Pakatan Harapan stuck in a rut -- but still better than BN

That Pakatan Harapan is stuck in a rut is without question. It has been for a long time now and even the defeat in Kimanis will not knock it out of that rut.

That's because nobody in Pakatan wants to rock the boat. So status quo it is. It's been like that for months now. And nothing has changed.

Mahathir continues to be coy about the transition date. We know he wants to stay as PM for at least until the end of this year. He's said he wants to preside over the APEC Summit, which is in November.

How long he will stay after that, nobody knows. He has said he would step down only after the country's problems have been solved. But that can mean anything!

So, we don't know when he will step down. It could be right after the APEC Summit, it might be months after, who knows!

There are members of PKR and DAP who are increasingly uncomfortable with this vague transition situation and want him to literally stick to two years, which means he should step down by May 2020. There is very little indication he is prepared to do that and no indication from the various Pakatan component party leaders that they are prepared to push him out either.

So, he's gonna be here for a while. What does that mean?

For one thing, it means the much-needed reforms that civil society had expected when Pakatan was voted into power will not happen. The Sedition Act is still around. Why? Because Mahathir doesn't want it removed. The same with all the other draconian laws.

As such, many people who voted for Pakatan are sorely disappointed, so much so that some were willing to vote for the Opposition, BN. They did so, not because they think BN is better but because they wanted to send Pakatan a clear message.

Sadly, after five clear messages have been sent, we are still seeing the status quo maintained.

Does that mean Pakatan will be a one-term government? I don't think so. If you happened to have been someone who voted Pakatan in the last election, ask yourself this: In the next general election, will your disappointment with Pakatan lead you to vote for BN instead?

The answer is obvious: Of course not.

The general election is no by-election with minimal consequences. Everybody knows that. When faced with a choice of a Pakatan or Barisan for the federal government, it's clear what right-thinking people would choose despite whatever disappointments they may harbour.

That's the main thing Pakatan has got going for it. Not that it is so good but that BN is sooooo bad that it's not even a viable option to consider, at least not for a general election (by-elections with close to zero political consequences is another thing).