PETALING JAYA: Rafizi Ramli’s thumping win in the PKR elections shows that party members are yearning for a change in leadership, a political analyst said after he took an imposing lead in the race to be the new deputy president.
Rafizi had secured 67,895 votes by 8.30pm last night, beating his rival Saifuddin Nasution who obtained 48,797 votes, after results from all states and federal territories, except Sarawak, had been tallied.
Political scientist Azmi Hassan of Akademi Nusantara said recent state assembly elections had shown that PKR president Anwar Ibrahim needed a strong deputy – “one who can inject different ideas into the party”.
Azmi said the current perception is that Saifuddin is closely aligned to Anwar.
“This is probably why members are leaning towards Rafizi,” he told FMT.
Azmi noted that Rafizi was openly against the “big tent” concept of coalition building espoused by Anwar to bring all opposition parties together against Barisan Nasional at the next general election.
Rafizi has said in April that he was against the idea, citing the “Sheraton Move” of February 2020 which resulted in Pakatan Harapan being betrayed by Bersatu, which was then a coalition partner.
Policy analyst Oh Ei Sun of the Singapore Institute of International Affairs agreed that PKR’s rank and file wanted overall reforms which, hopefully, could revive the party.
Universiti Sains Malaysia lecturer Azmil Tayeb said the PKR election results show that members were looking for “someone outside of Anwar’s mould” to take over the president’s mantle when he retires.
“It’s about time PKR steps out of Anwar’s shadow and strikes a new path that’s not beholden to Anwar becoming prime minister.” Azmil said the push for Anwar to become prime minister had stifled dissent in the party and hindered alternative views from being aired. - FMT
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