In order to genuinely represent the people, Barisan Alternatif said today it will obtain public feedback to help formulate its common manifesto.

Keadilan deputy president Abdul Rahman Othman told malaysiakini that BA has agreed to hold dialogues with the public to get their views and ideas.

"We need to know the public's views. What they think a good government is...what (policies) they want us - if we were given the chance to administer the country - to implement. After all they are the ones who hold the power to choose the government," he said when contacted.

Abdul Rahman said BA's manifesto committee was serious in making this work and will hold nine dialogue sessions with the public nationwide. The deadline for this, he added, was set for mid-December.

"The first will be held on Aug 9 at the Keadilan headquarters in Shah Alam. We tried to get a better venue but most hotels we approached turned us down as it was an opposition event," he said.

First manifesto

As to the present manifesto which was launched by BA prior to 1999 general elections, Abdul Rahman said that it will be used to guide the committee and public in their discussions and dialogues.

"The present manifesto has covered a lot of issues and interests so we will use it as our starting point to speed up the whole process," he explained.

BA launched its first joint manifesto ' Towards a Just Malaysia ' on Oct 24, 1999. At that time the front consisted of four parties: PAS, Keadilan, DAP and PRM.

However, DAP withdrew in September 2001 after a disagreement with PAS over the latter's aim to establish an Islamic state should it come into power.

The four-year-old front will soon be reduced to two parties as Keadilan and PRM will merge on Aug 3.

Islamic state

Meanwhile, PAS' representative in the committee Husam Musa said the people must be given the opportunity to participate in formulating the manifesto because the policies will affect them.

"We need to reach out to the communities in all states because we feel that - due to the federal government concept - each (state) have different problems and need different considerations.

"We hope we are able to do this before the general election. If it (elections) come early than expected, we will find another way to expedite the process (of meeting the public)," he added when contacted.

The general election must be held by November next year.

Husam also expressed confidence that PAS' views on the Islamic state will not harm the process.

"In any coalition like the BA, each party represents different societies with different interests but that does not mean we cannot work as a team especially when we have the same aspiration and ambition... which is to provide Malaysians with a more fair and transparent government," he said.

Agreeing with Husam, PRM president Dr Syed Husin Ali said BA was focusing on the similarities and not differences between members in formulating the new manifesto.

"We feel that we must strengthen our grounds of similarities, try to build a formula or acceptable solutions that are not only good for the parties but also the general public on matters involving social, education, health and so on," he said.

Syed Husin said he recognises the concern - especially among non-Muslims - on the Islamic state issue and felt that it must be handled with extreme care as it is often misused and abused by their rivals.

"They (the rivals) want people to focus on the differences when there are a lot of common interest that we share that would benefit the people," he said.