Pakatan Harapan secretariat chief secretary Saifuddin Abdullah is of the opinion that the country’s political situation has reached a deadlock when it comes to ties between Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Harapan.

"I don’t think we can talk about bipartisanship. I think it’s already war," he said.

Saifuddin was commenting on the country’s political predicament during a question-and-answer session after his speech at a conference organised by Pusat Komas and the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia’s Insitute of Ethnic Studies (Kita) in Kuala Lumpur today.

Describing himself as a "strong believer of bipartisanship", Saifuddin said that such politics is only possible when “the other side is reasonable”.

"The moment you defy logic, then you can’t talk, you just have to declare war."

This is also the reason why Saifuddin believes that a “third party should come up”.

"This is where civil society becomes more and more important, to educate the public about what politics is - what good politics is all about," said the former Umno supreme council member.

Red-shirts shouldn't deny rights of others

Meanwhile, Human Rights Commission (Suhakam) member Jerald Joseph said it was not right for one group to hold a rally specifically to deny another group's right to freedom of expression.

"I would call on those who organise rallies to state their objectives.

"If the red-shirts are trying to deny Bersih's right (to express themselves), that would obviously not be a rights-based concept," said Joseph who was also at the event.

Joseph said this when asked about the planned counter-rally to Bersih 5 which will be held on Nov 19.

Bersih 5 is calling for the resignation of Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak over the 1MDB scandal and electoral reforms.

The so-called red-shirts movement led by Sungai Besar Umno division chief Jamal Md Yunos has declared "all out war" against Bersih 5 and pledged to mobilise 300,000 people for the counter-rally.