YOUNG TURKS WANT STAR TO GO ALONE

By : JOE FERNANDEZ

THE young strategists believe the party should not enter into any electoral pact to contest the coming general election.

The thinking gathering widespread support, at least among the young and fresh-faced in the State Reform Party (STAR) in Sabah is that “the party should not play the election game in Sabah and Sarawak by rules that others have drawn up”.

Citing democratic conventions elsewhere in the civilised world, the party’s strategists figure that “it would be morally and ethically wrong” for it to be part of any pre-poll agreement on seat-sharing and/or entering into any coalition pact.

According to the young party strategists, if STAR becomes part of a coalition before an election, it will circumscribe the democratic process by endorsing elite power-sharing and thereby denying the grassroots majority meaningful participation in elections and the democratic process and experiment.

Hence, the young Turks in the party are all for going for broke in the forthcoming 13th general election and subsequent general elections. This means STAR in Sabah, for example, is gearing up to contest all 60 state seats and 26 parliamentary seats including Labuan.

If the party clinches any seat in the general election, be it state or parliamentary, it is willing to consider forming a coalition with like-minded parties in the government or, alternatively, make common cause on an issue-to-issue basis with parties warming the opposition benches.

In case it ties up with the government party or parties, the lifespan of its coalition will be limited to five years at the most and to be renewed, if at all, after the next general election or a new coalition forged in the government with other winning parties.

The party’s conditions for coalition in the government are easier said than done. It wants to be the proverbial tail that wags the dog. This policy will be explored at some length further along.

Major hurdle

The party, for example in Sabah, expects to take at least one parliamentary seat Pensiangan and two state seats (Sook and Nabawan), despite the general election being a free-for-all affair on the opposition side. The party is also confidently eyeing Dusun seats, including Muslim, held by Umno.

An additional parliamentary seat and one state seat may be provided by the deregistered United Sabah National Organisation (Usno) candidates – all local Muslims including Dusun standing on the STAR ticket. The winning 'Usno' seats here are still unclear.

One major hurdle is that illegal immigrants allegedly make up the majority in five parliamentary and 12 state seats. These were created after 1994.

The illegals are apparently also a deciding factor in many of the other state seats 20 non-Muslim Dusun, eight Chinese and 20 local Muslim including Dusun and 12 non-Muslim and eight Muslim including Dusun parliamentary seats. There is a 26th parliamentary seat in Labuan.

An added factor would be the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) sharing out its seats and facing the election as a united pre-polls coalition determined to protect its current position as the government of the day.

Last, but not least, is the dependency syndrome in the rural areas which facilitates vote-buying.

The mother of all issues in Sabah, for STAR, is the appointment of the chief minister of Sabah by Putrajaya since 1994 when Umno seized the reins of power from Parti Bersatu Sabah (PBS). The latter party was ousted after a spate of defections engineered by then prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad with the help of two Chinese moneybags from Labuan and Kapit, Sarawak, respectively.

STAR strategists fume that the present method of appointing the Sabah chief minister, by administrative action and/or inaction, is in defiance of the state constitution, the State Legislative Assembly and the governor, and the people.

So much for the autonomy pledged for Sabah under the 1963 Malaysia Agreement.

Winning strategy

Sarawak, for STAR, is expected to be a repeat of its performance in Sabah. Here, the party is in alliance with the Sarawak National Party (SNAP) under the United Borneo Alliance (UBA) arrangement. It’s not known how UBA figures in the thinking of the young Turks in Sabah Star who are against any form of seat-sharing and forging a pre-polls coalition.

In Peninsular Malaysia, the party would be dependent on Hindraf Makkal Sakthi to work out a winning strategy for the general election.

It’s completely in the dark on the other side of the South China Sea but would like to make common cause in Peninsular Malaysia nevertheless with all its third force allies there including Hindraf.

Indians are the deciding factor in 67 parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia. However, there’s not even one ethnic Indian-majority seat, whether in parliament or the state assemblies, in Peninsular Malaysia. Hindraf would have to decide whether to field candidates under STAR in the peninsula.

Other potential allies for STAR and Hindraf in Peninsular Malaysia are the Orang Asli, the Christians and all those who are neither for the BN or Pakatan Rakyat.

The question that arises, STAR concedes, is why would any party or parties in government 'in their right mind' would ever consent in a million years to engage with it if the number of parliamentary seats contributed, in the numbers game, can be counted on all 10 fingers with some to spare.

Even so, the party expects to be a credible partner in government and even a force to be reckoned with in the highly likely event of a hung Parliament and/or State Legislative Assembly. In that case, it will go to town with its tail wagging the dog policy.

The party denies that the policy is a euphemism, a nice way of indulging in political blackmail or holding the government of the day to ransom.

Fallback option

All is fair and square in love, war and politics, say the young Turks at STAR. The party readily agrees that it would only be in business in government in the event of a hung Parliament, for example, and not otherwise.

As a fallback option, even if the party fails to secure even one parliamentary or state seat anywhere in Malaysia, it hopes to chalk up a credible number of votes or at least two per cent for Parliament, for example.

That would be a comfortable number for the party to push for electoral reforms. This would include supplementing and complementing the first-past-the-post concept to declare election winners by making provision for the minority to be heard in Parliament, for example.

Democracy is not just the right of the majority in Parliament to rule, the party strategists point out, but also the right of the minority – those votes lost under the first-past-the-post concept to be heard as well on law-making. This means reserving a certain number of non-constituency posts in Parliament, and the state assemblies, for the losing minority.

Now the only issue that remains in STAR is for the young to convince the elders in the party to go along with them on, to reiterate, “not playing the election game by rules that others have drawn up”.

But this is not expected to be a major hurdle since half the party’s core 100,000 membership base is between 25 and 35 years old while the remainder is made up equally of those between 36 and 45 years and veterans.

The party’s membership, by all accounts, also includes those who did not resign from their previous parties in their enthusiasm to sign up with STAR. There are also those in STAR who claim that their names were simply copied without their knowledge from the electoral rolls and included in the membership list of other political parties.