What if national reconciliation fails?

Call it what you may, both essentially mean that Barisan Nasional and Pakatan Rakyat leaders would have to sit down to dialogue on various issues.

Some may find it ironic that a plan to unite the country has already been branded differently by the two opposing coalitions from the start.

However, others are still eager to see the results of such a historic move.

Amid anticipation for a stronger, more untied and cohesive nation, an academician yesterday warned there could be dire consequences if such talks broke down due to bad planning.

“Some people might say it never hurts to try but sometimes if this really is a negotiation rather than reconciliation… sometimes failed negotiations … could have very adverse consequences,” said Duke University’s Professor of Law and Political Science Donald L. Horowitz.

Horowitz, who has being doing research of Malaysia for several decades, said that if such a session was conducted, it should be “planned very carefully” first.

Otherwise, he said, there would be “unforeseeable” repercussions that were “too numerous to mention”.

“First of all, Malaysia has a very adversarial political system… the government does one thing and opposition another…and because it is adversarial, the idea to have the government and opposition get together is rather unusual. There is no experience here so therefore one has to think about it carefully.”

Horowitz speaking to reporters after giving a public lecture entitled “Ethnic power sharing: New perspectives” organised by the International Institute of Public Policy and Management (INPUMA) in University Malaya (UM).

During the lecture, the professor explained the two main approaches to ethnic power sharing, namely the consociational approach (regime of guarantees) or the centripetal approach (regime of incentives).

The consociational approach sets guarantees for all ethnic groups while the centripetal approach relies on the creation of incentives for political leaders of ethnic groups to behave moderately toward the interest of groups other than their own.

Horowitz said that previous examples favoured the centripetal approach, which was the original approach adopted by Malaysia since 1952. Malaysian's system was often misinterpreted to be one that was more consociational over the years.

“(The consociational system can give) the extremes a voice that they might not have under other electoral systems. (However), the competing model aims at a pursuit of accommodation, and moving towards the moderate centre.

“The consociational model tells people how to behave, but the incentives model give politicians incentives to behave in a reconciliatory manner,” he said.

Meanwhile, the associate Professor of the law faculty of UM Dr Azmi Sharom said that he did not think that the current government has the necessary political will to achieve national reconciliation.

“It will only work if they (both political coalitions) are on the same length and aspirations of equality and justice and human rights,” Azmi told Astro AWANI.

Azmi said that for Malaysia, it was not the problem with its political or electoral system, but the alleged failures of the country’s institutions.

He said that the institutions in question included the Election Commission, which leads to claims of gerrymandering; the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission and the Judiciary.

“Extremism has recently reared its ugly head because of different individuals have corrupted the system in a way that there are different set of rules for different people. We hear extremists because laws, even bad ones, must be applied equally,” he said.

On Tuesday, Najib gave a rare update on what is now called the National Reconciliation Plan (NRP), saying that it would be taking place in the next few months, based on “principles of respect, working & playing together, and the spirit of give and take”.

This came almost a year after he first mooted the idea on the night of May 5, the 13th General Election.

“The NRP will aim to encourage an environment that is conducive and promotes national reconciliation through unity and consensus across the country,” the prime minister wrote.