Anwar will lead PKR for at least one more GE, says Fahmi Fadzil

Anwar Ibrahim will head PKR for at least one more election cycle as part of a succession plan, the party’s communications director said.

(FMT) – “Yes, we have a very clear succession plan actually,” Fahmi Fadzil said when asked whether PKR, which critics label an “Anwar party”, had plans to bring in new leaders.

He added that the plan was laid out by Anwar himself at a party leadership retreat in February, before the Johor state assembly elections.

“It’s not as if Anwar wants to be there (as PKR president forever), but in my reading of the situation, we have this mission that we need to do. We have this agenda, this reform agenda that we need to execute,” he said.

Asked for a timeframe for the execution of the succession plan, Fahmi said, “Let’s say one election cycle”.

He added that Anwar was “quite firm” on the matter, though he did not reveal further details of the succession plan, including who would eventually take over from the former deputy prime minister.

Fahmi said Anwar had been affected by the retirement and deaths of his comrades.

“When you look at, say, Lim Kit Siang retiring, Tengku Razaleigh (Hamzah) retiring, people like Nazri Aziz saying he will not seek re-election, of course people in the same cohort will start to feel (the same way) and it’s not just political retirement, some people pass away,” said Fahmi.

He said Anwar had suffered a succession of personal losses, such as the death of Siddiq Fadzil, former president of the Malaysian Islamic Youth Movement (Abim) and Rusli Ibrahim, Anwar’s younger brother.

Fahmi said Anwar was still the right man to lead PKR and Pakatan Harapan into the coming general election.

Last week, Anwar retained the PKR presidency for the 2022-2024 term, marking the second consecutive term that he had won the post uncontested following his release from prison in 2018.

Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah had earlier been criticised for an apparent lack of confidence in her father’s leadership following her remarks that PH would need at least 10 more years or two general elections before it could regain power in the federal government.

Following PKR’s poor showing in the Johor state elections in March, an analyst had said that PH would need to replace Anwar as its leader if it wanted a shot at winning the next general election.

PH only managed to win 12 of the 56 seats in the state assembly, only one of which was won by PKR.