GE13 WATCH As the 13th general election draws near, opposition pact Pakatan Rakyat faces its toughest challenge yet: can it truly cement its makeshift alliance into a unified pact, or fall to pieces like the wings of Icarus of the Greek legend, as egos and self-interest tear at its seams?

Icarus was the son of Athenian craftsman Daedalus, both of whom were imprisoned by King Minos on Crete, to keep safe the secrets of his Labyrinth that Daedalus built.

However, wily Daedalus constructed two pairs of artificial wings so that he and his son could fly to freedom.

However, giddy with his first experience of flight, Icarus fell to his death when his makeshift wings, made of wooden sinews, plucked feathers and sticky wax, fell apart as he soared too close to the hot sun. The solar heat melted the wax that held the contraption together.

Similarly, Pakatan's sudden flight in Malaysian politics may yet see itself dashed unto the ground, if better judgement is not exercised and fundamental differences among the coalition members not wisely addressed.

pakatan convention 191209 anwar guan eng hadi Make no mistake. The PKR-DAP-PAS alliance is an accidental pact made up of sudden victors in the 2008 political tsunami: an "Icarus wing" forged from the sinewy wooden frame of PAS' disciplined machinery, the brushed-up feathers of DAP's intellectual elite and the activists and ex-BN politicos of fledgling PKR as the sticky wax holding the coalition together.

The tsunami was a fluke in many ways, one that not even politically-savvy Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim had prepared for.

Their line-up of candidates is perhaps the greatest telltale of this, with less than savvy choices like Bakri MP Er Teck Hwa, PAS hand-me-downs like Kulim Bandar Baru MP Zulkifli Noordin and the videographer-who-became-MP Loh Gwo-Burne (Kelana Jaya), to name a few.

True enough, many of their more questionable and perhaps insufficiently-vetted candidates have turned political jumping-jacks to become BN-friendly independents.

While some might say that PKR is the ‘Umno' of Pakatan, the dominant party, its tenure is actually less effusively so, with both the other two components being more senior members of the opposition bench, and in many ways, more capable.

PKR is only allowed to lead because DAP does not fully trust PAS, and PAS does not completely trust the DAP.

Ideological divide

The socialist DAP and the Islamic PAS have way too many differences that straddle the gulf between their ideological divide.

Differences that they still hide behind the much lauded "consensus", though they appointed Anwar the opposition leader in Parliament and insist that he will be the prime minister should they capture Putrajaya.

In this, the greater danger to Pakatan is that if they were to succeed in Putrajaya, then their ultimate fate will hinge upon Anwar, for regardless of what he says, Anwar is the only candidate for PM that both sides will seemingly accept.

Pakatan dinner Guan Eng Hadi I doubt that the DAP will accept a PAS prime minister, as much as PAS will accept a DAP premier.

The root of all this is the Islamic state vs secular state debate between the two senior opposition parties.

PAS was set up to create an Islamic state in Malaysia, while the DAP is hell-bent on a socialist-secular order. PAS has since mellowed its rhetoric to a welfare state set-up, sans the Islamic label, while the DAP continues to say it will respect Islam as the religion of the federation.

However, the tension between PAS and DAP still boils below the surface of their ‘consensus' since neither side, or Pakatan as a whole, ever came out with what exactly is the consensus they have agree upon, a delayed conflict that may yet turn to bite the pact where it hurts most.

They would do well to remember Winston Churchill's words that the enemy you run away from will be twice the danger when it catches up with you. It is perhaps better to address it now.

But despite the much ado of the Feb 25 Pakatan convention in Shah Alam and the launch of its election manifesto , the opposition pact has still not addressed this equation, choosing instead to go back to the much favoured "consensus" hidey-hole.

At most, the Pakatan manifesto only made references to uphold the constitutional description of Islam as the "religion of the federation" and other honours accorded to the faith, as already stated in the constitution - a stand that is more in tune with DAP's viewpoint.

NONE Which is why cracks may have appeared in the coalition, with elements within PAS seemingly alluding to wanting to appoint a PM from their party .

One senior PAS leader candidly said the party with the most seats in Parliament among the three should decide on who is to be the prime minister, while the DAP had earlier announced that it would only accept Anwar as the PM.

Some have accused the unity-government faction of using the issue to sabotage Pakatan but there is a very real possibility that this idea of a PAS prime minister is from mainstream PAS and not from the group within the party that is pushing for an alliance with Umno.

For one, even some Anwar-friendly PAS leaders in the activist and Erdogan camps did not openly endorse Anwar as PM at the Shah Alam Pakatan convention, when approached on the sidelines by reporters.

Battles within

With the GE13 sun shining brighter, Pakatan may have to decide soon on what to do about this issue of "Islamic state vs secular state" - or face the possibility of falling into conflict within itself, even if it wins big in the polls, and indeed more so if it wins at the federal level.

For without a clear consensus, Pakatan could well be deadlocked in a fight, later on, to conjure up a policy to handle the matter - a conflict that may push PAS into a very real alliance with Umno, if only for the sake of Islam - despite the institutional mistrust of the Malay-based party for betraying PAS in a previous alliance.

DAP leaders may have muzzled themselves against harsher comments against the Islamic state and PAS leaders may have toned down their rhetoric to the welfare state stand, but until and unless a clear policy is solidified, this will continue to be Pakatan's "elephant in the room".

For PKR itself, the issue of what it is fighting for is still an open agenda, as nothing yet has disproved allegations of the party being the personal vehicle of Anwar in his attempt at getting back into power after his humiliation and ejection from BN; that PKR is nothing more than a loose coalition of reformasi activists and ex-Umno politicos united under his personal leadership.

NONE If it is to be more than the sticky wax holding DAP and PAS together and truly maturing into a party that fights for real change and provides true leadership to the pact, PKR will have to do a lot more than what it is doing now.

It is important to note that the greatest political achievements of PKR, thus far, is not of being statesmen but scandal-mongers who point out irregularities in the BN-led government. True, a necessary function of the opposition, but not one that can usher in any real confidence in its own capabilities in governance.

Hope is seen though, in a small nucleus of PKR leaders who are moving to change the direction of the party, trying to move for a platform of policy debates and responsible leadership, instead of the rhetoric inherited form their Umno-infused past and the reactionism of their activist legacies. A group that is trying to bring the party well away from the personality-driven partisanship into a real reform-based agenda.

Nevertheless, it is still early to see if they can persuade the bulk of the PKR leadership, the mainly firebrand street activists and rhetoric-suave ex-BN politicos, to follow suit.

The response of some PKR leaders to the Lahad Datu standoff, for example, tends to jar the people's expectations of responsible leaders.

While the BN has already used the Lahad Datu incident for its political benefit, for PKR, which claims to be different and more responsible, to do so is more than just wrong; it will be abhorrent.

While GE13 may be close by - or even far away - it is time for Pakatan components PAS, PKR and DAP to ponder their Icarus complex quandary, and perchance come up with a better solution than that at present. Or else face the possibility of falling to pieces, like the wings of Icarus.

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of the Malaysiakini team.