COMMENT While it accused the BN government of electoral process tampering, the federal opposition itself are now misusing the same democratic system, it once claimed to champion.

The first pitfall was the infamous Langkah Kajang, announced with much fanfare as the definitive next chapter of Malaysian politics, by PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli.

He cited the need to appoint then-opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim as Selangor MB, to showcase his efficacy as a leader, and the opposition’s ability to administer.

Never mind that Pakatan components, PKR in Selangor, and DAP in Penang, were already praised for their efficiency as opposed to administration of the states under the BN.

However, observers noted that the real reason behind Langkah Kajang was to get Anwar to helm the state and head off the ongoing battle between state PKR faction led by then-state menteri besar Khalid Ibrahim against the camp of state party chief and menteri besar-aspirant Azmin Ali.

This was not the first time PKR triggered a by-election for its own purposes, in July 2008 its president Wan Azizah stepped down from the Permatang Pauh parliamentary seat.

This was to allow her husband Anwar to contest in his old seat after riding out his temporary bar from contesting and holding elected posts caused by his corruption conviction.

In any case, PKR Kajang assemblyperson Lee Chin Cheh gave up his seat on Jan 27 2014, triggering a by-election which Anwar was supposed to stand for and win.

But the tables were turned on PKR by the federal government fast-track of the appeal against Anwar’s earlier acquittal of his Sodomy 2 charge.

The Federal Court declared him guilty and sentenced him to prison, which took away his Permatang Pauh parliament seat and stopped him from standing in Kajang.

Once again his wife Wan Azizah played placeholder, standing for both the Kajang state seat and Anwar’s now vacated Permatang Pauh MP seat.

She subsequently also took on the mantle of opposition leader once more.

Rather than solve the Selangor PKR’s squabble, the move escalated the conflict and helped drive a wedge into the very centre of Pakatan, as PAS exco members stood behind Khalid and DAP exco members gave their support to Azmin.

Thus was the Selangor MB crisis triggered, all because PKR decided to make use of a by-election to solve its internal crisis. It can be argued that the electoral process and the public trust has been abused by the party.

The Khalid-Azmin showdown, while not the definitive stray that broke the camel’s back, only helped to exacerbate the issue of an already contentious PAS.

The party became increasingly right wing and Umno-leaning under hardliner president Hadi Awang, who wrested control of party direction after the passing of its more moderate late spiritual leader, Nik Aziz Nik Mat.

DAP, already on the war path over the inability to see eye to eye with PAS on the ‘Islamic state’ and and Islamic penal code hudud issues, sharpened its political knives.

Weeks later, taking advantage of the opening that the Langkah Kajang-triggered Selangor MB crisis presented, DAP literally stabbed Pakatan in the back, unilaterally declaring it dissolution.

Thus it came to pass that Pakatan ceased to be, and a new coalition, Pakatan Harapan, had to be formed.

With last night’s declaration by the DAP and PAS-splinter Amanah that both are firmly behind plans to call snap polls in Penang, the nascent Harapan seems like it is about to face another pitfall for the same reason.

Whatever reasons it may give for wanting to call snap polls in Penang, the DAP cannot run away from the fact that they are abusing the electoral process.

‘Guan Eng’s excuse shouldn’t hold water’

DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng’s excuse that he is following in PKR’s footsteps shouldn’t hold water. Just because its ally did something wrong is no absolution for the party to do the same.

AS PKR also rightly argued, a by-election and a statewide election are two different things, even if DAP wants to claim that it was only doing what its ally did, the implications of a state-wide election is more than that of just a single seat, and it involves other parties’ seats instead of just the socialist democratic party’s own.

And all are able to see that snap polls in Penang is only beneficial to DAP and Lim personally, both as a show of public support for the Penang chief minister who is facing a corruption charge, and as a safety measure for DAP to secure its mandate now before details from Lim’s trial damage it credibility and chances in the next general election.

While snap polls can be beneficial to Lim and his party, it is nonetheless a waste of public funds and abuse of public trust.

What more, with PKR staunchly against the move for now, Harapan looks like it is set to war with itself, as DAP and the seat-less and inconsequential Amanah on one side, and PKR on the other.

But what Harapan face is more than just possible dissolution or protracted internal conflict, it is looking at the possibility of losing its moral high ground against the BN ruling coalition.

For it is doing the very thing it claimed it wanted to stop the BN from continuing to do.

People might argue that BN’s tampering of the electoral process as a whole compared to single by-elections or snap polls are apples to oranges.

But in the final analysis, it is still abuse of the process, by the very people who spoke out against it.

And given that fighting against abuse of the electoral process is one of the selling points of the anti-BN movement, the actions of the Harapan parties cheapen the struggle of the rakyat and reform movements like Bersih 2.0 who had thrown their weight behind the opposition.

HAZLAN ZAKARIA is a member of the Malaysiakini team.