Media Statement

DAP, PAS & the Barisan Alternatif

Media reports on DAP-PAS relations have given a wrong impression of the interaction between the two parties. The DAP and PAS have developed an excellent working relationship within the context of the Barisan Alternatif (BA).

Since the November 1999 General Election, the two parties, together with Parti Keadilan Nasional (keADILan) and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM), have provided strength and substance to the BA in a number of ways:

1) There is effective cooperation among the forty-two BA Members of Parliament. It is partly because of this cooperation that the Opposition has emerged as a formidable force in the Dewan Rakyat.

2) The BA parties worked very well together in the two recent by-elections -- in Sanggang and Teluk Kemang. As a result, a spirit of camaraderie has begun to develop among grassroot BA members and supporters.

3) The BA has established 20 bureaus that focus upon a wide spectrum of social concerns ranging from education and transportation to foreign affairs and information technology. These bureaus comprising Members of Parliament, party officials, NGO activists and academics, are designed not only to reinforce the BA's parliamentary role but also to shape the Coalition's policies and programmes.

4) The BA has also set up a number of joint committees on issues related to human rights, the rule of law and electoral reform. There is a permanent BA fund-raising committee.

5) Attempts are also being made to establish BA liaison committees at state level as well as in parliamentary constituencies. These liaison committees aim to forge close ties among BA grassroot leaders and activists throughout the country.

6) The programmes and activities of BA bureaus, joint committees and liaison committees are co-ordinated and supervised by the BA Secretariat. The Secretariat comprises representatives from all the four parties and is anchored by an Executive Secretary.

7) The Secretariat in turn is answerable to the BA Council of Leaders. It is this Council which makes policies and determines the direction of the Coalition. It consists of the presidents of all the four parties and a senior leader from each of the parties.

Since its inception in March 1999, the BA Council of Leaders which is the fulcrum of the Barisan Alternatif has been involved directly or indirectly in various joint programmes. BA leaders have participated in numerous joint ceramahs, forums and seminars at Federal and State levels before, during and after the General Election. On 13 August, for instance, top BA leaders will be speaking at a BA ceramah in Seremban. On 17 August, they will all be involved in a public forum in Penang.

Since the General Election, the BA has been focussing on not just public ceramahs and forums but also on in-house discussions and seminars. As a case in point, an in-house seminar will soon be held by the BA Health and Community Development Bureau on the very important question of 'Health Care Financing'. The BA Secretariat will also inaugurate in the very near future a series of round table discussions on the BA manifesto, its policies and its action plan with the next general election in mind.

It is because the Barisan Alternatif has emerged in a very short while as an active and dynamic Coalition that it has begun to earn the ire of certain quarters. Our adversaries did not expect the BA to forge such a comprehensive electoral pact grounded in an all-embracing common manifesto in the last General Election. They thought that after the Election -- given the enormous pressures that are being exerted upon the BA -- the Coalition would disintegrate. This has not happened. Not only has the BA survived these last eight months; the component parties have expanded and enhanced their ties. What is even more significant, the BA, which captured a larger chunk of the Malay vote in the Peninsula than the UMNO-led BN in the General Election, has shown, through the Teluk Kemang by-election, that it is capable of garnering substantial non-Malay votes. This has frightened the UMNO-BN leadership. If the BA starts winning in ethnically mixed constituencies such as Teluk Kemang - constituencies which are the bulwark of the BN's political power - there is no doubt that the BN will be in serious trouble. This explains why the BN government is going all out to destroy the BA. It explains why BN leaders supported by a pliant media, have deliberately chosen to exaggerate and manipulate the differences between the DAP and PAS.

Whatever differences there are between the DAP and PAS arise mainly from the complex challenge of addressing issues pertaining to religion, culture, gender and morality in an ethnically divided society. The BN has not resolved these issues either. UMNO and its non-Malay partners adopt contradictory and often hypocritical stances in dealing with the different communities on issues linked to religion and morality. For a coalition which has mastered the art of saying different things to different groups, of playing one ethnic community against the other, political hypocrisy of this sort is rationalised as political pragmatism. While it may serve the short-term interests of the BN, it does not augur well for long term ethnic harmony in the country. Indeed, the BN's hypocrisy on issues with ethnic implications is one of the underlying reasons for growing ethnic polarisation in the country.

The Barisan Alternatif, on the other hand, will endeavour to harmonise the varying perceptions of segments of the different communities on issues related to religion, culture, gender and morality through discussion and dialogue. Serious discussions on these issues have already begun in the BA Council of Leaders. We shall continue the process.

Our goal is to develop a genuine multi-ethnic coalition founded upon shared values and a shared vision whose focal point is social justice. The coalition we envisage will not succumb to the pulls and pressures of communal politics. We realise, of course, that unlike the BN, we do not have the glue of power or the cement of mutual business links to keep the coalition together. Nonetheless, because the BA is a sincere attempt at forging a united Malaysian nation we are confident that Malaysians, regardless of their ethnic origin, are solidly behind us.

DR. CHANDRA MUZAFFAR
Deputy President
Parti Keadilan Nasional (keADILan),
Member BA Council of Leaders & Chairman BA Secretariat

4 August 2000