The Malaysian Insight

DISPUTES over the leadership line-up is holding up Pakatan Harapan’s (PH) registration as a formal coalition to the Registrar of Societies (RoS), sources say.

The presidential council list is a subject that is still undergoing intense discussion among PH component parties as it is considered the opposition pact’s ‘Shadow Cabinet’ or ‘Dream Team’.

The opposition coalition comrprises PKR, DAP, Amanah and Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (Bersatu).

The Malaysian Insight understands PH could not finalise the presidential council line-up in a May 31 meeting in Putrajaya as some were against giving the coalition chairmanship to PKR president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.

Certain quarters in PH viewed the move to name Dr Wan Azizah as the coalition’s chairman as unwise, especially as she recently admitted in an interview with Al-Jazeera that she was just a seat warmer for her husband, Anwar Ibrahim.

They felt that the move would make it difficult for PH to convince voters that the coalition was a better alternative to Barisan Nasional (BN).

A recent study by PKR vice-president’s think tank, Invoke, showed that Anwar was more popular while a Bersatu survey last year showed that voters prefered Muhyiddin as the next PM.

A source told The Malaysian Insight that it would be easier for PH to capture Putrajaya if the chairmanship was given to Bersatu.

“All this must be decided in the upcoming meeting on June 9. The list of the PH presidential council must be resolved during that meeting,” the source said on condition of anonymity.

The May 31 meeting, held at the Perdana Leadership Foundation, was attended by the majority of PKR, DAP, Amanah and Bersatu’s key leaders.

Earlier last month, the PH presidential council meeting had picked its line-up of top officials to lead the coalition in the 14th general election (GE14), with Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Dr Wan Azizah being named adviser and chairman respectively.

The meeting also agreed to name PKR de facto leader Anwar to be the adviser, but his name would not be included in the registration to RoS as he is still serving his sentence.

Commenting on the May 31 meeting, Amanah president Mohamad Sabu said a decision on the coalition’s logo had been agreed on and the meeting went on smoothly.

“We took quite a long time to choose the logo, out of the 12 shortlisted ones from the 330 suggestions that we received.

“We have agreed on one logo and the use of the ‘Harapan’ word on it,” he told the Malaysian Insight.

Mohamad Sabu said the design of the logo had been given to a graphic designer for improvement before the announcement on June 9. – June 2, 2017.