Anwar is expendable, PKR is not

PKR must 'ready' itself to lead the Pakatan Rakyat charge with or without Anwar Ibrahim.

COMMENT

The future of PKR is a shared responsibility. It is not only the concern of PKR members but also all of us who have not forgotten what Anwar Ibrahim has done towards the cause of putting together a credible opposition to give Barisan Nasional a run for its money.

Without Anwar there would have been no Pakatan Rakyat.

Without Anwar there would not have been that much hope in our hearts for regime change and an end to 53 years of abuse by that bully named Umno.

Without Anwar we could not today talk about momentous change that could possibly come in the coming 13th general election.

But our responsibility is not to Anwar alone.

Our responsibility is to his cause, his stated ideals and keeping alive the hope that he gave us for a better future for the people of our nation.

The question now is this: When does my responsibility towards “supporting” Anwar – the individual – ends and when does my responsibility to ensuring the relevancy of his “vision” and PKR to our future starts?

It is a fine line to tread but I will tread it with the conviction that PKR and Anwar are two separate entities.

One cannot eat off the other. In essence, what I am saying is this: if Anwar becomes a liability to the wellbeing of PKR, then our responsibility to PKR and to Anwar is to ensure that minimal harm is done to PKR.

Anwar is expendable. PKR is not!

Anwar in prison?

What now lies ahead for Anwar?

Prime Minister Najib Tun Razak, his deputy Muhyiddin Yassin, former premier Dr Mahathir Mohamad, Umno and Barisan Nasional can dismiss the future of Anwar with one word – prison.

You, PKR, Pakatan Rakyat and me… we cannot!

This man has run the gauntlet for our cause once too many times for us to abandon him now. He needs our support not for him personally, but for what he has created – PKR and Pakatan.

Gauntlet is described in the dictinary as “a punishment formerly used in the military in which somebody was forced to run between two lines of men armed with weapons who beat him up as he passed”.

Najib and BN will put him (Anwar) in prison. You, PKR, Pakatan and me – we will free him from prison.

Not by breaking any prison walls but by winning the 13th general election for Pakatan and making the business of freeing him from prison the first order of business for the incoming Pakatan government.

PKR must ready itself

What lies ahead for PKR? There is only one word for PKR to embrace – clarity. PKR must have clarity of thought, clarity of vision and clarity of purpose.

The first business of PKR now is to understand its place in the order of things, that is, in the opposition.

DAP and PAS will anchor Pakatan. PKR then must ready itself to lead Pakatan. The operative word here is “ready itself” to lead.

Without Anwar, PKR cannot lead Pakatan. But without Anwar, PKR must still lead Pakatan.

If PKR is not yet ready to do so now, then it must ready itself to do so from now.

CT Ali is a reformist who believes in Pakatan Rakyat’s ideologies. He is a FMT columnist.