The Gelang Patah MP said the opposition coalition was one of “political equals” based on the operational principle of consensus, unlike Barisan Nasional (BN) which he said was founded on Umno hegemony.
He hailed the structure, leadership and direction decided during the PH presidential council yesterday as heralding a “re-ignition” of new hope and confidence among Malaysians that there can be political change in Putrajaya in the 14th general election (GE14).
At a press conference after the meeting, PH announced that PPBM’s Dr Mahathir Mohamad and PKR’s Anwar Ibrahim would be the coalition’s chairman and de facto leader respectively, assuming the very same designations that they held in their own parties.
PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was appointed PH president while PPBM president Muhyiddin Yassin, DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng and Amanah president Mohamad Sabu were made the coalition’s deputy presidents.
In a blog post this morning, Umno’s Communications and Multimedia Minister Salleh Said Keruak asked why none of the highest posts in PH went to a DAP leader despite the party having the most number of MPs in the coalition.
“Is DAP being sidelined or was this an intentional move so that the opposition pact is perceived to be dominated by the Malays?” the former Sabah chief minister wrote.
He also said PH could never match BN which he claimed had a “track record of cooperation between different ethnic groups and tolerance between its leaders, without compromising party principles”.
In a statement issued after a press conference in Miri today, Lim replied: “I agree with Salleh that Pakatan Harapan can never match the Umno/Barisan Nasional coalition in making Malaysia overnight into a ‘global kleptocracy’, and we definitely do not want to match Umno/BN on corruption and abuses of power.”
“Pakatan Harapan, on the other hand, is a coalition of equals, where no party exercises hegemony like Umno in BN, and where consensus from all the four component parties is the basic operational principle of the coalition,” he said.
The DAP parliamentary leader said there was no consensus in BN as Umno controlled the ruling coalition, which he added was illustrated by silence and subservience of the other BN parties to the 1Malaysia Development Bhd (1MDB) controversy.