YOURSAY | Harapan Plus’ PM candidate – will there be a compromise?

YOURSAY | ‘The country awaits and the person should better be the right one.’

Consensus reached over PM candidate - Marzuki

Clever Voter: Pakatan Harapan Plus leaders have met. It will be a challenge to have an outcome where everyone is a winner.

Leaders of the parties in the coalition must come to the realisation of the potential damage they have done with their squabbling and poor judgement of their political enemies.

We are back to where we started, if not worse, with Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin at the helm. Whoever Harapan Plus chooses as prime minister candidate has to be one who will articulate the future of the country and not the parties they represent.

Former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad has to accept that age is not on his side. For PKR president Anwar Ibrahim, if he cannot unite the party, he will find it harder to unite the country.

So, what do we have left? The country awaits Harapan Plus’ choice and the person should better be the right one.

Ferdtan: If both Mahathir and Anwar can come to a consensus, it augurs well for Harapan Plus. Politics is an art of compromise.

This time any agreement will not be like before GE14, when it was done informally. This time nothing will be left to chance. Interested parties should have learnt the lesson. There has to be a written agreement witnessed by key players.

Later, if some parties fail to keep their promises/agreements after gaining success in retaking the government (hopefully), God have mercy on them.

Anonymous54: We hope all who covet the PM position will arrive at a pragmatic solution. Remember, it's about saving Malaysia.

For that reason, what's so difficult to decide who will be made the PM if there is indeed a consensus? It is either Mahathir or Anwar.

The fact that they seem to need more time simply means there’s no agreement on the matter.

Harimau Arif: Yes, I think the excitement is premature. If you recall, when all the faction leaders were meeting the Agong and Harapan before, they also (especially Anwar) came out with big smiles only to find out they had been sold out.

I understand that Harapan will not be able to return to power without Bersatu or Mahathir, but Harapan should take extra precaution with the arrangement. Please make sure you don’t get backstabbed again.

RR: Why withhold the consensus of the next PM from Harapan Plus?

Is Anwar such a hated unpopular leader among the Malays? His popularity among the Malays, both rural and urban, and the non-Malays is par excellence compared to many rogue and questionable politicians in the Malay community.

Please declare him as the next PM from Harapan without any reservation.

Malaysia Bharu: Hopefully, this is a lesson well learnt. The Harapan parties are the best judge of what it takes to go forward a second time around.

Hopefully, they will not make the same mistakes as before. If need be, Mahathir can play the lead role but must be tightly monitored knowing what he is capable of.

It appears PN does not have the majority and Muhyiddin is hiding behind the Covid-19 pandemic to avoid a vote of confidence to legitimise his government.

Umno and PAS are jittery as they are well aware that they are walking on quicksand and pretending to work on a snap election. Everything is left to the Agong as PN is exercising absolute power without a mandate or a majority.

Definitely, it would be ill-conceived to call for a snap election in this year or the next due to the prevailing pandemic. Whoever sanctions a snap election will be responsible should there be a spike of Covid-19 cases.

Vote 4 Change Johor: Within the very brief period that PN has been running the country, many positive changes started by the Harapan government have been derailed or ignored just to save the skin of their top leaders, especially those Umno leaders that are being charged in court.

It has taken many forthright citizens by surprise. Some good institutional changes including better rule of law, acceptance and tolerance for criticism of the authority are also being sidelined or ignored.

We hoped the mandate given to the earlier Harapan parties to govern will be restored to them following proper procedure and channel.

The PN government lacks legitimacy as they are not being endorsed in Parliament despite that more than three months have passed by.

Daylight: At least PKR and Anwar have regained some dignity with Mahathir agreeing to come for a meeting at the PKR headquarters.

For too long Mahathir has been monopolising the show thinking he is indispensable because he had Umno leaders promising to defend his position as PM. I hope he now knows who the traitors are.

FairMalaysian: Anwar must put his foot down this time. There are no two ways about it. He and former deputy prime minister Wan Azizah Wan Ismail are honourable enough to keep their part of the bargain after Harapan won in 2018. Others should, too.

No, I would not trust Mahathir. While he was indeed a victim of political deception by the Bersatu leaders around him, he is still answerable for parachuting former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali into a special ministry.

Mahathir should have handed the mantle to Anwar in the six months after Harapan’s win and walked away. Had he done that, I am sure we would all still idolise him now.

Shenandoah: The meeting was Mahathir’s mea culpa to acknowledge his grave mistake of not keeping his promise to hand over the top spot to Anwar within two years of the 2018 election victory.

If only he had kept his promise, the nation and Mahathir himself would not be in this mess.

Green Leopard4021: Yes, don't make a mockery of the premiership by bringing back Mahathir again for the third time. All should agree on Anwar as PM after all the suffering and humiliation he has gone through.

By all means, make Mahathir the senior minister. In this rainy season, go get some frogs from the other side to jump over and reclaim the government that we voted for.

Quigonbond: I hate to pour cold water but the latest news is not very favourable to Harapan, losing their MPs in Sarawak, Muafakat Nasional stepping up the GE15 clarion call… if you need to hatch a plan, better do it fast.

Ideally, have Harapan PM-designate and shadow cabinet standing by. It's not too far-fetched to consider a shadow cabinet now because unlike GE14, the number of MPs for each party is more or less set.

It'll also show if more MPs join Harapan, it wouldn't be because they were offered ministerial posts.

Dummies Dhimmi: Indeed, hurry up. We don’t care who is at the top or bottom or who leads and whatnot, just take back Putrajaya before it’s burnt it to the ground.

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