Anwar is Pakatan’s right choice for PM

To stop concerted attempts to break up the opposition coalition, Pakatan leaders must decide once and for all who should lead, and it's obvious who the candidate is.

COMMENT

Amidst the display of greed among some opposition members on the issue of the next Prime Minister of Malaysia, it is certain that the man to lead Pakatan Rakyat (PR) in the elections should be its most popular figure.

There is little doubt who the man is who can lead the country towards the path for change. The thorns in the flanks of Pakatan, however, are not its political enemies but the leader’s nemesis who are acting as ‘resident evils’.

Several Pakatan members launched a controversial debate on who should lead PR after the 13th general election, ignoring the wishes of the people on the ground. In the past weeks, PR has generated the expected large crowds in its recent rallies.

Will PAS or DAP leaders come forward and tell the public that it is them and not Anwar Ibrahim who is behind this surge in support? If people are flocking to the rallies to listen to Pakatan, it due to the maestro of PKR who is the major crowd puller.

If shamelessness has no borders and limits, then we will surely see some of trouble makers coming forward to claim they are the ones behind the massive support PR is generating!

However, the rise in tempo against Anwar’s leadership in PR is a not a simple ploy by some greedy people to do a ‘coup d’etat’ in the coalition. The whole episode has to do with a lack of certainty on the position of Anwar within PR itself.

While the PKR sees Anwar as the sole candidate to lead PR and bring change – and they have excellent reasons to stick to this plan – the other coalition partners have been tip-toeing into a morass.

The absence of a declaration of leadership roles within the loose coalition is the number one reason for the claims by other partners to snatch the PM post after the polls. The fact that BN is wooing PAS to join a so called ‘Islamic’ coalition is a major factor in this crisis.

PR needs to lay down its leadership strategy in its pursuit of Putrajaya. In the minds of a large majority of the people, it is Anwar’s name which comes first as the potential PM.

He is expected to lead the coalition during the polls campaign and also declared as the PM in waiting. In the event PR decides to push forward such an agenda, which will be a popular one, the impact will be tremendous and the chances for PR taking power will be greater.

At least, this is what a majority of the public is thinking and it will be incredible if such a popular wish is not granted.

Pakatan must decide

At this juncture in Malaysian politics, it is clear that Anwar is the leader in PR. It is also evident that he is leading the pack of leaders from the PKR, PAS and the DAP.

What is not clear though is why some PR leaders are showing their greed and lack of tact and respect in publicising their ‘dreams’. Not that they are not entitled to such dreams but they are far from being the next ‘Martin Luther King’ in history!

With some of the PAS leaders kowtowing to the tune of the anti-Anwar lobby, they are allowing their opponents in power to drive a dangerous wedge between the coalition partners within PR.

It is not possible that the campaign to decide whether the PAS should have its leader as PM or not was not well crafted from above within PAS itself.

It is also impossible to believe that the PAS leadership was not aware that the gambit to seize the PM post within PR before elections are even called, was done with a specific goal in mind. And that goal is probably an attempt to ‘hijack’ the next electoral tsunami.

In the meantime, the DAP too was foraging into the controversy by raising the divisive issue of a non Muslim PM. Now that its has died down, it is hoped the DAP rallies itself behind Anwar. It is also hoped that the PAS buries its flimsy hopes of leading the nation with biggest wins in the polls and follow the leadership of Anwar.

In order to destroy the opponent’s drive to divide PR, its leaders must sit and decide once and for all on who should lead the grouping during the poll campaigns. To the masses who are following PR campaigns closely, it obvious that Anwar remains the ultimate candidate. Do any of the other Pakatan leaders have the courage to deny this publicly?

It is also a fact that not many among the leaders of PR are either capable or have the creed and charisma to be the next PM. Some have argued that Anwar, due to the numerous accusations against him can be labeled as ‘tainted’ while other leaders in PR are seen as ‘clean’.

Such talks are purely selfish. It is who the people want to lead their country and who the masses want as the leader of the Pakatan coalition who should be the PM in making.

It is not the dream talk or the dreamed ‘purity’ factors of some leaders that will affect the poll results. It is Anwar, voted by PR as the one to lead the electoral battle, who should hold the job as the top shot of the country after a PR victory in the next GE.

Ali Cordoba writes extensively on local politics.