PKR infighting may worsen if Anwar doesn't act, say analysts
The recent public spat between PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy Mohamed Azmin Ali is a sign of yet more factional infighting within the party, which analysts believe could derail its reform agenda.
Unless Anwar addresses this soon, they say, it could even affect the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition.
According to UKM associate professor Faisal S Hazis, Anwar’s recent trading of barbs with Azmin on social media has done little to mend rifts in the party...
The recent public spat between PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and his deputy Mohamed Azmin Ali is a sign of yet more factional infighting within the party, which analysts believe could derail its reform agenda.
Unless Anwar addresses this soon, they say, it could even affect the ruling Pakatan Harapan coalition.
According to UKM associate professor Faisal S Hazis, Anwar’s recent trading of barbs with Azmin on social media has done little to mend rifts in the party.
“He (Anwar) is ready to go for an open battle with Azmin, which is not good for PKR and not good for the whole of the coalition.
“He needs to do something drastic, or else this will just escalate into something worse, and could go on to become a really messy power struggle within PKR. The whole focus of the party has been diverted.
"PKR is basically the biggest party within the coalition, but it is not showing this, because Anwar himself is having problems in taking control of the party,” he told Malaysiakini when contacted.
Last Friday, Anwar announced a slew of new appointees to the party leadership council – many of whom were aligned to Rafizi Ramli, who himself was co-opted as a vice-president.
Azmin then took to his Facebook page to air his disagreement, saying this did not reflect the principle of “fair or just representation” and that certain appointments did not appear to be made based on merit.
In response, Anwar defended his appointments as being “inclusive” and took to Twitter to make a veiled remark about Azmin, the economic affairs minister.
Anwar needs to balance factions
This was echoed by political analyst James Chin of the Asia Institute at the University of Tasmania, who believes that Anwar should be focusing on mediating party factions.
Chin added that Azmin also has to get in line.
“Azmin must also play his cards properly as he knows he cannot challenge Anwar directly for now. Anwar still controls the bulk of the membership,” he said.
While Chin saw reasons for Azmin’s dissatisfaction, he also noted the necessity of Anwar being inclusive with his appointments.
“People should not be surprised that Azmin is protesting the appointments. After all, the key position of secretary-general was given back to the same person whom he thinks was openly biased against his group during the party elections.
“(But) I think Anwar wanted competing factions (in the leadership). The truth is that you cannot ignore Rafizi's faction, since he almost got half the party's votes,” he said.
In his public statement, Azmin had zeroed in on the secretary-general's post, saying that it should be helmed by someone who did not follow “the interest of individuals.”
Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, who was retained as secretary-general, had backed Rafizi to be deputy president during the party elections late last year.
Rafizi eventually lost to Azmin by a marginal 2,905 votes out of the 140,635 cast.
A warning from Azmin?
Faisal, however, said Azmin was indicating that he was prepared to continue challenging his long-time mentor Anwar.
“He took this up a notch by making his criticism public. Which is unprecedented for him being an Anwar loyalist.
“And I think this is maybe just an alarm, he is sending out an alarm to Anwar that he will not take this lying down... he is cautioning Anwar that he can go further than this,” he said.
Such a bold move could have only been made by someone who was not just pushed to his limit, Faisal added, but one who is also sufficiently confident of support in the party.
“I think he (Azmin) feels quite confident that he has the support of the party members and most of the party leaders. That’s why he is willing to do this."
Following Azmin’s comments, allies like Wanita PKR chief Haniza Talha, Wanita PKR vice-chief Sangeetha Jayakumar and PKR Youth vice-chief Mohd Nazree Mohd Yunus echoed his call for the appointments to be reviewed.
Are you sure you want to delete this comment?
This action cannot be undone.