WHAT WAN AZIZAH CONSENSUS? IT TAKES THREE TO TANGO IN PAKATAN

Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily

It boggles my mind that to this day, months after the Selangor MB crisis was triggered by PKR strategist Rafizi Ramli’s ubiquitous Kajang Move, people still say that PAS went against Pakatan Rakyat consensus in not agreeing to Datuk Seri Wan Azizah Wan Ismail to take on the post of Menteri Besar.

It is funny to read news reports and listen to DAP and PKR leaders, and indeed some of those in PAS itself talking about it in that way.

Especially since it is obvious that the decision wanting the PKR president to fill the MB seat was made exclusively by the party before telling their apparent partners in Pakatan that this is the way it shall be.

This after the arbitrary Kajang Move which was also sprung on their surprised Pakatan partners.

But the thing is, consensus means that all parties in the pact agree to the suggestion voluntarily, not because of being promised something or strong armed into submission.

And consensus is not what one party says but something that all three parties must have a say in.

As it is now, the alleged Wan Azizah as Selangor MB consensus is just PKR’s say so backed up by the DAP for reasons of their own.

But since PAS does not agree be it for whatever reason, it is not a Pakatan consensus but what PKR wants.

It is important to note that PAS never denied PKR their right to have one of their own hold the Selangor chief executive post as was the earlier consensus, but that the Islamic party did not agree to Wan Azizah. Other candidate may pass their muster.

In Pakatan, it takes three to dance the consensus tango.

Right or wrong PAS did not go against a Pakatan consensus, it simply did not agree with a PKR directive.

What one party wants is not what Pakatan wants. More so what one man wants, especially the unelected supreme head of a party, cannot be what the party wants and cannot be imposed upon the pact.

Or is Pakatan’s consensus just like BN’s consensus now?

For in BN a consensus is what Umno says and other parties agree to voluntarily or after being promised incentives or at times strong armed into agreeing.

Just recently we were reminded by the slow acting quick wit of our PM Datuk Seri Najib Razak that Pakatan cannot be like BN.

As one of my editors wrote earlier, is opposition pact so eager to prove Najib wrong and show they are the spitting image of the ruling coalition?

But in general Pakatan has always been famous about agreeing to disagree with each other and not come up with a unified stand over issues, case in point the Allah and Islamic state issue.

To this day Pakatan’s joint stand has been that they agree to disagree on those contentious matters.

Having covered them during the heydays of both the Allah and Islamic state crisis, I can attest to that fact.

A worrying trend for a party that wants to take over Putrajaya if on some matters they just ignore and refuse to deal with, while with others the want of one party prevails over all.

This time it is just the same, but since the subject matter at hand is close to the heart of one party in particular, or put it simply the heart of its titular head, it became a storm that quickly spilled out of the tea cup instead of a tea set that is packed up stored in the attic and ignored like other contentious issues Pakatan refused to agree on.

Does the needs of the one outweigh the needs of the many in Pakatan?

And what seems like the tantrum thrown by senior PKR and DAP leaders by not showing up at the ongoing PAS muktamar in Johor reportedly as a sign of protest over the Wan Azizah hoo-ha, symbolic as it is, can be seen by some to be childish if not stupid.