The recent public spat between PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy Mohamed Azmin Ali is a sign of yet more factional infighting within PKR.
Unless Anwar addresses this soon, analysts believe this will derail PKR from the reform agenda and even affect the ruling coalition Pakatan Harapan.
UKM associate professor Faisal S Hazis said Anwar’s recent trading of barbs with Azmin on social media did little to mend rifts in the party.
“He (Anwar) is ready to go for an open battle with Azmin which is not good for PKR and not good for the whole of the coalition.
“He needs to do something drastic or else this will just escalate into something worse and it could go on to a really messy power struggle within PKR.
“[...] the whole focus of the party has been diverted. PKR is basically the biggest party within the coalition, but it is not showing that it is the strongest party because Anwar himself is having problems in taking control of the party,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.
Last Friday, Anwar had announced a slew of new appointees to the party leadership council and many were aligned to Rafizi Ramli (below), who himself was co-opted as a vice-president.
Azmin then took to his Facebook page to air his disagreement, saying this did not reflect the principle of “fair or just representation” and that certain appointments did not appear to be made based on merit.
In response, Anwar defended his appointments as being “inclusive” and took to Twitter to make a veiled remark about Azmin who is the Economic Affairs Minister.
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Anwar needs to balance factions
Political analyst James Chin, who heads the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania in Australia, similarly believes that Anwar ought to be focusing on mediating party factions but added that Azmin, too, had to get in line.
“Azmin must also play his cards properly as he knows he cannot challenge Anwar directly for now. Anwar still controls the bulk of the membership,” he said.
While he saw reasons for Azmin’s dissatisfaction, Chin said he also noted Anwar’s need to be inclusive with his appointments.
“People should not be surprised that Azmin is protesting the appointments. After all, the key position of secretary general was given back to the same person whom he thinks was openly biased against his group during the party elections.
“(But) I think Anwar wanted competing factions (in the leadership). The truth is that you cannot ignore Rafizi Ramli’s faction since he almost got half the party's votes,” said Chin.
In his public statement, Azmin had specifically said that the secretary- general's post should be helmed by someone who did not follow “the interest of individuals”.
Saifuddin Nasution (below), who was retained as secretary-general, had backed Rafizi to be deputy president during the party elections late last year.
Rafizi eventually lost to Azmin by a marginal 2,905 votes out of the total 140,635 votes cast.
A warning from Azmin?
Faisal, however, said Azmin was sounding the alarm that he was prepared to continue challenging his long-time mentor Anwar.
“He took this up a notch by making his criticism public. Which is unprecedented for him being an Anwar loyalist.
“And I think this is maybe just an alarm, he is sending out an alarm to Anwar that he will not take this lying down [...] he is cautioning Anwar that he can go further than this,” he said.
Such a bold move could have only been made by someone who was not only pushed to his limit, but who was also sufficiently sure of his support in the party, added the academic.
“I think he (Azmin) feels quite confident that he has the support of the party members and most of the party leaders. That’s why he is willing to do this,” Faisal said.
Following Azmin’s comments, allies like Wanita PKR chief Haniza Talha, Wanita PKR vice-chief Sangeetha Jayakumar and PKR Youth vice-chief Mohd Nazree Mohd Yunus echoedhis call for the appointments to be reviewed. - Mkini
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