Many of the coalition's own leaders acknowledge that unless a common platform for cooperation is hammered out quickly among the Pakatan parties, differences over race and religion and the competitive politics of patronage could badly hurt the coalition and cause divides that could be hard to bridge.

The Straits Times

In recent weeks, Malaysia's mainstream media has been swamped with reports of rifts among politicians within its opposition coalition, the Pakatan Rakyat.

Opposition leaders do not deny that the coalition, consisting as it does of an ideologically diverse set of partners, is being distracted by issues ranging from bus terminal concessions in the central Selangor state to sensitive topics such as the implementation of Islamic laws.

But they insist that the tensions are being overplayed ahead of a crucial by-election in the north-eastern state of Terengganu in two weeks. The ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) will take on a candidate from Parti Islam SeMalaysia, or Pas, the country's main Muslim opposition party and a key component of Pakatan Rakyat.

“There is no denying that we have some problems to deal with. We see them as issues over governance and all of this represents a learning curve (for the coalition),” said Sivarasa Rasiah, the vice-president of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), another Pakatan component. “But any suggestion that the alliance is breaking down is very misplaced.”

There is widespread agreement in the coalition with Sivarasa's view. In fact, the problems faced by the coalition, which controls five state governments, is no different from the dilemmas confronting the BN federal government.

In recent months, BN suffered a setback when the Sabah Progressive Party and its two elected parliamentarians defected from the ruling coalition.

The BN's most senior partner, Umno, is grappling with serious infighting ahead of the party's own elections in March and is facing increasing pressure from its non-Malay coalition partners over a range of issues, from religion to education.

But Pakatan Rakyat does not have the luxury of time. It must present itself as a capable alternative if it intends to topple BN in the next election which must be held before March 2013.

Many of the coalition's own leaders acknowledge that unless a common platform for cooperation is hammered out quickly among the Pakatan parties, differences over race and religion and the competitive politics of patronage could badly hurt the coalition and cause divides that could be hard to bridge.

The raft of controversies sweeping Malaysia's opposition alliance offers a glimpse into how this hodge-podge of political parties, which made unprecedented gains in the general election last March, is conducting itself in power. Its command of five state governments is turning into a test of how much change it will in fact bring to governance in Malaysia as a whole, were it to take over from BN at the federal level.

Consider the controversy over a new bus terminal in the port city of Klang in the opposition-led Selangor state.

The previous BN state government had awarded the developer of the terminal a 15-year concession to operate and manage the project.

But details of the concession agreement remain shrouded in secrecy, resulting in a war of words between the leaders of PKR, who are demanding greater transparency, and a few politicians from the Chinese-dominated Democratic Action Party (DAP), who say that there is no need to make the matter public since the contract cannot be rescinded.

In any case, the failure of Selangor chief minister Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim to deal decisively with the issue has brought into the open other problems in the coalition, such as the dissatisfaction among the coalition's ethnic Indian partners. They feel their interests have been neglected by Pakatan Rakyat's leadership.

One Indian leader, the elected representative for Kapar in Selangor, Mr S. Manikavasagam, has threatened to resign if issues relating to his community's welfare are not addressed. Manikavasagam, a longtime activist in the Indian community, draws most of his support from the Hindu Rights Action Front (Hindraf), a powerful Indian grassroots movement that strongly backed the Pakatan Rakyat in the last general elections.

His forceful and public demands for greater economic benefits for the community, including appointments for Indians to state-owned enterprises and local councils, illustrate how the opposition coalition, like the ruling BN, must grapple with the competitive ethnic politics that have long defined Malaysia.

But the feuding also reflects a problem peculiar to the Pakatan Rakyat. Activists like Mr Manikavasagam are unschooled in the art of compromise, without which government in a multiracial country like Malaysia is difficult. Pakatan's leadership acknowledges that they need to establish clear policy positions so as to avoid such public spats.

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