PETALING JAYA: By the end of the PKR congress in Melaka at the weekend, it was clear that party president Anwar Ibrahim ruled the roost – albeit a divided one – with the assembly hall resounding with cheers for him and jeers for his rivals.
One after the other, speakers at the youth and national congresses repeated their support, mantra-like, for Anwar as the country’s 8th prime minister, while taking veiled jabs against his critics, who were labelled as “traitors”.
If it was not obvious that these jibes were aimed at deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali and his key allies, vice-presidents Zuraida Kamaruddin and Tian Chua, then confirmation could be heard in the boos from the 80% of delegates present at the mention of the other leaders’ names.
For now, Anwar has come out on top in the long-simmering rift with Azmin and supporters, but questions remain if this success will count for much.
Two political analysts, James Chin and Azmi Hassan, separately believe that the ugly scenes at the congress – brawls between two PKR Youth factions, and a walkout by Azmin and his supporters – only further dent Anwar’s dreams of becoming prime minister, as agreed by Pakatan Harapan leaders before the 2018 general election.
Chin, from the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, says Anwar had shown that he commands majority support in his party and that he can be a “strongman”, but the public would doubt if Anwar can run the country “when he can’t even ensure unity in his own party”.
He believes the rift in PKR runs so deep that it dominated the congress and overshadowed important elements of Anwar’s speech on reforms.
Chin says a compromise will be needed for party unity, and Azmin, with less support among party members, would probably need to back off for a while.
However Azmi Hassan of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia believes the split has reached the point of no return and that Azmin still retains formidable support, as seen in the holding of a dinner Sunday night, ostensibly about the 2030 Shared Prosperity Vision policy, but which was viewed as a rival party congress.
“The chances of Anwar becoming prime minister are looking dimmer by the day. Anwar doesn’t just need the support from his own members, he needs the support of the people”. However,his public credibility would have been affected by the PKR fiasco.
The national congress should have been PKR’s platform to show its strength as the largest party in Pakatan Harapan and set out its future direction on national policies, but the opposite happened, reflecting poorly on its leadership.
Expert Cited
