Dawn Or Dusk For Multiracial Parties?
Without a strong PKR, Anwar may not be able to convince its more established and larger coalition partners to stick around with him given their vast ideological and policy differences.
This article is relevant especially in the light of the collapse of the Perak Pakatan Rakyat government following the defections of two Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) state representatives and one from the DAP, and the failure of Anwar Ibrahim to topple the Barisan Nasional government via defections.
The article was published in July 1, 2008 issue of the Malaysian Business magazine. I wrote:
SOME weeks ago a businessman asked me if there is a future for race-based political parties in Malaysia. He's a Chinese and obviously apolitical.
He must have been influenced by the emergence of Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) or People's Justice Party, as a key player in national politics following the March 8 polls.
The credit has to go to the party's adviser and de facto leader, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. His spirited efforts to entice a sufficient number of Barisan Nasional (BN) Members of Parliament to cross over to his Pakatan
Rakyat (an informal coalition of three parties), or to side with it, is keeping public interest alive.
