Pakatan Harapan solidarity pale shadow of BN consensus – Salleh

KUALA LUMPUR: The opposition Pakatan Harapan pact is unlikely to be able to challenge the Barisan Nasional in the next general election because it has failed to show solidarity in terms of cooperation among the component parties, said Communications and Multimedia Minister Datuk Seri Dr Salleh Said Keruak.

He said that unlike the power-sharing and tolerance practised in BN, PH failed to show solidarity because of the struggle for positions that has led to the creation of three top posts.

“PH is just a cute icing on the cake from the outside but fragile inside… like being together but having varying opinions,” he said in a post yesterday on his blog that acclaimed the BN politics of consensus as the most successful.

Salleh drew attention to the words of a political scientist, Prof Arend Lijphart, at a conference of world political scientists in 1967, where the latter had stated that the best political system for managing a plural country was by way of political consensus, that is involving the cooperation of parties of various races in a huge alliance.

“Malaysia is the most successful model of a country practising this system. All along, the Alliance and then the BN had won every general election despite facing various issues and challenges,” he said.

Salleh, who is also Umno treasurer, said that the failure of the PH pact to establish cooperation among the opposition component parties showed that the BN politics of consensus was the best for the country.

“This is because the power-sharing and tolerance among the races have proven to be the most appropriate to administer Malaysia with its plural society,” he said. - Bernama