Pakatan Rakyat fiasco: Same script, different cast

PAKATAN Rakyat is dead... it is merely on life support, unconscious, depending on who you ask.

The political brouhaha that had resurfaced the past few weeks has kept most political pundits in the country at the edge of their seats, desperate for any news of the loose coalition's fate, especially in Selangor, one of the richest State in the country.

State Menteri Besar, Mohamed Azmin Ali, always calm and collected, brushed off every single questions hurled at him about the possibility of dissolving the state assembly.

"No basis in such claims," he stressed, during a bubur lambuk giveaway session in Shah Alam, Selangor on the first day of Ramadan.

A cunning politician who constantly has multiple clever tricks up his sleeve, Azmin knows it's best to keep mum and stabilise the ship rather than making unnecessary snipes at his (former) comrades, for fear that the ship will go 'off-radar'.

On the contrary, his Penang counterpart, Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng was out with all guns blazing, aimed directly at the Islamic party, PAS.

In fact, his party's 'demise-of-Pakatan' declaration on June 16 has placed even more strain on the already complicated relationship between the parties in the pact.

While this 'death-of-Pakatan' should not be entirely blamed on DAP, to Guan Eng at least, that is not the point.

The point is, each time PAS and DAP sit in the same corner, their cooperation never lasted more than two General Elections.

Let me bring you back to the days of Gagasan Rakyat and Angkatan Perpaduan Ummah (APU), in the early 90s, where both parties with contrasting ideologies first formed their 'golden' handshake.

They were not in the 'same coalition' then as Semangat 46 (S46), formed after a pack of UMNO leaders were exiled from the party, became the 'middle man' and established APU with a host of Malay-Islamic parties while at the same time initiated Gagasan Rakyat with DAP and Parti Rakyat Malaysia (PRM).

Well, even back then, the S 46 leader Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah was unsuccessful in bringing DAP and PAS to agree on a common policy framework.

The rest the say, is history as this political heavyweights failed to topple Barisan Nasional, led at that time by none other than the former Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad.

Apparently, both these parties forego what happened during that era, and attempt once again to work together, this time under Barisan Alternatif, for the 1999 General Elections.

Even this early iteration of Pakatan failed to put away their differences and crumbled.

Back then in the early 2000, Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang was pushing for the implementation of Hudud in Terengganu, which illicited a similar response from DAP, who exited BA in 2001.

All these reminiscent seemed to prove one thing - PAS and DAP do not belong together. It is starting to look like a scene from the thriller, 'Final Destination' franchise. You get the same ending with different casts taking on dissimilar characters.

The question lies on how PAS and DAP position themselves in the post-Pakatan era?

Well, I can't tell you as I am not the 'director' in this saga.

For now, let's watch how Pakatan Rakyat would end its plot first.