Amid concerns of appointing former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad to helm the opposition coalition, several Pakatan Harapan leaders have assured that there are checks and balances to ensure that a Harapan-led government would not regress into an authoritarian regime.

DAP lawmaker Hannah Yeoh pointed out that three out of four Harapan component parties are not race-based, unlike the Umno-dominated BN.

“I think when you have race-based political parties, they actually don't care about the greater needs of Malaysians. That means that for MCA, as long as the Chinese in that circle are taken care of, they don't care what happens to the poor Malays, they don't care what happens to the poor Indians. Because they feel that you have other spokespeople.

“But in Harapan, we are multiracial parties - PKR, DAP and Amanah. We have poor Malays in our parties, we have poor Indians, we have poor Chinese. So I think the days of just having one party dictate to the rest of the (coalition) are over.

“DAP and PKR are not MCA and MIC. That will never happen,” she told a forum in Subang Jaya last night.

The “What Say Youth?” forum was organised by DAP parliamentary leader Lim Kit Siang's political secretary Kerk Chee Yee and was aimed at those below the age of 35.

Several had raised questions about putting senior citizens, particularly the 92-year-old Mahathir, in Harapan's top leadership.

Others expressed concern that Bersatu's race-based membership structure and regressive economic policies would lead to an authoritarian government that characterised Mahathir's tenure as prime minister from 1981 to 2003. Mahathir is Bersatu's chairperson.

However, Yeoh (photo) said Harapan has strong checks and balances.

The Selangor state assembly speaker said while this might look like politicking and infighting to outsiders, it is actually a healthy phenomenon.

“When we fight each other because there is check-and-balance within every political party and it is so open, you from the outside see it as ‘Aiya, it's just a lot of infighting’. It is not; it is check-and-balance within the party. That is expected.

“Every political party is there for power. You cannot expect political parties not to fight for power. If they stop fighting for power, then why do they exist as a political party?

“So start learning to appreciate this open fighting because what you see is actually good,” she added.

'Attila the Hun' and the Western Roman Empire

Meanwhile, PKR vice-president Rafizi Ramli pointed out that no regime change can take place without defections.

Even the Western Roman Empire, he said, declined over a period of centuries before Attila brought about its downfall.

“And who is Atilla? Atilla was a Hun. Atilla was a nomad from Hungary brought and raised as a prince of Rome. It was Atilla who went back and used exactly what Rome taught him to defeat Rome,” he added.

Rafizi (photo) pointed out that similar defections had also taken place at the end of Philippine president Ferdinand Marcos' regime in 1986 and Indonesian president Suharto's regime in 1998.

“No regime in this world falls without a defection. What remains an important characteristic of all these changes is that the people, the progressive powers, the forces that are going together for change must be the one calling (for) the change.

“And I dare anyone here and outside to tell me that Harapan as it is, as a council, is not calling the shots,” he added.

Rafizi said Bersatu had joined Harapan based on the terms dictated by the other three coalition members and holds only four out of 16 seats in the Harapan presidential council.

“Why are you so afraid of a 92-year old guy? Why are you so afraid of him? It is not as if Harapan disbanded ourselves and joined him. If you remember, if was the other way around: It was on our turf, on our terms, spelt out by us, controlled by us.

“It is no longer a coalition of one superpower monopolising everything over the other 13 where you have to kowtow.

“The reason we couldn't announce Mahathir as chairperson for four months is because that is how things work in Harapan – all the four parties matter, and not a single one person can be king,” he added.