Oppositio front,please don't let us down this time

Hope it is finally settled - the seat tussle between the opposition parties,DAP,PKR and PAS.We congratulate Anwar Ibrahim and Lim Kit Siang for brokering the deal between their parties.It must be remembered that no single party will win all the time,there must be give and take.Leaders of the opposition must rise above party for the sake of the nation.

The people are ready for change,please don't let them down as you may not get this opportunity again. It would have been a great idea to contest under a common name ( Barisan Rakyat) and symbol for all opposition candidates regardless which party they come from.That would not only avoid confusion among voters but would also foster closer understanding and cooperation among the various races in the opposition front.

As Malaysians who want change,we appeal to the leaders of DAP,PKR and PAS; please put aside your differences and work together to secure more seats first and then sort out the power sharing later.Please do not disappoint us this time by your petty squabbles.

Dr.Chris Anthony

Opposition agrees to one-to-one fights

Malaysiakini,Feb 18, 08 5:46pm

After a few false starts and an acrimonious war of words, the opposition has finally stitched a tentative agreement on straight fights against the ruling Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition in the March 8 general election.

However the two key opposition parties, DAP and PKR, still have grounds to cover in the next few days if they are to ink an electoral pact in Sabah and Sarawak.

The opposition needs to finalise the deal before nomination day on Sunday when candidates will be submitting their names to the Election Commission for their respective constituencies.

A source who is part of the seat negotiations however expressed confidence that an agreement will be reached in those two states.

According to a blog entry by DAP leader Lim Kit Siang, the opposition had a "five-hour marathon meeting ... which ended with primary agreement for one-to-one contests between DAP or PKR with BN in Peninsular Malaysia states".

The meeting was held at the DAP headquarters in Petaling Jaya between Lim and PKR de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim along with other top party leaders last night.

Penang and Sarawak

The talks for an electoral pact began well when both DAP and PKR called a joint press conference on Jan 9 to announce that the two parties had inked a deal in Penang.

The deal in Penang on Jan 9 was a breakthrough as the two parties had fought it out in four seats - one parliament and three state seats - in the last general election. The resulting three-cornered contests were all won by BN.

Under the pact, DAP - which for long has aspired to rule Penang - will contest seven of the 13 parliamentary seats and 19 of the 40 state seats.

PKR and the other opposition party PAS will negotiate for the remaining seats.

But the hard-nosed negotiations failed to pick up the momentum from the Penang deal and almost came apart in other key states, in particular Perak and to a lesser degree in Selangor.

This was made complicated by the sizable number of non-Malay voters in the two states who are wooed by both parties.

Sarawak is also seen as intractable as many ethnic Chinese leaders in the state PKR were formerly disgruntled DAP members who had left the party.

Deadlock in talks

A disappointed Lim had earlier expressed his unhappiness in the deadlock, saying that the negotiations were taking too much time.

The DAP veteran went as far as offering a three-cornered contest in his Ipoh Timur parliamentary seat in return for an agreement that other seats in Perak should be straight fights with the BN.

It is an open secret that PKR has several non-Malay candidates who are keen to contest in Chinese-majority seats in Perak. But DAP feels this is encroaching on its traditional territory.

In 2004, PKR vice-president Dr Lee Boon Chye had eyed Ipoh Timur but following DAP’s insistence to field Lim there, PKR gave way and Lee went to Gopeng instead. Eventually, Lim won Ipoh Timur but Lee lost in Gopeng.

In the agreement yesterday, it is learnt that the two opposition parties have generally reverted to the seats they had contested in the 2004 elections.

This included Sungai Siput in Perak, which is held by MIC chief S Samy Vellu.

It will be again contested by yet-to-be-registered PSM, which in the past two elections had run under the PKR banner.