s power or whatever, it is trying to get 8 out of 10 seats. Under ratio calculations using 18/31 x 10 = DAP should settle with 6 seats. PKR then should get 2 and PAS 2. Why the hell did DAP Perak suddenly insist on an 8-1-1 makeup I have no idea. I chalked this up to governing and coalition inexperience on DAP’s part.

All in all, BR Perak is making the other BR coalitions in other states and federal BR look mighty bad. BR leaders have to contain this terrible publicity only to Perak and strive to work harder to avoid these simple blunders in the future. Here’s hoping BR Perak will sort itself out very soon, for the sake of the Perak people and all Malaysians.