A veteran opposition politician gave three main reasons for the Barisan Alternatif's (BA) disastrous outing in the general election last month. They were lack of unity, arrogance of some BA leaders and inconsistent policies.

Parti Keadilan Rakyat (Keadilan) deputy president Dr Syed Husin Ali said as such, instilling unity and discipline in the BA remains the greatest challenge faced by the opposition in the days ahead.

"We can't just blame election irregularities or media abuse by the government for our defeat. It's time to look at ourselves," he told a forum on "The future of opposition politics in Malaysia" in Kuala Lumpur last night. About 70 people were present.

Elaborating on what he meant by inconsistent policies, Syed Husin said an example would be the case of policy A made during a meeting turning into policy B later without further consultation.

On this, he advised BA leaders to uphold policies and decisions made and not to practise something against what were reached by consensus.

"Don't put party's interest above coalition's interest... this is discipline," the veteran politician stressed.

'Can do better'

Syed Husin also said that the "arrogant attitude" of certain BA leaders during the elections had been played up in the media.

"Although some BN leaders were also arrogant, that was not played up in the newspapers... I couldn't say it's only regarding the Kota Bharu case, because it would very be subjective then," he cracked to a round of applause from the crowd.

Syed Husin was referring to the public objection by PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat on his initial candidacy for the Kota Bharu parliamentary seat, citing his socialist background as unsuitable.

Nevertheless, the Keadilan leader - who described himself as both an optimist and realist - said he remained hopeful over the future of opposition parties in the country.

"We can do better in the future if electoral fraud and irregularities do not occur, the ruling party is disunited and if there is economic recession," he said.

But Syed Husin also warned that as long as the opposition parties are not united, it will be impossible to see a change of power.

According to him, unity could be in various forms like forming a coalition, electoral pact or just reaching a consensus on issues.

Contradictions within BA

Meanwhile, malaysiakini columnist Lee Ban Chen who also spoke last night said it was unfortunate that a weak and loose BA could not convince the people at last month's polls.

"They were many contradictions within the BA also and these contradictions were cleverly exploited by the government, such as the Islamic state issue - even though it is not a real issue because it was never on the BA common manifesto, but the non-Muslims voters didn't get this message," he said.

He called on the opposition coalition to start working on the ground from now and to outline a comprehensive policy plan.

"We need a comprehensive BA policy plan, because (BA) should not be used as merely a tool to let those who do not like the current government to let off their exasperation and grievance. BA couldn't just depend on the people's emotions and issues," he said.

"At the end of the day, the opposition should not only be a mere player. They must also become the one making the rules of the game," Lee added.

Earlier, Syed Husin and Lee launched their new Malay books respectively titled 'Merdeka, rakyat & keadilan' (Independence, people & justice) and 'Sejarah sebagai hakim muktamad' (History is the final judge).

The books are published by the Strategic Information Research Development and available at major bookstores at RM40 and RM25 respectively.

Keadilan president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was also present at the function last night.