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 …

Frenemy – A friend who is also an enemy

It is interesting to see how the English language evolves over the years. Innovative new terminologies and slang are continuously being spoken and then formally adopted as official English words.

I think it will be a matter of time before “frenemy” would become an official word in the English language. Frenemy would describe someone who pretends to be a friend, but is actually an enemy.

The Urban Dictionary has a good summary of the meanings of frenemy:-
1. frenemy – an enemy disguised as a friend
2. frenemy – the type of friend whose words or actions brings you down
3. frenemy – someone who is both friend and enemy, a relationship that is both mutually beneficial or dependent while being competitive, fraught with risk and mistrust
4. frenemy – someone who you pretend to like, but really both of you know that you hate each other
5. frenemy – a bad friend who cares only about themselves(a toxic friendship).
6. frenemy – a person with whom you may have a lot of fun and/or a lot in common, but who also has a vile and random dark side
7. frenemy – an enemy who acts like a friend

By their behavioural nature, most politicians are frenemies to each other. If you have a friend who is also a politician, the person may be your frenemy, depending on the nature of your friendship with the person.

A frenemy, by definition, would be a hypocrite. A hypocrite is someone who conceals his true character or belief, in friendship, or other aspects of life. Hypocrisy covers more areas.

On the other hand, a hypocrite may not necessarily be a frenemy. A hypocrite may become a real friend. Two hypocrites may enjoy true friendship with each other.

It is a blessing but uncommon if all your friends are indeed your true friends.
It will be common to have a few frenemies in the midst.
It will be problematic to have a lot of frenemies among your circle of friends.
But, it will be a disaster if all you have are frenemies.

I have thought of the Bahasa Melayu equivalent of frenemy – klawan. Klawan would stand for kawan (friend) who is also lawan (enemy).

Based on my observation, as they now stand, Pakatan Rakyat (People’s Alliance) is behaving like Pakatan Klawan (Frenemies’ Alliance). Likewise, some of the coalition members within Barisan Nasional are becoming frenemies too. One is a disaster and the other one is problematic.