Unelected party advisers keep calling the shots in Pakatan Rakyat

It is amazing that the Pakatan Rakyat members and supporters remain steadfast and blindly follow the undemocratic manner in which their respective parties are being run and their policies being determined: by their respective party advisers who are actually not voted in through party elections.

Pakatan Rakyat is a loose coalition of three parties: PKR-DAP-PAS. It is not a formal coalition, as there remains a level of mistrust among the frenemies. Although PKR is the youngest party in terms of age, they seem to be in wanting of control of the policies and direction of PR. PAS, on the other hand, is seen as the junior coalition partner, although they have the highest number of party members among the three parties.

To the uninitiated, Wan Azizah, the wife of Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim is (still) the PKR President. Yes, we have not heard much from her. It is because Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim, the unelected PKR Party Adviser is actually the one running the party. It is therefore redundant that PKR actually made pains to change the party’s constitution to limit the terms of its top party officials, including the president. In so far as Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim is concerned, he will remain the unelected party adviser for life, and he will remain in control of PKR for as long as he wants.

As for DAP, the party’s Chairman is Karpal Singh. And Lim Guan Eng is the party’s secretary-general. In Lim Guan Eng’s own words, if DAP is akin to a corporation, the Chairman is a non-executive official and the general-secretary is the CEO, and thus, the Chairman should let the executives run the party. (Note: Lim Guan was then responding to Karpal Singh’s outburst towards Anwar during the Perak fiasco). Although Lim Guan Eng was supposedly the CEO of DAP, it is his father, Lim Kit Siang, the unelected DAP party adviser, who seems to have a bigger say in the running of DAP.

The same goes to PAS. Hadi Awang was just recently re-elected as the PAS President (he won uncontested). Nasharuddin won a bitterly fought Deputy President post. Hadi Awang was the one who initiated the Unity Government talk with UMNO. And Nasharuddin supported his party president’s call. But, lo and behold! The unelected spiritual adviser of the party, Nik Aziz, vehemently oppose to the idea of talk with UMNO. Again, an unelected adviser PR’s component being the actual person in charge of the party.

Monday’s PKR-DAP-PAS discussion on the proposed Unity Government was quite telling. Both PKR and DAP were represented by their respective unelected party advisers, Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang. Only PAS was represented properly by Hadi Awang, the party’s elected president. But Hadi Awang also had to kow tow to the wishes of his unelected party spiritual adviser, Nik Aziz, to reject the Unity Government proposal.

Amazingly too, although it was Hadi Awang who actually initiated the idea of a Unity Government between PAS and UMNO, Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim unashamedly declared that “it (the Unity Government proposal) is a clearly malicious and desperate attempt by UMNO to compromise the integrity of the increasingly popular PR”. (Somebody said that sounded like Brader Anwar Bin Ibrahim talking through his anus).

Amazingly too, Hadi Awang actually (blindly) signed the joint statement that stated as if the Unity Government proposal was UMNO’s. That was an indication of the low level of intellect among the PAS leadership. The PAS president is being dictated by people outside his party (Anwar and Lim Kit Siang) who are not even elected to office.

There you go. All three parties in Pakatan Rakyat are actually being run by their unelected officials.

So why the need party elections then? And why the need to limit the terms of elected party officials?

Are we going to see a similar scenario if (God forbid) Pakatan Rakyat managed to wrestle the federal government? Are these events prelude to having more unseen hands and unelected representatives actually running the government under Pakatan Rakyat, and leaving the elected representatives as mere seat warmers whose task is to shout at each other in the Parliament?

And why didn’t the PR party members stand up in support of their elected party officials, and dump the unelected advisers? Otherwise, why didn’t they compel the unelected advisers to contest a proper post in the party’s leadership line-up? Or may be they are all morons …