Daro, Malaysia;
The twelfth General Election of 2008 gave the people of Malaysia more that what it can chew.
Until today, there are those who do not understand the results. Of course there are those who will never accept the result at all.
Numerous post-mortems were done, on the party, the candidates and of course the government’s policies.
So far, one of the most telling ideas floated about is the restructuring of ruling coalition. The National Front coalition consisted of as many as fourteen political parties. The major ones are the Malay-based UMNO, the Chinese-based Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress. There also ethnic-based parties from the eastern states of Sabah and Sarawak.
The various decisions reached at any National Front’s meeting basically cased on consensus. That is, if everybody agreed. One of the sticking issues in the coalition concerns its membership.
A new political party may apply to become a member of the National Front. As always it will only be accepted if every members of the coalition agrees.
However, it also happened that a member may not agree to a certain party joining the coalition since that will dilute the voice of an existing member. That means the bargaining power of an existing member will presumably be weaken. Most Malaysians knew this was what happened to the Indian Progressive party.
The Indian Progressive Party supported most policies and decisions of the ruling coalition. However, its application to become a member of the National Front was turned down due to the objection of the MIC. This irritated not only the members of the IPF but the average Indians around the country.
It was found out that this was one of the main reasons behind the defeat of most MIC candidates in the last General Election. Thus, it was agreed that among the many issues leading to the defeat of many National Front’s candidates was its membership question.
Today, the idea floated about is, should there be an open membership to the National Front?