Anwar: No Umno culture in PKR but maybe some Trojan horses

Anwar Ibrahim

Wong Choon Mei, Malaysia Chronicle

In highly-significant remarks, PKR de-facto head Anwar Ibrahim warned rival factions to cool it in the run-up to his party’s historic direct elections, refuting allegations that PKR had “Umno culture” but acknowledged that "Trojan horses" may have found their way in.

While Anwar did not name any one, FT Chief Zaid Ibrahim has openly accused PKR of possessing Umno qualities even as he himself is being suspected by other members of being a possible Umno mole.

Zaid is locked in a bitter struggle against long-serving vice president Azmin Ali for the PKR deputy presidency. All three men – Anwar, Azmin and Zaid – were former Umno members but Anwar and Azmin left Umno in 1998, while Zaid resigned in 2008.

Unsurprisingly, many PKR members have viewed Zaid's accusations as enigmatic and suspicious, given that amongst the three men, he possibly has the greatest affiliation to Umno especially since he only cut ties with it less than two years ago.

“The criticism that there is an emergence of 'Umno culture' in the campaign for party positions is unfounded. At the same time, we cannot rule out entirely the possibility of Trojan horses having found their way in," Anwar said in a statement issued on Friday.

Nyanyuk-nyanyu

He also slammed “certain leaders” for using “very harsh words” that he warned were unnecessary and could only dent PKR’s prestige in the eyes of the public.

The very popular and humble Syed Husin

"The run-up to the party elections has seen some very harsh words coming from certain leaders in a fashion not befitting the position they aspire to be in," said Anwar.

"The candidates have their right to present their agendas and to campaign. But it should not be open season. All this should be conducted within the bounds of decency, decorum and civility. There are house rules to be observed. This is why we have an independent elections committee.”

According to PKR watchers, it was clear that Anwar was concerned at Zaid's bizarre behavior. Not only has the former Law Minister been attacking PKR on his blog and in public comments to the media, he crossed the line earlier this week when he reportedly called outgoing deputy president Syed Husin Ali nyanyuk or senile.

Zaid later said he was misquoted and the word he had actually used was nyanyu or talking nonsense or gibberish. But pundits said it may be even worse.

“Put yourself in Syed Husin’s shoes. Someone publicly calls you senile. Then the next day he again publicly says, oops not senile but talking nonsense. Is this less insulting or more insulting,” the pundit told Malaysia Chronicle.

Pakatan not spared

When Zaid joined PKR in 2008, he brought in a breath of fresh air but since then, apart from espousing liberal views, there has been little concrete action from him.Within PKR, he hardly mixed and kept company with businessman John Soh and Sabah chief Jeffrey Kitingan.

Although his supporters have been quick to credit him for establishing the Pakatan Rakyat’s common policy framework, his critics say he was only one of a large team that had worked tirelessly on it.

Zaid in happier times with Anwar, Husin, Sivarasa

On Thursday, he began attacking the Pakatan, accusing it of being politically immature by not supporting Prime Minister Najib Razak in pushing 3 'sensitive' bills through Parliament. The three bills were the Law Reform (Marriage and Divorce) Act 1976, the Administration of Islamic Law Act 1993, and the Islamic Family Law Act 1984.

But Pakatan lawmakers told Malaysia Chronicle that the bills had contained several controversial clauses that were heavily opposed by NGOs and parent groups.

One clause allowed a child to be converted to a religion with the consent of only one parent, whereas Pakatan and the civil rights groups had insisted that consent must come from both parents. Another controversial provision was that a non-Muslim wife whose husband had converted to Islam would lose all her civil rights for maintenance support, and instead be restricted to three months of maintenance.

“I can only wonder at Zaid’s motivation for criticizing Pakatan over these three bills. If he thinks that Pakatan should have closed an eye to those clauses and supported BN in hammering the bills through, then he should ask the stakeholders what they think. See whether they agree with him,” PKR vice president Sivarasa Rasiah told Malaysia Chronicle.