How does Harapan make decisions?

COMMENT | Everyday we get more and more confused over how Pakatan Harapan (PH) actually makes decisions. There seems to be many ways they do it. It raises frustration that PH continues to occupy main media space with all their infighting rather than solving common people’s issues and believe me, people are getting fed-up.

For example, the biggest issue on the transition between Dr Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim seems to be that it won’t be discussed in a democratic process. So Mahathir and Anwar continue to issue or deny statements, and everybody has a field day in making predictions, lobbying and fighting over it. Can’t they put a stop to this? The rakyat who want to see their own issues solved, such as housing, health care and cost of living, end up hearing this bickering over and over and for such a long period.

Then we have the PKR fiasco where Azmin Ali and Zuraidah Kamaruddin don’t attend party meetings, and all their issues are discussed in press statements and counter statements. What has happened to the party decision making process or party discipline?

How can PH tell the rakyat to unite or be resilient against economic problems caused by external forces, when they cannot resolve internal party matters in meetings or through negotiations. The fighting goes on in social media, via trolls, in statements, except in proper meetings. Again, can’t they put a stop to this?

Then we have Lim Guan Eng and his TAR UC funding. Again, how can the minister announce something during his budget speech, and immediately change it. In his Budget 2020 speech, the Government slashed the allocation to TAR UC to RM1 million.

Then, after getting whacked, the same minister says he can give them an additional RM29 million if the MCA board of directors relinquish their posts. Suddenly, he has got RM29 million extra, and then now, he says the money will be paid through an alumni association. Does Guan Eng need to check with anyone or is it his absolute prerogative? How are decisions made?

Yesterday at the annual Socialism Conference organised by PSM, I was shocked after hearing Terence Gomez's views on the Shared Prosperity Vision 2030 policy. He questioned where they discussed this. He said this is the biggest major long-term policy of the PH government, but it seems there were only two players - the Economic Affairs Ministry and the Institut Masa Depan Negara (Masa) which is a Parti Bersatu body founded by Muhyiddin Yassin - who planned how this nation will be built until 2030. He said that even during the Vision 2020 and the NDP by Najib, there were much more input from many stakeholders. Have we regressed under PH?

During the Najib era, we were often told how many decisions were made by Najib as the Prime Minister, and when many issues where raised to the ministries in his portfolio, they will say that it is the Prime Minister’s prerogative.

So PH, how do you make decisions and do the rakyat have a say? We are always told how the race and religion cards played by the opposition divide the people. But here we have many instances where PH supporters are themselves divided, because they don’t know how things are decided and which press conference to follow. Is this a question of freedom in a democracy, a free-for-all or a recipe for chaos?

S ARUTCHELVAN is Parti Sosialis Malaysia deputy chairperson.