Pakatan Rakyat needs to stick to its agenda of bringing social justice and democratisation if it is to inspire confidence amongst Malaysians, said DAP political education chief Liew Chin Tong.

“Pakatan Rakyat has to clarify its agenda and deal with what we are going to offer to Malaysians in the next general election.

“We must go back to democratisation and economic justice – that must be our core agenda. We must be very clear about we want to achieve in government, otherwise we won’t inspire much confidence,” he said.

Liew said this at a forum today, in response a request from a member of the audience to comment on the tussle over the position of menteri besar of Selangor, which some have said could lead to a crack in the opposition coalition.

Earlier, he told the audience that PKR, DAP and PAS had held a “secret” three-day meeting in 2005.

It was the first time the three parties worked together since DAP left the Barisan Alternatif coalition in 2001.

In that meeting, Liew alleged it was decided that the opposition parties needed to have common ground in order to work together and move Malaysian politics forward, despite their differences.

Another fertile ground for cooperation, he said, are issues of economic justice. In contrast, race, religion, and royalty are seen as issues that could divide the parties and as such, to be wary of.

Meanwhile, another speaker, lawyer Edmund Bon ( above ), opined that the ongoing Selangor crisis is not likely to split Pakatan Rakyat.

This is a wholly intra-PKR problem. It shouldn’t be seen as some people see it, that this will lead to the breakup of Pakatan and people jumping to conclusions, making all sorts of statements, when it is actually just a few people within a party fighting over power,” he said.

Nevertheless, he said the crisis would erode public confidence in Pakatan and it is up to Pakatan or PKR leader to reflect on what happened if the coalition loses Selangor.