Birth Pang for PKR

By Patrick Lee

PETALING JAYA: Internal squabbles are no strangers to political parties, especially the “newer” ones like PKR, say analysts.
"It is normal for all parties to go through a difficult genesis," said Farish Ahmad Noor, political analyst at Nanyang Technological University.

He was commenting on the current infighting in PKR over the deputy presidency post in the party election in November.

The main top contenders for the prize are PKR supreme council member Zaid Ibrahim and vice-president Azmin Ali.

"What is happening to PKR is not new or unique," Farish Ahmad said, making comparisons to the disputes that both Umno and PAS had been involved in over the years.

PKR also seemed to lack the foundation that the other, more experienced parties seemed to have.

“PAS and DAP have gone through the same stages in their early days,” said Sivamurugan Pandian, Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) political analyst.

“PKR, on the other hand, has a lot of new leaders.”

He also told FMT that this was representative of a new political landscape, where younger leaders were putting themselves into the party's ranks.

Clear leadership

Calling the situation “quite normal”, James Chin, political analyst at Monash University, said that the other opposition parties had the same problems.

“It's just that they've been able to hide their problems better,” he said.

Nevertheless, Chin sees the infighting in PKR a boon for the party.

"It's better to have an all-out fight (for the positions), because then you'll have clear results (on who should be the leaders)," he said.

“(At the moment), no one knows who is the number two in the party. If I were a PKR member, I would want to see clear leadership.”

However, PKR's leaders have also been cautioned against continuing their mudslinging.

“Many thought PKR would have been able to handle itself better than how it is handling itself now,” Sivamurugan said.

He added that it was not surprising, considering that many of PKR leaders were former Umno members.

“But once you're out of Umno, you should have got yourself a new campaign strategy,” the USM analyst said.

“PKR delegates don't want to see another Umno. They want to see a new party.”

"Rather than focusing on national issues, they seem to be looking at positions," Sivamurugan said, adding that politicians should know when to call for “ceasefire”.

When asked if the public had enough of PKR's episodes, Farish Ahmad said, "I dont know if the public is bored with PKR, but I certainly am by now."

He also told FMT that many PKR's leaders were stuck with personality politics, especially with their de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim.

"Should this reign of personality politics continue, then PKR may just end up being another typical ego-based party where personalities come before substance."
FMT