Deputy President race not as important as ensuring PKR’s relevance – Terence Fernandez

Delegates listen to an address by PKR secretary-general Dr Fuziah Salleh during the joint opening of the youth and womens' wing congresses held in conjunction with its National Congress at a hotel in Johor Bahru today. - May 22, 2025


Deputy President race not as important as ensuring PKR’s relevance – Terence Fernandez


Born in the streets over two decades ago, the party which leads the Government today must do some soul searching this Congress


Terence Fernandez
Updated 13 hours ago
22 May, 2025
11:39 PM MYT

THE run up to the PKR Congress that starts today has been focused on one thing and one thing only – the deputy presidency contest between incumbent Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli and challenger Nurul Izzah Anwar.

While it makes exciting news fodder and gossip, the significance of this contest is not lost on many as it will chart the succession plan in the People’s Justice Party, with Puteri Reformasi expected to win the deputy presidency. This will pave the way for her to eventually succeed her father Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to take the party into the GE17 election cycle in about eight years time.

Rafizi has all but thrown in the towel. Sulking his way to an expected defeat with allegations of impropriety of the entire voting process.

Individuals aligned to him have already been defeated in divisional polls. The most surprising possibly Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad who failed to retain control of the Setiawangsa branch when he lost to Datuk Afdlin Shauki in the “Ketua Cabang” race.

Nik Nazmi is the Minister of Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability. He is also the incumbent MP for the Setiawangsa parliamentary constituency.

In the race for Number Two, there are important deliberations for members – Nurul Izzah the daughter who has been waiting in the wings for her turn in the spotlight, while her parents fulfil their own political destinies; or Rafizi, the wonderkind who came to prominence over a decade ago on the backs of the National Feedlot Corporation NFC scandal to provide members an alternative after the crash and burn of Datuk Seri Azmin Ali.

But more than that they have to also consider the irony that the party which champions reforms and good governance is itself dogged by allegations of election tampering, vote buying and questionable vendor systems procurement process.

Which is why members should go into the congress not focused on individuals but on whether PKR as a party has diverted or not from its core principles.

Yes, working with Umno for political expediency may not have gone down well with many party diehards. But is political compromise seen as a betrayal?

Both PKR and Umno were on self-preservation mode when they shook hands to form the unity government in November of 2022. Critics of theirs say they put politics above principles.

Datuk Dr Asyraf Wajdi, the Umno secretary-general and Chief Secretariat of the Unity Government, puts this arrangement into perspective in a yet to be published podcast on Trick Lama: The new political reality is to see what the people want. They want a government that is representative of the varied electoral profile. And a Unity Government best represents the electorate who cast their votes then.

PKR’s two million members must realise that as hard as it is, this party is bigger than any individual – even the founders.

Rafizi’s camp is ensuring that this narrative is amplified through the roadshows and ceramahs in the current campaign that has been billed Rafizi’s “Hiruk” (noise) vs Nurul Izzah’s Damai (peace) – which probably explains why the latter has maintained stoic silence against the Economy Minister’s railing of nepotism.

Delegates listen to an address by PKR secretary-general Dr Fuziah Salleh during the joint opening of the youth and womens’ wing congresses held in conjunction with its National Congress at a hotel in Johor Bahru today. – Bernama pic, May 22, 2025


But beyond the noise and the celebrity, members have a bigger obligation than picking the next deputy president. It does not matter if it is a Father-Mother-Daughter outfit. They knew what it was in 1998 when Anwar was sacked. And used the romanticism of this family affair to find their way from the streets of Kuala Lumpur to Sri Perdana in Putrajaya – a journey that took 24 years.

Now that the stakes are higher as PKR is the government, they need to ensure that the same party they championed remains steadfast in preserving the principles and talk of dreams that teased the peoples’ imagination of what could be – a better Malaysia.

The fight against corruption must be relentless. An efficient and effective government delivery system which could alienate the powerful civil service, must still be a priority. It cannot abuse government institutions such as the Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission (MACC) for self preservation.

The assurance of a free press and freedom of expression within acceptable terms must continue to be in its DNA. No political party in the Government benefited from these kinds of reforms.

PKR has the chance to show that it is keeping itself in check by ensuring these efforts will continue and bear fruit in time for the next elections.

The economic reforms too must have tangible results as announcements and pronouncements must coincide with the lived experience of everyday people.

Members have a duty to keep their party on the straight and narrow to ensure it continues to resonate with a vast majority of Malaysians.

This is the mindset going into the congress, not myopic party and individual interests.

Otherwise they might as well be voting in the next Opposition Leader. – May 22, 2023



Terence Fernandez is Group Editor in Chief of Big Boom Media which publishes Scoop.my