3rd Force frightening the sh#t out of Pakatan?

For quite a while we have heard of the 3rd Force. that is, a 3rd force in politics. For example, in the UK there are the two major parties, Conservative (Tory) and Labour, whilst the 3rd Force seems to be the Liberal Democrat.

The Liberal Democrat did quite well in 2010 GE when it won 57 seats, the third largest party after the Conservative with 306 and labour with 258. It has not done well since, giving the impression that the British voters were initially attracted to it but has since lost interest (or hope) in the Liberal Democrat.

Australia had its 3rd Force originally in the Australian Democrats years back in the Senate rather than the Lower House but the GST killed the party due to its leader Meg Lees supporting the GST Bill.

Today it seems the Greens is the 3rd Force but still a growing one. Pauline Hanson and her One Nation thought they could be the 3rd Force but the party only appeals to ultra right wing Australians and has been considered as a joke, but nonetheless a dangerous joke for the major parties.

In Malaysia, we have heard of such a 3rd Force from time to time, once in RPK's Malaysian Civil Liberties Movement (MCLM) which frightened the hell out of the old Pakatan. The MCLM did not propose to stand as a political party per se but as a vetting and feeding source for the federal opposition, but such a controlling role in candidates' suitability annoyed the opposition parties who did not want their choice of candidates interfered by an 'outsider'. But for a time it appealed to some individuals.

PAS boasted of being the 3rd Force, and it might well be correct. But PAS' ultra conservative approach of religion has made unlikely to grow,

But today there appears to be a new 3rd Force which may affect the election outcome. It's the #undirosak movement.

Bizarrely the group proposes to deliberately spoil their votes because they are fed up with both sides of the political camps. They in general don't like BN but found Pakatan Harapan is NOT a suitable alternative because its policies are not that much different from BN.

who should we vote for? 

The #undirosak movement proposes not to vote for Pakatan because the group finds the idea of Mahathir, notorious as a former dictator, heading Pakatan as an abhorrent abomination.

As the MM Online recently published:

The #UndiRosak movement and others like it are the manifestation of the frustration and anger towards Pakatan Harapan for failing to be the saviours that they said they would be.

However, herein lies the problem with it. We should never have, and must never henceforth, put all our hopes on politicians and expect them to be the saviours of the nation. We are our own saviours.

And in order for us to be in full control of our own destiny, we need to have a fully workable two party system develop here in Malaysia. We need to put an alternative government in power to show that the alternative government is not a one way ticket to doom and destruction. At the moment the only viable alternative we have is Pakatan Harapan.

I will be the first to say that I do not know whether the government formed by Pakatan Harapan will be a good one. There could be all manner of evil lurking in the closets of the Pakatan representatives. In some instances, the evil has been well documented over many decades.

Dr Kua Kia Soong challenged Pakatan to show it has a Reform Agenda in FMT's article PH must state how their reforms differ from those of BN, listing three points which he said did not differ from the BN, namely (extracts of FMT news article):

1. End to Racism & Racial Discrimination in Malaysia:

PH could argue that they were above this primordial predilection, being made up of multi-ethnic parties. Now they can’t. Their new leader is from the race-pure PPBM.

We presume PPBM considers itself the “real” champion of the Bumiputeras in contrast to Umno. Thus, by opportunistically embracing a supposed Malay vote catcher, PH have lost their reformist credibility or, as someone has put it recently, they have sold their soul to the devil.

2. Wealth redistribution to the 99%:

Both BN and PH are competing to see which coalition can outdo the other in neo-liberal policies that offer investors attractive opportunities that they can’t refuse.

The big corporations and developers must be laughing all the way to the bank for they seem to have both coalitions in their pockets.

The new leader of PH is of course none other than the Father of Neo-Liberalism himself – if that is any claim to fame – for he was the one who sold off our national assets to his crony capitalists from 1981 onwards. The leader of the opposition called it “piratisation”.

3. A just, democratic and progressive alternative:

Do BN and PH promise real democracy instead of these pious commitments to periodic general elections which do not change our lives substantively? When are we going to see term limits placed on office bearers and elected representatives?

There are some representatives who have been in Parliament since Independence and still try to claim indispensability. Apparently, there are not enough capable young, women or leaders from marginalised communities in this country who can replace these dinosaurs in Parliament.

So what is there in this electoral circus to attract the involvement of young Malaysians?

A just, democratic and progressive alternative calls for a living wage and rights for all workers; a reasonable pension at retirement; affordable and liveable housing; free tertiary education (means tested for the well-off); formal or informal elected local government; commitment to international human rights practices and covenants.

Pakatan is worried about the movement as any spoilt votes or absence from voting will supposedly benefit BN.

There have been complaints that some in Pakatan have resorted to aggressive pressure, psychological threats and even merajuk-ish disdain, which are more likely to further repulse those who do not wish to vote because of Mahathir.

The #undirosak movement has likened BN and Pakatan as the difficult-to-differentiate Coke and Pepsi.

If Pakatan Harapan loses, their members and supporters can blame the inclusion and the factor of designating Mahathir as the coalition's pick for its PM.