COMMENT On Thursday, PAS spiritual leader Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat passed away. His passing came less than a year since DAP national chairperson Karpal Singh’s passing from a tragic car accident in Perak in April 2014.

Karpal and Nik Aziz were two visionary leaders whose strong ideologies shook those in power from BN and amassed huge followings for both DAP and PAS respectively. The two men did not see eye-to-eye of course, when it came to DAP’s secular state ambitions and PAS’ Islamic state ambitions.

Nevertheless, they retained great respect for each other’s persistence, and they had more in common than they would have cared to admit. Then in 2008, one man got the two men to meet eye-to-eye and finally, they agreed to focus on their commonalities rather than differences.

That man was Anwar Ibrahim. And Pakatan Rakyat, in its current form, was born. Anwar today is behind bars at the Sungai Buloh prison and is likely to remain there for at least another three years of his five-year sentence following a sodomy conviction.

An entire generation of iconic opposition leaders are now no longer leading the charge, bar a couple of individuals such as DAP supremo Lim Kit Siang and PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang ( left ), although the latter no longer seems focused on the strength of Pakatan Rakyat.

The contributions of these men to the opposition movement can never be overstated.

In a country so accustomed to having a single party run the affairs of the whole nation while controlling every facet of information, these leaders preserved in political parties and ideologies that initially held very little clout among the general electorate - before finally inspiring their coalition to win the popular votes in the GE13.

Having denied the two-thirds majority for BN twice in a row, they had successfully established a two-party system and a check-and-balance in the country, though BN - still in denial - refuses to acknowledge the extra space it must give to a credible opposition.

Political giants

They won five states in 2008, and three in 2013. The clamour for change is no longer in street slogans alone, but now they have the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities in states being governed by Pakatan.

These were political giants who pulled in crowds by just having their names mentioned. People intently waited to listen to what Anwar Ibrahim, Karpal Singh or Nik Aziz had to say. They looked up to these men, as icons and leaders, as the men who set the direction in this bid to install change in the country.

But now that these men will no longer take the centre stages, Pakatan Rakyat, and the masses who had been looking up at these men, must now look at themselves.

Of course, they could also crumble without these giants pulling the strings. But for the movement to sustain, the whole approach of politics will now need to change - a movement must become more collective than it was before.

“In DAP, we have different people with different strengths in various areas. No one is great on their own; but together, we can make a great team.

"We have someone who’s good when it comes to finance issues, someone who is good for legal issues, and so forth,” DAP’s Liew Chin Tong ( right ), a political scientist, said.

And he admitted that it is now dusk for icon politics.

DAP and PKR had often prided themselves in having prepared a second and third tier of capable leaders across the board, especially with DAP currently being largely represented by youths in their 20s and 30s.

PAS, however, does seem to have a genuine problem in preparing young professional leaders, as they struggle to come to terms with their own direction as a party - whether they want to champion their own causes of hudud and an Islamic state, or whether they want to do it within the Pakatan framework.

Differences had threatened to break Pakatan apart in the months preceding Anwar’s incarceration. Yet they are still alive, albeit in a state of complete inertia.

Even the likes of Anwar and Nik Aziz were unable, in recent times, to get the coalition partners to iron out issues within the confines of a meeting room instead of liberally issuing statements attacking each other through the media.

Is is now time for the second and third tier of these parties to step up and work collectively to keep the movement going. Anwar’s incarceration could be a reminder for Pakatan about their common enemy - and a reminder of their commonalities.

'Pakatan's new lease of life'

“In a way, Anwar’s incarceration has given a new lease of life to Pakatan. We need to use this opportunity to band together stronger than before, because we have a common enemy.

"But can Pakatan step up to the challenge, seize the moment and provide hope for the nation?” DAP’s Klang MP Charles Santiago ( left ) asked.

Pakatan now needs to go beyond these icons and allow the next generation of leaders to set the course - not individually, but collectively.

Iconic personalities might not be there at the forefront leading the charge anymore, but the landscape has changed enough to have not one leader of the force, but several leaders forming the first line.

This is also a reminder for Malaysians - they can no longer look up. The icons will remain icons, but what’s left now is the path and the ample space they had opened and left for the younger generations of Malaysians.

Many have celebrated these icons and even revered them. But instead of being followers expecting their leaders to show the way, Malaysians need to start looking at themselves to collectively charter the path they want the country to go in.

Now, the movement for change must truly take a life of its own, beyond Anwar Ibrahim, and beyond even Pakatan Rakyat for that matter.

For that to happen, Malaysians - be it young politicians or the activist on the street - must stop looking for leaders to follow, and instead find comrades who share their ideologies. The people must take ownership of this movement.

The era of looking up the dais is coming to a close; now is the time to look in the mirror. If people fail beyond this moment, the blame rests squarely at our own feet.

Would we be able to think past our own preoccupations and daily complaints, and think about the betterment of a nation together?

RAM ANAND is a member of the Malaysiakini team.