A lot of people are commenting lately on the way the Pakatan Rakyat coalition broke apart and alleged dissent within the new Pakatan Harapan coalition. I think the root cause of some disillusionment towards dissent within coalitions is that we are too addicted to the BN.

That’s right, Malaysians may hate the BN but they still view the BN as their ideal model of what a political coalition should be. For since the days the BN was known as the ‘Alliance’, thats the only form of political coalition or cooperation that the majority of Malaysians are used to.

The then-three-party marriage of Umno-MCA-MIC into the Alliance party was to ensure that all local communities were represented in the then-newly independent nation of Malaya. This was the result of the failure of Onn Jaafar’s Independence of Malaya party which failed to win the imagination of Malayans.

In countries like the United Kingdom, the format of a political coalition is very different. Usually, it is a marriage of political parties that only come together to form a government after the elections as none of them had obtained a majority by themselves. If a particular political party manage to gain a majority all by itself, then there would be no need for a coalition at all.

We follow the British Westminster system of government where a majority is needed for a party leader to be appointed the prime minister. It is unlike the US presidential system where a president is elected directly and therefore a political coalition is unnecessary for a stable government to be formed.

Permanent coalitions do exist in some countries in the world. But the keyword is and will always be ‘coalition’. the Barisan Nasional was never an actual coalition. It is a dominant party pact in which Umno is always the dominant partner and the other parties have to adhere to the will of the Umno president including the issue of seat allocations for the elections.

The BN had become a de facto sealed single political party. No component party leader in the BN would dare seek to disagree with the Umno president for fear that they might lose their precious minister-ship or any other position that comes from being in the pact.

Therefore in the former Pakatan Rakyat, there were disagreements and trust issues that led to its demise. The new Pakatan Harapan, well, if everyone is of the same mindset, they would all be in a single party right? That’s the issue isn’t it, it is a political coalition where all member parties have a say and not coalition like the BN which is one master and the others just keeping quiet and taking orders.

We criticise the BN and their policies, but yet we get disillusioned by the opposition coalition just because there are disagreements within it. Do Malaysians expect the Pakatan Harapan to follow the BN format? Of course not! That is the formula which we are against in the first place. The domination of Umno paralyses any other party from fully carrying out their duties to represent Malaysians. Isn't it time for a new form of politics to emerge in Malaysia?

Coalitions are a way of getting different ideas to work together for a bigger goal. Of course trust is important within coalition partners to fight together as a team. That does not mean that coalition partners can think alike all the time. There will be differences, but if we sincerely believe in change, we must stop looking at the BN model as the model of coalition in this country.

CHRIS LEE CHUN KIT is a city councillor with the Penang Island City Council (Majlis Bandaraya Pulau Pinang) representing the DAP.