I refer to Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng’s recent comments   that  Pakatan’s failure to fulfil vows is an even bigger threat to the coalition compared to the possibility of opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim going to jail.

I am pleased Guan Eng has finally articulated DAP’s position which also served as a thinly-veiled attack on the PAS president Hadi Awang and the syura council of PAS. I was beginning to lose faith in DAP’s commitment to its espoused principles but as they say “better late than never”. However, it does not give me any pleasure at all to say “I told you so” ad nauseam.  

Let us call a spade a spade - Pakatan is an unprincipled marriage of convenience which was headed for doom from its inception. It was only a matter of time that things would  begin to unravel or implode.

Anwar merely used Pakatan as a vehicle for his ambition to be PM of Malaysia. It did not matter to him that the cores value systems of DAP and  PAS were diametrically opposed, such  was his desperation to be PM. He fancied himself the charismatic ‘glue’ which would unite a hopelessly divided coalition. This he has ignominiously failed to achieve, and  is partly due to his lack of principle and duplicity.  

Anwar has always been punctilious in operating on a subtext of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ and ‘Ketuanan Islam’ and as a result, throughout his tenure as opposition leader has not given Malaysians any hope of a united country where all races and religions would be treated with dignity and equality.

I think DAP has made its position clear now. Hadi has to drop the Islamic state agenda including  hudud law otherwise DAP will withdraw from the coalition. PKR  would be welcome to join it including the ‘Erdogans’ of PAS  to form a new coalition which unequivocally will articulate a new paradigm which will see secularism and the secular nature of our constitution as a something to be celebrated and not castigated.

Pakatan as it stands is inherently  an unprincipled coalition with partners having diametrically opposed political philosophies and who are often working at cross purposes, even undermining each other.

The Selangor MB election revealed the true nature of Pakatan ‘unity’ and Anwar’s complete impotence and loss of prestige. Anwar was rebuffed by Hadi when he pleaded for his wife  Azizah, the president of PKR, to be selected as a candidate for MBship. This was compounded by the rejection of her as a potential candidate by the PAS syura council.  

It also brought to the surface the bitter rivalry between PKR and PAS for the Malay vote. It confirmed as purely fictitious the notion that Anwar was the vital unifying factor for Pakatan.   

Pakatan has no option now but to go back to the drawing board and form a  truly united coalition with an unequivocal ‘common manifesto’. The Islamic State has to be tackled head-on and rejected unequivocally because it is unsuitable for Malaysia as well as being unconstitutional.

There must be no apologies. It is only when there is clear direction about where the country is heading and not the self-serving and unprincipled ‘all things to all men’ approach of Anwar Ibrahim, will the nation be able to look forward to a new paradigm.