Shadow Cabinet: Let's get your priorities straight

Newly appointed Opposition leader Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail announcement to revive the shadow Cabinet brought up many questions about the loose coalition and its performance and ability as a government-in waiting.

No doubt, should the Pakatan Rakyat be able to form the shadow Cabinet, it will definitely be a move forward – the PR pact was never able to do it even though there were calls and expectation from its supporters since 2008.

Now, after seven years, the subject of a shadow Cabinet comes up again, although Dr Wan Azizah later backtracked and said the coalition lacked the funding to form a shadow Cabinet.

The Pakatan Rakyat, made up of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR), DAP and PAS, has always portrayed itself as an alternative to Barisan Nasional, the ruling government.

However, with no party being a dominant force and major hiccups among its allies and not to mention their dissatisfaction and failure to work together on many issues including hudud, the shadow Cabinet is one tough job to tackle.

Partly because, there is no Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, the key who held the loose pact together despite its differences. The PR pact had then appointed his wife Dr Wan Azizah as its Opposition leader after Anwar was sentenced to a five-year jail for sodomising his former aide, Mohd Saiful Azlan Bukhari.

Keeping the coalition together as a pact was tough enough for Anwar which is why it was rather surprising for Dr Wan Azizah to talk about a shadow cabinet now.

Now, Dr Wan Azizah has always been portrayed as Anwar’s shadow and a mere puppet. Perhaps she wanted to come out of her husband’s shadow and prove her critics wrong. Perhaps the best way to do that was to pick the thorniest subject (apart from hudud) and discuss about it.

Dr Wan Azizah’s talk of the shadow Cabinet will now force the not-so-friendly allies to sit together and talk. The relationship between DAP and PAS has been rather frosty with several of DAP’s state leadership severing their ties with the Islamic party over the hudud bill.

Perhaps, this is the best time for PR to start back and remember its initial struggles. By getting the three parties and their heads to sit together for a round of discussion would be the first step in amending its critical ties between the parties in the pact.

Going back to its common policies and working out their differences and agreeing on common policies can definitely bring the confidence of its voters.

Perhaps, after settling its core issues, PR can move forward and talk about forming shadow Cabinet.

Until then, first things first!