Pakatan Rakyat - History

History

The Pakatan Rakyat is a maturing development of the concept, of Barisan Alternatif (English: Alternative Front), that was created during the election campaign of the 10th Malaysian General Election in 1999. Barisan Alternative was the banner and policy position document which a group of Malaysian opposition political parties (DAP, PKR, PAS, PSM, MDP and PASOK) endorsed and coalesced around for that election.

In the 2008 general election (12th Malaysian General Election), PKR, DAP and PAS had also won 41, 73, and 86 seats, respectively, in various state assemblies.

As of 2009, Pakatan Rakyat remains an informal coalition yet unregistered with the Malaysian Registrar of Societies (ROS). They claim that Malaysian law only allows the registration of a coalition comprising seven parties or more.

In October 2009, the ROS stated that Pakatan Rakyat could formally register as a coalition, as "The condition does not apply to political parties as they enjoy a national status. Only state-level organisation aspiring to become a national entity needs to have seven members from the states." On 9 October 2009, Lim Kit Siang announced that Pakatan would seek to register itself as a formal coalition in light of this clarification. On 4 November 2009, Pakatan Rakyat officials told the press that they had submitted a formal application to the ROS, naming Zaid as the chairman of the alliance. PKR MP and Information Chief Tian Chua publicly denied this, saying the coalition had not yet decided on a constitution, logo, or leadership structure. In February 2010, Pakatan Rakyat claimed it had made a fresh application to ROS as “Pakatan Rakyat Malaysia” because the name ‘Pakatan Rakyat’ is still being registered and processed under Zaid Ibrahim’s name as the pro-tem chairman.

By law, the ROS cannot consider any other application that has the same phrase in it, and has asked Pakatan Rakyat to file a fresh application. In November 2011, Pakatan Rakyat appointed PAS central committee member Kamaruddin Jaafar to make a fresh application, but RoS director-general Abdul Rahman Othman claimed Kamaruddin had never approached his department. Abdul Rahman said that the ROS has no problem in approving Pakatan’s registration and that he could not refuse a request made by any MP.

Zaid had issued a statement on Pakatan Rakyat's ideology, stating that in government, it would introduce anti-discrimination laws, set up a social safety net, establish a new education policy aimed at producing competitive graduates, especially among the Malays and Bumiputra, repeal the Internal Security Act and Printing Presses and Publications Act, amend the Official Secrets Act and Sedition Act to limit the government's power, and reform law enforcement institutions like the courts, the Royal Malaysian Police, and the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission. Zaid also said that the proposed anti-discrimination law would not require the repeal or amendment of Article 153 of the Constitution. Zaid has also request Dato' Nik Aziz to become the chairman of Pakatan Rakyat instead of Anwar Ibrahim (PKR) or Hadi Awang (PAS). In November 2010, after a six-month leave from PKR over undisclosed reasons, Zaid Ibrahim quit PKR, causing the People’s Coalition to remain as an informal coalition.

In the 2013 general election (13th Malaysian General Election), the still unregistered Pakatan Rakyat won the total number of votes but due to Malaysia's First Past The Post democratic system - a system is used in Canada, UK, and most USA states - lost to the Barisan Nasional who won 133 of the 222 Parliament seats and 275 of the 505 State seats. To this day, PKR, DAP, and PAS continue to platform different ideologies within the framework of respect and consensus by their top leaders.