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Is Malaysia Edging Further Away From Democracy? – Analysis

Anwar Ibrahim’s Peoples’ Justice Party (PKR) proposing non-contesting top two leadership positions Over the last few months, there has been party talk about the top two leadership positions (president and deputy president) not being contested during the upcoming May party elections. Recently the Peoples’ Justice Party (PKR) International Bureau Chair, who is also prime minister Anwar Ibrahim’s personal assistant Shamsol Iskandar Mohd said the objective of no contest of the two top party positions would maintain internal party stability and improve service to the public. Its obvious this is a scheme to sound out the idea through the media to see if they can get away with doing away with party elections for the top two posts. There has been more than a fair-share of political analysts and local pundits who have publicly supported the idea, overwhelming detractors. This has become much easier inside a national media environment that is very pro-government these days. PKR’s pedigree as a democratic party now leaves a lot to be desired, since it was formed after Anwar Ibrahim was imprisoned in 1998. Many party positions are filled with appointed people by the party president, sometimes riding rough-shot over those who were elected as office bearers, disregarding the will of the grassroots membership. Two people, vice president Nurul Izzah Anwar, and deputy president Rafizi Ramli were appointed as division heads of 6 states, eliminating any possibilities of local influence upon the leadership. In addition, a number of PKR members holding positions in Anwar’s cabinet lost their seats in the last general election, and were appointed senators, so they could join the cabinet. Much of the long-held party policy platform held for many years has been disregarded when PKR became the leading party of what is called the ‘unity government’. The party is also tilting towards becoming a Malay-centric party over the last two years, displacing PKR’s once multicultural approach. What some members call ‘secret balloting’ have delivered a primarily Malay cohort of office holders at state level in the 2022 PKR elections. The one and only time it looked like Anwar would be challenged for the position of president eventually led to a split in the party, when the Azmin Ali group left the party, after the fall of the Pakatan Harapan government in 2020. Coming May elections There is obviously some fear within the inner Anwar circle that there might be a challenge to Anwar’s presidency this coming May. Its no secret that a large section of the membership is disillusioned with the direction the party is going, and the poor performance of PKR members of the government. Its also no secret that current deputy president Rafizi Ramli has his eyes on PKR leadership some day in the future. However, its most likely Rafizi is thinking of the post-Anwar period, with clear ideas of how PKR should proceed in the future. Thus, it’s very unlikely Rafizi would make any move in May. Rafizi is hoping that after the Anwar era, PKR is actually salvageable, where he could pick up what is left after the next general election, should PKR not rejoin government. Some within Anwar’s inner circle are paranoid about any potential challenge, and not confident Anwar could have a convincing win, if any challenge occurs. Gauging actual support with PKR for Anwar is an extremely difficult exercise. There are no formal factions, and loyalties within PKR are all over the place. The party hasn’t healed since Azmin left. How far disillusionment might equate into votes against Anwar is just an unknown factor. The large number of staunch Anwaristers are not as vocal before. A large section of PKR membership have just become dormant. Anwar’s best scenario would be to open the top two party positions and his position as president remain unchallenged. This would put him in a very positive light. This would also allow Saifuddin Nasution Ismail to challenge Rafizi for the deputy presidency. However, Rafizi would be most likely be able to hold off such a challenge. A Rafizi win would lift Rafizi’s stature once again, something Anwar wouldn’t like. May is still a long way away, but the clock is ticking and Anwar still hasn’t worked out the best way to go for himself. Edging further away from democracy Given that both the prime minister Anwar Ibrahim may continue as an unelected president of his party, and the deputy prime minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is a non-elected president of UMNO, both national leaders lack their own respective party mandates. This is just another step in edging Malaysia away from the journey towards a democracy.