(Bernama) – Pakatan Harapan is no better than Pakatan Rakyat and there is no guarantee it will not eventually face the same fate as the former Opposition pact, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak.
He said no matter how much the parties within Pakatan Harapan, comprising Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP and Parti Amanah Negara (Amanah), tried to show that the pact was different and better than Pakatan Rakyat, what actually happens on the ground does not give that impression.
"So there is no guarantee that Pakatan Harapan will not eventually face the same fate as Pakatan Rakyat," he said in a posting on his blog, sskeruak.blogspot.com.
He said the on-going public spat between DAP and PKR regarding the removal of two PKR representatives from Penang state government-owned companies proved it was the party that decided what happened.
"But that is not the most interesting part yet. It gets even more interesting when Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng says that DAP decides what happens as far as Penang is concerned and the other members of Pakatan Harapan have to comply.
"Not too long ago, PKR's Rafizi Ramli announced that Pakatan Harapan would no longer operate on an agree-to-disagree basis.
"This was basically because Pakatan Rakyat, which operated on that basis, found it difficult to agree-to-disagree on various matters and that caused the break-up of the coalition."
Salleh said before this Rafizi had stated that in order to avoid Pakatan Harapan suffering the same fate as Pakatan Rakyat, Pakatan Harapan would operate on a consensus basis.
However, Salleh said when it came to Penang, DAP did not operate on consensus but based on what DAP wanted.
"Basically, Lim Guan Eng now says that DAP decides what happens in Penang and PKR would have to abide by DAP's decision.
"Lim Guan Eng reminds Selangor Menteri Besar Azmin Ali that this was exactly what happened with PKR's decision to remove Khalid Ibrahim as Menteri Besar.
"Lim Guan Eng more or less confirms that the decision to remove Khalid as Menteri Besar was a PKR and not Pakatan Rakyat decision. So it was not based on consensus but based on 'agree to disagree'.
"And yet DAP and PKR called PAS (one of the opposition parties in the Pakatan Rakyat pact) a traitor for not supporting the move to oust Khalid and replace him with Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, and later with Azmin Ali.
"It appears like Pakatan Harapan still works on the same basis that Pakatan Rakyat did," added Salleh.
Pakatan Rakyat, which was formed on April 1, 2008 following the March 8, 2008 General Election, was dissolved in June last year.
This came when Lim, who is also DAP secretary-general, made an announcement saying the coalition had ceased to exist as the alliance was formed by three parties – PKR, DAP and PAS – based on consensus, but PAS at its 61st Muktamar had killed off Pakatan Rakyat.
Lim blamed Abdul Hadi Awang for the coalition's demise, saying the PAS president's actions as well as the Islamist party's decision at its congress to sever ties with DAP meant PR's Common Policy Framework was broken.
