Looking beyond Anwar

The troubled PKR election has been very embarrassing for the party but the outcome suggests that it is getting ready for a post-Anwar Ibrahim era.

Joceline Tan, The Star

THE rival camps in PKR have been fighting like crazy over the last one month. But everyone put aside their differences to attend the wedding of Nurul Imam Anwar last week.

Nurul Imam is the second youngest of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s six children and arguably the sultry beauty of the family. The groom is also quite handsome and it looks like Anwar and Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail’s brood of grandchildren will be expanding.

But Kak Wan, as the PKR president is known, has stopped talking about retiring from politics. All talk of staying at home to look after her grandchildren has ceased as she prepares to return to a bigger role in politics.

She was elected Kajang assemblywoman in March and, more recently, she was returned unopposed as party president after her husband pulled out of the contest.

When her friends teased her about her new political status during her daughter’s wedding, she had joked in her girl-like voice: “I don’t know what happened – suddenly I am the adun (assemblywoman)”.

The wedding was the one sweet spot in what has been an eventful few months for Anwar and Dr Wan Azizah.

Anwar’s right arm was still in a sling as a result of a car accident. But the dislocated arm is the least of his problems for now.

His party has been making news for all the wrong reasons in the last couple of months. The PKR election has been problematic and tumultuous. Scenes of ballot boxes and voting slips strewn on the floor, overturned tables and chairs, and angry members going at each other have been very embarrassing for the party.

The things they used to accuse others of were happening in their own party – names missing from the electoral roll, money politics, dirty campaigning and even something as basic as a shortage of ballot papers.

“I don’t know where to put my face,” said a Selangor politician from one of the divisions where the election was cancelled after a group wreaked havoc at the venue. The politician said that none of the members from his division could recognise any of the trouble-makers, leading them to suspect that it was a deliberate attempt by outsiders to disrupt the election which was going in Azmin Ali’s favour.

“Even the general election was not ‘so tension’ for us,” he said.

Anwar himself had to deal with a number of tense confrontations at the PKR headquarters. About a week after the troubled Selangor polls, an angry party member berated Anwar as he was leaving the party premises.

A few nights later, a bigger group protested outside the headquarters. The protesters knew that an important political bureau meeting to discuss the polls was taking place that night and they wanted to register their unhappiness.

Anwar is very skilled in situations like this. He faced the protesters to explain and gave his commitment that all the election complaints would be investigated.

He also warned of action against the three candidates for deputy president if it was found that they had jeopardised the party’s interest, implying that their actions had been exploited by Umno and TV3. The last part did not go down well with some who felt that the ketua umum has no right to threaten disciplinary action against any leader.

Anwar is a political animal and he can probably sense that something has changed in the party. He would be blind not to sense how members feel about the way his family dominates PKR.

The political tango by the husband-and-wife pair to keep the president post in the family left a bad taste in the mouth of even the most loyal members. These people take their reputation as a reformist party seriously and what happened was more reflective of a feudal party.

PKR members would have loved to have Anwar as their president. He is a poor manager but he has the charisma and oratory skills to manage grassroots sentiments and take on the other side. They also love Dr Wan Azizah but they feel the era of a figurehead president is over.

Anwar’s ketua umum status has become a problem for PKR. There is no provision for a ketua umum post in the party yet the post is all powerful, overshadowing that of the president.

For instance, the president has been quiet throughout the troubled election. They point to the frontline role played by other party presidents.

Dr Wan Azizah felt hurt when party members referred to her as the “Sleeping Beauty”. But it was their way of saying that they want a president who is able to provide real leadership, solve problems and take on the enemy.

New elections in 27 divisions will be held over the next one month.

Despite claiming the polls to be a “success”, election chairman Datuk Johari Abdul was so stressed out that he developed eye problems and had to undergo an emergency procedure that put him out of action for several days.

The intensity of the contest has to do with the fact that ambitious people in the party are trying to chart their own future in a post-Anwar scenario. But it looks like Anwar will remain as ketua umum, his wife will continue as president and Azmin is likely to hold on to the deputy president post.

Yet, there is something of a watershed phenomenon taking place in the party. No one can quite put their finger on it but it is there in the air.

If there is a way to sum it up, it would be that while the party still wants Anwar, members are also ready to move on to a future without him.

The first sign of that was when Datuk Saifuddin Nasution came in last in the deputy president contest despite having Anwar’s personal endorsement. In the old days, anyone whom Anwar endorsed would have won but not anymore.

Another sign was the outcome in Anwar’s home turf, Permatang Pauh, where the votes for the deputy presidency was split between Saifuddin and Azmin. It meant that while some heeded Anwar, others voted as they liked. On top of that, those aligned to Azmin won all the key division posts in Permatang Pauh.

Stories are trickling out about how Anwar campaigned behind the scenes for Saifuddin to be the next No 2, calling up division leaders to mobilise support for Saifuddin.

Some agreed, some pretended to agree and a few had the guts to say “No” because they did not think Saifuddin is deputy president material. They had not forgotten that Saifuddin left the party when it was at its lowest point to work for PAS and had once said PKR had no future.

The reformasi generation of PKR are for Azmin because, like them, he has shed “blood, sweat and tears” for the party. Some of them do not like the way Azmin plays politics but they admit he has been loyal, committed and has the “warrior spirit”.

As one of them said: “The party will be much less without Azmin.”

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim came from the corporate world and they respect him for that but he did not go through the struggle like them. Khalid would have been able to give Azmin a tougher fight had he juggled the rakyat’s interest with that of the party.

But he has his niche support in Selangor because several of Azmin’s strong men lost in the division contests. Khalid is in a credible second place and that should help him hold on as Selangor Mentri Besar.

“If there is a move to remove Tan Sri Khalid (as Mentri Besar), there will be resistance,” said a Khalid supporter from Ampang.

Azmin’s clout goes beyond winning the No 2 post. Those aligned to him have swept 15 of the 20 central committee seats. His key allies have also swept positions in the AMK and Wanita contests.

But three of the four vice-president spots went to those aligned to Dr Wan Azizah. Nurul Izzah Anwar, Tian Chua and Rafizi Ramli took the top three posts while Shamsul Iskandar, who is aligned to Azmin, is in fourth place.

The positive side to the intense rivalry in the party is that it is a sign of energy and dynamism. It means that members see the party as a serious player in national politics and they want to claim their place up there.

This election also saw many new and young faces moving into key positions at the division and national levels. They will shape the future of the party and take it away from its image as one dominated by crossovers from the Barisan Nasional.

Anwar is fond of labelling those who question him as “alat Umno” or “alat BN” (tools of Umno and Barisan). He does that a lot to the media and had implied that party members causing trouble in the PKR polls are being used by the Barisan.

Yet, so many of his top guns were from Barisan – his election chairman Johari was from Umno, deputy election chief Datin Paduka Tan Yew Kew was from MCA and disciplinary chairman Dr Tan Kee Kwong was from Gerakan. They are not in the category of “alat BN” but naughty members call them “left-over food” – still edible when reheated but not as tasty anymore.

PKR has revolved around Anwar for so long and he was indispensable to the party’s image and survival. But the party polls suggest that members are getting ready for a post-Anwar era.

In time to come, the PKR menu will feature less “left-over food” and offer new and fresh dishes for Malaysians to choose from.