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ZACKARIA ABDUL RAHIM, THE STRAITS TIMES YES given their recent massive win, their coordinated campaign and ability to attract voters of all races.
'We have come to a stage where the opposition parties can actually create their own alternative Barisan,' Professor Shamsul A.B. said at yesterday's S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies panel discussion. One dramatic difference from previous elections was that there were no clashes between the various opposition parties this time round, noted Mr Yang Razali Kassim, a senior fellow at the school. Indeed, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidates even spoke at Democratic Action Party (DAP) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) rallies. 'Though no DAP leaders spoke at PAS' ceramah, or vice-versa, the PAS-DAP coordination goes on,' he said. Ms Jacqueline Ann Surin, a former journalist at a Malaysian daily and founder of Malaysiavotes.com website, told The Straits Times: 'We were all trained to think along those lines; each one of us will vote based on our racial sectarian interests.' She explained that the opposition's showing on March 8 showed that 'Malaysians have suddenly been able to say that we can vote for a common good or common cause without being tied down to this notion that only a Malay can represent the Malays' interest or a Chinese can represent the Chinese' interest'. It also helps that parties like PAS and the DAP have rebranded themselves to appeal to voters who are neither Muslims nor Chinese respectively. PAS fielded its first non-Muslim candidate and has avoided clamouring for an Islamic state. It opts instead for a 'welfare state' slogan. NO as they are still weak and fractured. Winning five state assemblies in Peninsular Malaysia does not give them much power as the federal government maintains a bigger say, explains Prof Shamsul. This is unlike Sabah and Sarawak, which are given a greater degree of freedom on how they govern themselves. For example, Malaysians from the peninsula who intend to work in Sabah need to obtain work permits, said Prof Shamsul. He also noted that in the negotiations for the newly acquired chief minister positions, PAS and PKR are meeting secretly with Umno behind DAP's back. To prevent this, he said the opposition alliance should first register a full-fledged party that acts as an umbrella body over their respective parties. He added: 'Because if they do not have this party, what will happen...is that everybody will be blowing his whistle every time he is not happy and shifting his goalposts.'
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