PETALING JAYA: A political scientist says PKR likely remains split after its fractious polls despite the embrace by fierce rivals Rafizi Ramli and Mohamed Azmin Ali at the party’s convention over the weekend.
Speaking to FMT, Andrew Aeria said PKR president Anwar Ibrahim’s immediate challenge would be to unify the factions within the party.
“With an electoral process that was deeply compromised by serious irregularities, PKR’s talk of reforms now rings hollow,” he said when asked to comment on the outcome of the party polls and recently concluded convention.
Aeria said PKR was now reaping what it sowed as it had not invested enough in educating its members or building up party institutions but focused only on displacing Barisan Nasional.
“Anwar now needs to focus on institutional strengthening of the party and educating its members on democracy. Genuine ideological development is needed,” said Aeria, a former Universiti Malaysia Sarawak academic.
However, he said this may be challenging as Anwar had been seen by some quarters as taking sides during the party polls.
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James Chin of the University of Tasmania said the outcome of the polls, which saw those linked to deputy president Azmin winning most of the positions, would have significant implications for Rafizi’s faction.
“How can they function when all the key posts are under Azmin’s faction? How do you rebuild inside the party? That is why you hear rumours that they will leave the party.”
Chin said it was up to Anwar to heal the rifts in the party adding however that to do so, Rafizi must be given some measure of authority, either through a by-election or senatorship.
He said Rafizi could not be ignored as he commanded nearly half of the votes within the party.
Universiti Malaya’s Awang Azman Pawi said PKR leaders and members must accept that they would be under a more firm and decisive leadership under Anwar, compared to former president Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail who was deemed “softer” and more willing to “give face” to all parties.
He also said there was no issue of the party leadership being dominated by Azmin’s “people” as there were no longer camps in the party as pointed out by Anwar in his speech at the convention.
“Now, Anwar is the leader of all in PKR.”
However, Awang Azman said he expected Anwar to appoint certain people to certain positions in the party’s leadership, which would erase the perception that the party is controlled by Azmin’s “people”.
“I expect after the appointments, the party’s leadership will comprise mostly of those who are loyal to Anwar.”
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