UNTIL HADI ISSUE RESOLVED, Pakatan's future is bleak

The double blow of PAS in Pengkalan Kubor and the reduced exco quota in Selangor serves to tell party president Hadi Awang that no one is going to win if the party chooses to split from Pakatan Rakyat.

In Pengkalan Kubor, BN has won with an expanded majority. PAS only managed 7,326 votes, more than 1,000 votes fewer than the 8,438 votes obtained by PKR in GE13, which is inexplicable given the fact that PKR is relatively weak in Kelantan while PAS has ruled the state for 24 years.

After last year's general election, Hadi analyzed that the drain of Malay votes from PAS was due to the party deviating from its religious path, and as such has since stepped up effort to implement the hudud law in Kelantan. But if hudud law is the panacea of PAS' problems, then the party would not have failed so badly.

PAS' by-election operations director Datuk Wan Abdul Rahim said low voter turnout was one of the reasons for PAS' defeat, as many young voters did not go back to vote.

Which was same as in the Teluk Intan by-election in which DAP blamed its defeat to low voter turnout.

What has caused the voter turnout in Kajang, Bukit Gelugor, Teluk Intan and Pengkalan Kubor to be so low? I believe we all know that it has something to do with the split within Pakatan Rakyat that has frustrated many of its supporters.

PKR and DAP leaders were absent in the Pengkalan Kubor by-election campaign, resulting in the drain of more votes in favor of BN.

PAS Youth chief Suhaizan Kaiat warned in the party's recent general assembly of the shaky PAS administration in Kelantan, but his argument was immediately dismissed by delegates. Judging from the outcome of Pengkalan Kubor by-election, if Pakatan and PAS remain divided, it is not impossible that the party would lose Kelantan in the next general elections.

None of the three parties in Pakatan Rakyat fighting alone could challenge the BN, and the last two by-elections have sounded the alarm bell.

As for the reduced exco posts for PAS in Selangor, this is the price the party has to pay for its impressionable stand. This said, the party's leaders as well as grassroots members are expected to feel infuriated. The removed former exco member Halimah Ali has said the Pakatan spirit is no more existent/

How is PKR going to convince the public that while it has the fewest seats among the three parties in the state legislative assembly, it has the most exco members. How do we expect PAS to work alongside its allies in Pakatan come the next general elections?

Azmin's appointment as the new Selangor MB was initially seen as a boon to mend the torn relationship among the three parties given the fact that he is maintaining good relationship with Hadi Awang. But Azmin still needs to take instructions from Anwar and Wan Azizah and the misunderstanding among the three parties has yet to be dispelled.

It is believed that in the near future PKR will still remember how Hadi has attempted to block Wan Azizah's access to the MB post. DAP, meanwhile depends wholly on Chinese votes to come this far,a and will therefore frown upon PAS' decision to embrace the religious path, as the ghost of the humiliating defeat in 1999 still lingers on.

The older generation of leaders in PAS are worried to be labeled as "followers" of Pakatan. The signing of statutory declaration to support Kak Wan by two PAS assemblymen has enraged the party president, and this illustrates the fact that they are very much bothered about being respected.

Nevertheless, Lim Guan Eng went ahead to file a defamation suit against PAS' MP for Temerloh Nasrudin Hassan, while DAP central committee called PAS "traitors." As if that is not enough, 11 DAP and PKR municipal councilors in Penang blasted PAS' councilor Izsuree Ibrahim. And all these will only serve to make things a whole lot worse.

It is time for PKR and DAP to seriously consider the future of the pact. -Mysinchew