The statement by Asri that Anwar Ibrahim is not relevant to the opposition cause is quite surprising from an ulama whose intellectual credentials have shown great promise and hope for Malaysia.

He has failed to take an objective look of the genesis and birth of Pakatan Rakyat, where Anwar played a key role of what we call today a strong opposition, where voice and aspiration of civil society and human rights groups for a balance of power over the years have come to a certain fulfilment even though imperfect. Since the Pakatan Rakyat is still in the evolving and maturing process, the leadership of Anwar is still relevant.        

It is from this back drop that the relevance of Anwar Ibrahim should have been analysed besides the flaws of his leadership in the party where great factionalism is present as proven in the current PKR election.

The relevance of Anwar Leadership is also significant where one analyses the justice system through the lens of equality, where the powerful such as the prime minister and his deputy and those who are aligned to them are immune from proper and accountable investigation, which are clearly seen from the cases of Altantuya’s murder to the use of money and government facilities during elections, the Lingam scandal that has made Malaysia's investigative and legal institution an International laughing stock, while the sodomy trial is pursued relentlessly even though questions of natural justice related to transparency for a just trial have been denied.

So in which way is the opposition leader not relevant?

Therefore it is time to nurture the democratic process in this country to become more enlightened, just, egalitarian and bottom up so that if leaders like Anwar or Najib is considered irrelevant, they would be easy to remove.

This is the critical area that Asri and all Anwar critics should fight for because a top down elitist politics is a menace to this country whether it comes from the ruling coalition or Pakatan Rakyat.

Malaysia should not be a place for powerful elites to control the democratic process without accountability.