KUCHING: A plan to form a new coalition government known as Pakatan Nasional (PN) did not materialise because it was leaked publicly prematurely, said a political analyst at the Department of Sociology, University of Malaya, Associate Professor Dr Awang Azman Awang Pawi.
Awang Azman said the revelation by Datuk Lokman Adam resulted in many Umno members opposing the idea while some were undecided and angry as they felt being betrayed.
Lokman has since been sacked as an Umno supreme council member.
“They also see that there was no need for the opposition parties to try to form a new coalition government with some PH leaders,” he said.
Awang Azman said the opposition’s focus should be on the checks and balances in parliament to ensure that the government was more efficient and have high integrity.
“They shouldn’t be trying to form a new government,” Awang Azman said, adding that the opposition also failed to see why Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was willing to meet everyone including the opposition to hear their ideas and views.
He said it was not necessary for the prime minister to accept all views.
“The opposition is aware that they have lost power and anything can happen to their political future. For that reason, they were quick to promote the idea of Pakatan Nasional,” he said.
He said leaders of other parties were less aware of such a plan.
“As I have said, the plan involved numbers games and when Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) denied their involvement, the propaganda and speculations automatically failed,” he said.
Awang
Azman reckoned that whether a new coalition (Harapan Nasional) would
successfully be formed depends on a political game of numbers in Parliament.
He said although it would not violate the constitution, it would involve
political morality as it would betray the people’s confidence in the 14th general
election (GE14).
It has been speculated that Umno president Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is seeking political cooperation with Dr Mahathir to form a new alliance that would include Umno and PAS, and support Dr Mahathir as prime minister for a full term.
Such a move would prevent the promised power transition to PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.
Umno’s political committee and supreme council had their meeting on Feb 7 but said they did not discuss about a proposal to work with Dr Mahathir and Bersatu.
