Having secured victory at the polls, a political mandate must be sustained by good leadership. And once obtained, political momentum can nevertheless dissipate quickly from the lack of direction.

These two slivers of cautionary wisdom were driven home by PKR leader Anwar Ibrahim in a clarion call to arms made to about 200 of the party’s parliamentarians, state assemblypersons and division leaders from throughout the country at a special meeting in Shah Alam today.

anwar ibrahim special briefing 280209 The occasion was originally supposed to have been an extraordinary party congress in Alor Star to approve amendments to PKR constitution aimed at converting a once fledgling entity to the more rationalised structures of a national party that enjoys the largest number of seats in the parliamentary opposition.

The party has also achieved dominance in one state government (Selangor) and partnerships in two others (Penang and Kedah). A partnership in a third state government (Perak) however is the subject of a wrangle that has since shifted to the courts.

In fact, tawdry details of this episode prompted the need to call the party’s leadership corps into session today. These details were seen to reflect poorly on PKR’s ideological and structural coherence, especially after a spot of internecine feuding among second echelon leaders in Selangor state.

Then the defections of two legislators in Perak, the revolving door entry-and-exit into PKR of an Umno legislator, the resignation of one state assemblyperson in Kedah and an offer to quit by another in Selangor - both caught in morally dubious personal situations - compounded the impression of a party in crisis.

Thus the latest session of its leadership corps called for a stately speech by its iconic leader to lift the party above the questions that have revolved troublingly around it in recent weeks.

The central one was: Does PKR have the leadership calibre to usher in political change in Malaysian politics?

Persist with the message of Ketuanan Rakyat

Anwar, admittedly not the most objective of respondents, was unequivocal: “No Malaysian, from Perlis to Johor and across the shores to Sabah and Sarawak should have any doubt about what Keadilan stands for nor the quality and capability of its leaders.”

anwar ibrahim special briefing 280209 crowd He raised the mantle of Ketuanan Rakyat (people’s sovereignty), a rallying cry that his party had coined to contrast its egalitarian agenda with the Ketuanan Melayu (Malay dominance) slogan of its main adversary, Umno.

Anwar urged PKR leaders to persist with the message of Ketuanan Rakyat which he has turned into a catch cry whose analogue in Tamil is ‘Makkal Sakhti’ (people’s power), made popular by Hindraf, and which he now blends with the Confusion saying, ‘Si hai zhi nie jie xiong di’ (Within the four seas, all men are brothers), dovetailing it with the Quranic ‘li-ta’arafu’, which holds that humankind’s racial diversity reflects the divine wish for the unity of homosapiens.

In short, Ketuanan Rakyat will tie Malaysia’s tapestry of cultures, languages and religions into a single garment of common destiny, eliding all weaknesses behind one transcending virtue: national unity.

“The message of Ketuanan Rakyat is our message to the people. It should inspire them and strengthen their belief in a brighter future,” said Anwar.

“By our example they should be compelled to be active in their communities, to register to vote, to become members of our party and to motivate their family and friends to join Keadilan as well.”

Renew PKR’s commitment to the rakyat

For the second time in a fortnight (the first in Parliament early last week), Anwar took the opportunity to explain and endorse the concept of constitutional monarchy, borrowing from Edmund Burke and Bernard Mandeville, 18th century exponents of statecraft that sought to balance grants of authority with chastening mechanisms.

Anwar held up the theory of circumscribed powers as the basis of constitutional monarchy and government and mocked Umno’s new concoction of race, religion and royalty as an emotive return to the narrow and feudal thinking of a benighted past.

He urged PKR leaders to renew their commitment to the people on the eve of the first anniversary of the opposition’s success in denying the BN a two-thirds majority in Parliament and the capture of four state legislatures in addition to retaining control in an existing one.

“We believe that politics is about service. In serving we are accountable to each other and our supporters,” he said.

He firmly placed this service within a moral framework on which he would emblazon the words of former Czech president Vaclav Havel, a leader who agonised over how to reconcile the imperatives of morality with the devices of politics.

“Those who find themselves in politics therefore bear a heightened responsibility for the moral state of society, and it is their responsibility to seek out the best in that society, to develop and strengthen it,” Anwar quoted from Havel’s essay ‘Paradise Lost’.

In making the speech today, the PKR leader hoped to rally his party’s leaders to face testing times against an Umno leadership that believes in attack as the best form of defense, which posed new threats to the future of PKR and, by extension, Pakatan Rakyat.