While the cordial courtroom meeting between former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and his nemesis Dr Mahathir Mohamad is unprecedented, PKR vice president Mohd Rafizi Ramli said it remains to be seen whether this would have any tangible outcome.

“There have been a series of events that you’d thought would never happen. But in terms of how it affects society and the political scenario, it is actually quite arbitrary.

“I have gone through that experience going through the Sungai Besar and Kuala Kangsar (by-elections)," said Rafizi.

He was speaking to reporters in Kuala Lumpur last night after hosting the first of his dialogue series with military veterans, where he was asked to comment on the friendly courtroom encounter between Anwar and Mahathir on Monday.

Mahathir had campaigned for the opposition in the Kuala Kangsar and Sungai Besar by-elections in June, but this had not led to a BN defeat or an increase in votes for the opposition.

“I am a ‘numbers guy’, and I have to rely on empirical evidence.

"I actually do not know, and I do not want to speculate how (the encounter) is going to affect the outcome.

"I’d suppose like everyone else, I’ll be as anxious to see whether or not it will lead to anything good,” Rafizi said.

Although Mahathir has joined hands with the opposition since breaking ranks with Umno and Prime Minister Najib Razak, the former premier had until the historic meet remained critical of Anwar's past.

The warm encounter on Monday therefore surprised many.

Wary of political fatigue

Rafizi meanwhile explained he had been shying away from speculating or commenting on such matters, because he is worried about becoming distracted from "real issues" such as the plight of the veterans.

“At the end of the day, it should be every single individual who decides the fate of the country, and not what the elites, the politicians, parties, and vested interests think they can colour things […]

“The suffering and the difficulties on the ground is real. After a while, people would feel extremely detached from the elites.

"We risk changing everything to just a power play between elites.

“Therefore whatever we do, whatever signals, we have to go back to the real concerns,” he said.

Otherwise, he said there would be political fatigue amongst the people.

Uncharted territory

The Pandan MP likewise declined to speculate on what impact the Mahathir-Anwar meeting would have on PKR supporters.

This is in view of the party being formed in the wake of Mahathir’s sacking of Anwar as then deputy prime minister in 1998.

Rafizi pointed out this, too, is uncharted territory with no precedence to serve as a guide.