Demise of PR: Weren't we warned that this will happen?

The ‘demise’ of Pakatan Rakyat, as DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng announced on Tuesday, came as no surprise. At least to me and I’m sure many others who have been following news of this loose pact over the last seven years.

It was pointed out many times, that the three partners, DAP, PAS and PKR were strange bed fellows who have their own political agendas and ideologies. DAP is a liberal party and PAS runs along conservative Islamic fundamentals while PKR, well, let’s just say its a party that is committed to fight for all Malaysians regardless of race ( that is when they are not too busy fighting for their jailed leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim).

From its inception, the PR pact was questioned as it existed as a coalition only in name without a proper common policy that would bind the parties together. The PR also never existed as a registered legal entity.

PAS and DAP never liked each other, even from the beginning and their constant bickering were over so many issues like the sale of alcohol, moral policing, gambling and concerts.

In 1995, DAP had withdrawn from the Gagasan Rakyat coalition, led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, citing that it cannot work with PAS and its Islamic ideas.

“The DAP’s position vis-a-vis PAS is unchanged. The DAP had not and will not have any links or relationship with PAS, which had never been a member of Gagasan Rakyat, despite MCA and Gerakan lies that the DAP had co-operated with PAS and supported PAS’ hukum hudud and other Islamisation policies,” DAP's Lim Kit Siang said in the statement on Jan 25, 1995.

But, the two parties again joined hands in 1999 under the Barisan Alternatif pact. However, this only lasted for about two years when on Sept 22, 2001, DAP pulled out from BA when PAS wanted to form an Islamic state.

The then secretary-general of DAP Kerk Kim Hock said the party decided to pull out of the Barisan Alternatif as the support for the party had dived following its cooperation with the Islamic party, PAS.

Then, on April 1, 2008, Pakatan Rakyat was formed.

The pact ‘ceased to exist’ yesterday.

Looking at their history, it was actually a miracle the PR had survived for the past seven years.

We were warned that this would happen, eventually.

Oh well, it was good while it lasted.