From rarified leader to raring to go, from distracted observer to ready-for-the-trenches battler - that was PKR supremo Anwar Ibrahim’s transformation in the space of a week.

A kinetic week for him began with a stern reminder to a PKR convention in Penang that state bosses can dissent within the party but once a decision is made, all hands must be on deck with a sense of collective responsibility.

He reasserted the theme at another meeting of party stalwarts in Kota Bharu, calling on PKR’s elected representatives to get down to brass tacks and respond to the needs of the people.

NONE Anwar renewed his call for elected representatives for tighter party discipline and greater rapport with the people in Ipoh when opening the new headquarters for the Perak chapter of PKR.

The hyper week for Anwar reached a climax of sorts with the announcement that he was taking a frontal role in the PKR-led government in Selangor with his appointment as its economic adviser .

The week’s cymbals-clashing crescendo was achieved in Selangor when he told a party convention that it was at battle stations to repel the purported attempt by BN to topple the PKR-led state government.

NONE In a matter of a week, Anwar shifted from Hamlet-like captive of indecision to a general sounding the bugle and leading the charge.

It was a pro-active shift PKR barons were wanting from him for the better part of a year when troubles stemming from the failure 14 months ago to trigger, as touted, a change in the federal government through crossovers of government backbenchers spawned incipient doubts about his leadership mettle.

Anwar’s triumphant return to Parliament from his bailiwick of Permatang Pauh in late August 2008 had brought to a crest his stature as Malaysia’s inevitable prime minster, after being primarily responsible the previous March for the opposition’s success at denying the BN its hitherto impregnable two-thirds majority.

However, the luster began to pall when the much-touted crossovers did not take place.

The following February, matters really boomeranged on him and Pakatan Rakyat, the opposition coalition he leads, when three Pakatan legislators bolted the stable in Perak and caused a change of government whose status is mired in a legal battle. No less than DAP’s Karpal Singh angrily called for Pakatan to look for another majordomo.

The goings-on in Perak and his personal predicament arising from an accusation of sodomy leveled by a former aide contributed to an air of distraction about the PKR supremo, which he made worse by a seeming reluctance to take action within the party against mavericks and recalcitrants.

Strained intra-Pakatan relations

Meanwhile, among PKR’s 31 MPs in Parliament, there grew cracks and resentments, a consequence of the elitist airs shed by a gang of eight MPs affecting to have the inside track to cabinet appointments should a Pakatan government take power at the federal level.

This grated on PKR MPs not so favoured. They vented their spleen recently on Sivarasa Rasiah – a member of the reportedly smug elite - after he publicly divined who Anwar was actually targeting when the party supremo had warned of action against recalcitrant MPs.

NONE In Selangor, PKR Menteri Besar Khalid Ibrahim appears to forget that politics is also about jobs, incentives and rewards for the party faithful, particularly those who had endured deprivation for their fidelity to PKR during the 10-year period of its existence prior to its sudden eminence in March 2008.

Understandably, Khalid is not quite sensitive to this reality, having been an Umno-favoured poster boy for the lush benefits of the NEP.

Naturally, Khalid became the target of snide remarks and sneers from PKR underlings who regard him as an epitome of unreformed Umno within PKR. It was only a matter of time before his faults, imagined and real, was bandied about.

Furthermore, Khalid did his cause no favours by being maladroit in coping with the machinations of Dr Hasan Ali, the maverick PAS executive councilor, whose flagrant acts of grandstanding strained intra-Pakatan relations.

The discord within PKR, coupled with the latest allegations of wealth amassing on the part of party bigwig Azmin Ali, provide the backdrop against which a refulgent Anwar Ibrahim has to act.

He has to show he means what he says by backing it up with matching deeds. He has banged the gavel and called the party to readiness for battle. Not much gravity would be accorded that act without he himself demonstrably cracking down on PKR’s mavericks and recalcitrants.

That way they would know he means business, alas.