DAP’s ‘lover’s quarrel’ saga with PAS continues

 Hazlan Zakaria

They say that love is blind and on a honeymoon there are no non-pleasant brides and grooms, for the euphoria of chemical-electrical synapses makes all things good.

But once it ends, let’s say six years down the road after the “tsunami” honeymoon or initial anti-BN-working-together love affair, beauty fades and the once cute and adorable peculiarities became annoying and goddammit distracting.

So has it been for the Pakatan Rakyat pair of DAP and PAS and their public tiff in the media, like too-long married celebs at the tail end of a high profile and strained relationship.

Both sides continue to speak out against each other in the impasse that has blocked cordial party relations post the Kajang-Move triggered and PKR-engineered Selangor MB saga.

From DAP attacking PAS on the Selangor MB issue, matters now turn to the socialist-capitalist hybrid party attacking the Islamist party for not ensuring that president Datuk Seri Hadi Awang is present at Pakatan meetings.

DAP is claiming it made consensus and decisions difficult without the turbaned head honcho and final arbiter for PAS present.

The tit-for-tat continues as PAS responded in kind, singling out the times when the DAP leadership too sent representatives instead of the top guns to Pakatan meetings.

The exchange between the two strained allies, is indicative of a rift that is present between both, or perhaps a rift that one or both sides may want to be present for reasons of their own.

The dispute between the couples, so to speak, started with the Selangor MB saga, though perhaps that was just a pretext.

For it continued way beyond the shelf-life of the pact-breaking crisis with the heroic sacrifice of current MB Azmin Ali in courageously accepting the Sultan’s appointment to save Pakatan Rakyat and Malaysia’s most industrialised state collectively.

For DAP, this is perhaps its way of ensuring the strongest proponent of the implementation of an Islamic state and hudud law be drummed out of Pakatan, for the socialist-capitalist hybrid party is violently opposed to both.

Because it cannot reconcile its stand with both PKR and PAS which agreed that Islam is the way of life for Muslims and that in the long run both Islamic state and hudud are the way forward, DAP may be looking to even the odds.

Though perhaps PAS is more ardent in this pursuit, while the Muslim-led PKR has to agree as it is a Muslim’s obligation to see Islam observed.

But being the only non-hudud or Islamic state inclined, DAP perhaps saw this as an opportunity to be a batu api (instigator) and create an incident that might see PAS drummed out or walk away from the pact.

Thus, DAP would have left with a not quite so hudud-committed party like PKR to deal with.

Maybe DAP is hoping that its investment in recruiting more modern non-hudud inclined hijab-wearing Malay Muslims into its ranks will reap dividends in gaining it the support of the moderate followers of Islam.

As a bonus, a public spat with PAS can help to neutralise BN’s attacks on DAP for being a lame duck in the face of alleged Islamisation of Pakatan championed by the Islamist party.

And for PAS, to some of the more conservative segments, it is better to work together with Muslims in Umno then risk working with those who are allegedly threatening to tread all over Islamic precepts.

So perhaps elements in both parties are actually fueling this dragged out war.

Whatever the possible case, the fire is being lighted by both sides, though it is DAP that appears to be provoking the Islamist party.

While PAS, out of pride or internal provocation, also doesn’t seem to want to back down and is rising to the occasion.

Whatever the case, while they have both gained and made greater strides on board with Pakatan, PAS and DAP also know that they can function on their own, both having been separate opposition parties even before a pact among the three existed.

But can a united credible opposition front survive a Pakatan break-up involving DAP and PAS is another question altogether.

DAP already said it might walk out if things don’t improve, while PAS also said pretty much the same. PKR alone might not be much of a Pakatan without the grassroots and PAS and DAP.

If these are not just drama to claim political mileage, barter electoral seat bargaining chips and test the bounds of Pakatan power structure, it speaks ill of the coalition’s future.

Maybe DAP will join PSM which had announced the arrest of all attempts to join the opposition pact after having been spurned for far too long, forming a united ‘leftist’ front, while PAS and PKR continue their association. A move that will create a three-party free for all.

Perhaps this will be for the better, as the rakyat will have choices on who will represent and lead them.

And maybe a break-up is better for Pakatan, for the issue of Islamic state and hudud has been hobbling them from being a truly united party, for DAP and PAS can never see eye to eye on the issue.

Sometimes divorce or a break-up is the better answer than the continuing nag-fest between the once-loving duo.