Where PKR can take a leaf from Umno

Where PKR can take a leaf from Umno



From Terence Netto


PKR began as an Umno splinter in the late 1990s.

Sure, it began as Parti Keadilan Nasional before it morphed into Parti Keadilan Rakyat.

But still it was an Umno splinter before it evolved into a multiracial party, determined to be as unlike Umno as possible.

Even to the extent of declining to use the terms “bahagian” (division) and “cawangan” (branch), employed by Umno to denote its parts, preferring “cabang” and “ranting”, respectively, as labels for its shoots.

Be as different as possible from Umno – that spirit appeared to be PKR’s originating ethos.

Essentially, PKR is a product of the travails of Anwar Ibrahim, following his sacking and public humiliation by then Umno president Dr Mahathir Mohamad in September 1998.

If perhaps Umno had managed its internal ructions of the late 1990s better, PKR would not have been formed.

Indeed, it was a good thing that Umno did not manage its internal tumults better, for then PKR would not have been formed and there would not have been a denial of Umno’s supermajority in general election 2008 (GE12).

The denial released Malaysia’s political life from stifling bondage to an orthodoxy: that Umno-BN had to be firmly in the nation’s saddle, otherwise there would be no stability and hence, no prosperity

Liberation from this orthodoxy, primarily the work of Anwar Ibrahim, conduced to the present moment when Umno is a functioning tumult of factions while PKR is a welter of contesting egos and rivalries.

Since the time of Anwar’s sacking in 1998, Umno has learned how to manage its factions rather well.

Today, it has a “court cluster”, a “Cabinet cluster” and a cluster that plays the flux of events to what it sees as its best advantage, which is that of Umno being on top of an, admittedly, shaky pyramid. But on top, nevertheless.

Suffice, the manoeuvres of all three clusters are an illustration of the truth of Ambrose Bierce’s dictum that politics is a strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles.

In sum, factions are endemic to democratic political parties.

Managing them well is the work of skilled politicians who usually eschew self-righteousness and prefer coopting to cancelling factions.

Now that Rafizi Ramli has been confirmed as PKR’s deputy president, after an audit of his party’s electoral process, he should spurn the attitude he displayed when he lost to Azmin Ali in his previous attempt in 2018 at the No 2 post.

Then, his attitude had been rejectionist: he declined, as the appointed secretary-general, to give party posts to Azmin’s allies who had been on the latter’s winning slate in the 2018 polls.

It led to a schism that saw a coterie of PKR MPs abandoning the party for the delusive comfort of complicity in the Sheraton Move in February 2020.

Rafizi, and PKR, must take a leaf from the Umno book of faction-management.



Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.