LETTER | Does Warisan understand what constitutes principles?

LETTER | The Association for Welfare and Community and dialogue (ACID) which espouses common good in politics is disappointed with the statement by Warisan's Chinese coordinator for Api-Api Michelle Mok who was quoted as saying that DAP’s principles were more questionable as the party was ready to sign a bipartisan political deal with the current government.

She was responding to DAP secretary-general Anthony Loke’s criticism of Warisan president Shafie Apdal, who recently said that the party would not be teaming up with any of the existing government or opposition coalitions during the elections but was ready to work with winning parties after the 15th general election.

It is ironic that Warisan is willing to work with winning parties which could mean that it’s willing to put aside its own principles and work even with its foe, and then claim that the DAP is unprincipled for signing a memorandum of understanding with the current government.

The question is does principles, in essence, limited to party and coalition politics, and ideology, or does it have a broader vision of the common good? Can a political party be regarded as unprincipled just because it works together with its opponent on a given issue that would benefit the common people?

The rakyat has gone through severe hardships in the past two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic, unemployment and some Malaysians have even gone hungry during the movement control order.

Any rational, principled and responsible political party would focus on the difficulties of the rakyat and endeavour to ensure some semblance of political stability by working together with the opponent to ensure there is less politicking and more focus on the welfare of the people.

At this juncture, a back door or front door government becomes secondary, and people’s interests should predominate in the mind of politicians.

The memorandum of understanding between Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s government and Pakatan Harapan was the right thing to do in given circumstances where principles of common good transcended the limited perception related to partisan or coalition politics.

Therefore, it is time that Warisan understands what it really means to be principled before criticising Harapan on the issue of the memorandum of understanding.

RONALD BENJAMIN is the secretary of Acid.

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