Speaking to FMT, Suffian Mansor, who teaches history, politics and strategic studies at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, said PH needed to be both quick and careful with its decisions.
“Fence sitters are tired of all the waiting and PH needs to have something to offer the people. This is what the harapan (hope) of the rakyat is,” he said.
“It needs to be as quick as possible and more careful about what it says because what it does will have an effect on them.”
Suffian was referring to the recent ruckus about who the opposition coalition was naming as its interim prime minister while Pakatan de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim is in jail.
It was previously reported that Pakatan had formally proposed PPBM chairman and former prime minister Mahathir Mohamad as its candidate for prime minister and PKR president Wan Azizah Ismail as his deputy.
However, the decision, which was announced at the end of the coalition’s two-day retreat in Putrajaya, was said to have been opposed by some attendees, including a senior PKR leader.
However, after the PH presidential council meeting yesterday, the path seems to have been cleared for Mahathir to be interim PM with no conditions set.
A condition previously set was that Mahathir should step down in favour of Anwar within six to 12 months after his release from prison.
Awang Azman Pawi, an associate professor at Universiti Malaya, said Pakatan would do well to use its convention this weekend to stop “all the dilly dallying” and finally come to a decision on all crucial matters.
He said the coalition’s manifesto had to be clarified so that it could be publicised and discussed.
“PH also needs to tell us which party will contest where, based on the party’s merits and current political realities.”
Earlier, former MP Tawfik Ismail said it was high time for PH to forget about old faces and promote its younger members.
“In order for Pakatan to be a viable alternative, it must rid itself of the old guard — Mahathir, Anwar, Kit Siang — and let the young Turks take up the fight,” he told FMT.
The PH convention is slated for this weekend and will be its second convention since the coalition was formed in 2015.