Any Harapan for Pakatan Harapan?

The only constant about the opposition in Malaysia is change. It once was a rag tag disorganized and self serving band of political entities united by their contempt for Umno/Barisan Nasional. It now is a rag tag self serving band of political entities that are somewhat organized and still united in their contempt for Umno/Barisan Nasional. Is it any wonder that I ask what makes Pakatan Harapan different from Pakatan Rakyat? 

Is it the absence of PAS? And before any of you start to list out why the absence of PAS makes Pakatan Harapan stronger can you first list out the reasons why PAS was in the original Pakatan Rakyat? One list neutralizes the other - does it not? The absence of Tok Guru has made PAS what it is today and the absence of Anwar Ibrahim and the late Tok Guru has made Pakatan Rakyat the successful target of Umno's foray to create confusion and discord among DAP. PKR and PAS. And the operative word here is "successful". And the tail end of that success is now being played out in the birth of Pakatan Harapan amidst the strident chorus of DAP and PKR stalwarts arguing about the dismissal or entry of PAS into Pakatan Harapan.

It is ironic if not comical that at a time when Umno is being rejected by so many Malays for all the right reasons : corruption, inept leaders and that most common of Umno's affliction - greed and arrogance - the opposition are inconveniently occupied with their own political survival!

All that Najib has schemed - the incarceration of Anwar Ibrahim, the tempting of PAS with the promise of support for Hudud and other worldly political temptations that makes those ulamas within PAS dream of political power at national level - all has come to its successful and planned conclusions! Pakatan Rakyat is no more and PAS has been outed for what we have always known for it to be - an opportunistic religious entity cloaked in politics.

I hope to God that I am wrong about Pakatan Harapan. But if the opposition cannot upend Umno at its weakest for the past half a century with an inept president who has presented the opposition with so many fait accompli that should have heralded his and Umno's political demise many time over -I doubt if Pakatan Harapan without Anwar Ibrahim can do much. 

But the reality is that beggars cannot be choosers. 

If all we have for now is Pakatan Harapan then what are we to do but to hope for the best and fall in behind them and hope that eternal damnation is not that far off for Umno. If God himself will not answer our prayers for ABU (Anything but UMNO), do you think Pakatan Harapan can?