Friday 12 November 2010

Anwar Ibrahim's 7 "Deadly Sins"?

Parti Keadilan Rakyat...The People's Justice Party. A political party founded on the social justice. Wikipedia has this to say: The People's Justice Party (PKR) is a centrist political party in Malaysia formed in 2003 by a merger of the National Justice Party and the older Malaysian People's Party. Keadilan was led by Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail and increased its parliamentary representation from 1 seat to 31 seats in the Malaysian general election, 2008 until the five-year political ban imposed on former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim was lifted on April 14, 2008.

Keadilan promotes an agenda with a strong social justice and anti-corruption emphasis. Recently the party adopted a platform that seeks to abolish the New Economic Policy and replace it with a policy that emphasises on a non-ethnic approach in poverty eradication and correcting economic imbalances. 

A party supposedly grounded in justice and integrity yet is inherently flawed when its spiritual leader and key personality chooses to remain on a pedestal and insist on being de facto for reasons best known to himself. This was all well and fine before the party held its ongoing first direct elections; where each and every member is given the democratic right and opportunity to vote for their leaders. In my opinion, Anwar has a moral right to claim leadership (de facto or otherwise) only if the vast majority of PKR members acknowledge him as their ultimate leader. How can this acknowledgement be proven? Through the ballot box, of course. Anything short of that will make a mockery of democracy in PKR. 

However, Anwar though nominated has not run for Presidency of PKR. To compound matters, he has by act or omission, interfered in the elections and showed his bias by throwing his support behind his "beloved" Azmin Ali to be Deputy President. Anybody else as Wan Azizah's number two would threaten Anwar's de facto status. Against this backdrop, who can be surprised by the alleged wide scale rigging? 

Ultimately, the irreverence for Anwar that is emerging within PKR ranks stems from doubt on the minds of Anwar's detractors as to whether he still deserves to be on that pedestal. Anwar has not turned out to be the messiah of change that he held himself out to be pre-2008. His "anak semua, anak saya" sounds like another hollow slogan and apart from making too many mistakes, his performance as leader borders on insignificance. Anwar seems to be only good at and interested in politicking.      

More PKR people should read the following SinChew article:


Anwar's seven costly mistakes

Anwar was very bold before the 2008 general election and it was he who managed to put the three parties together to form the Pakatan Rakyat. But he has changed since the sodomy charges were filed against him, and the embarrassing failure of a purported regime change scheduled for 16 September 2008.

By LIM SUE GOAN, My Sinchew. Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE

I am not sure who is behind the "Oust Anwar” campaign" mentioned by PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

But. I do agree that Anwar is surely not truly qualified to lead the Pakatan Rakyat based on an assessment on his performance over the past two years.

Anwar has made at least seven costly mistakes.

First, he has not responded to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's transformation plans.

Najib has been going all out to conduct reforms since he took the office in April last year. He introduced the 1Malaysia concept, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), National Key Result Areas (NKRA), Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

As the Pakatan Rakyat supremo, Anwar should have a counter-strategy to the Najib blueprint, but he has not responded at all so far, but just let swing voters gradually lured by the BN.

Secondly, he has allowed the Pakatan Rakyat morale to sink. Although the Pakatan Rakyat won eight of the 13 by-elections, it has been defeated in the recent ones, except in Sibu because of Chinese votes.

The Pakatan Rakyat has been facing both internal and external problems and its members have lost their high morale of the 2008 general election. Anwar has not come out with new strategies to boost morale.

Thirdly, Anwar has no plan to implement reforms. The Pakatan Rakyat was able to gain control of five states after the 2008 general election because it has promised to carry out reforms. Anwar has apparently taken the people's support for granted and does not fulfill his election commitments, making the promised reforms remaining as mere slogans.

Fourthly, the Pakatan Rakyat is still a loose organization, and there is no effort to consolidate and strengthen the coalition. Compared with the BN, the Pakatan Rakyat lacks an effective structure and organisation, and its discipline is in a mess.

The Pakatan Rakyat is also facing contradictions and conflicts in terms of political ideology and has failed to introduce new policies.

Fifthly, there is no no political resource intergration. Anwar should apply his administrative experience as the deputy prime minister in integrating the resources of the four Pakatan Rakyat state governments and introducing a plan to stimulate economy in the four states. The blank in this area has caused the Pakatan Rakyat state governments to lack performance to retain confidence of their supporters.

As the economic adviser for Selangor, Anwar has shown no achievement so far.

Sixth, Anwar seems helpless to quell the PKR infighting. Internal problems of the PKR had been started since the 2008 general election, including choosing inappropriate election candidates and resolving problems by creating by-election through resignations. The people will not be cheated again and again.

The withdrawal of Perak state assembly members from the party has caused the collapse of the Perak Pakatan Rakyat state government. A few MPs and state assembly members have also quit the party after that. Anwar claimed it as a plot by Umno, but he has never seriously put any effort in resolving the factional, personnel and power struggle problems in the party.

Eventually, it leads to the outbreak of a major crisis in the party. Again, Anwar puts the blame on a conspiracy outside the party. He is too lazy even to find a more decent reason.

Finally, Anwar lacks the ability to lead and judge: A leader should be responsible, fair and unbiased. Anwar's stand in the party election is ambiguous.

For the direct election mechanism, even outsiders have expected problems, but why did an experienced leaders like Anwar fail to anticipate them? Isn't the situation not serious enough to cause concern when 165 complaints about unfairness of the party election had been received?

Anwar was very bold before the 2008 general election and it was he who managed to put the three parties together to form the Pakatan Rakyat. But he has changed since the sodomy charges were filed against him, and the embarrassing failure of a purported regime change scheduled for 16 September 2008.

Leaders can always be replaced and the most important thing is achieving the main goals. Replacing the leaders might bring an opportunity to change. However, the plight of the Pakatan Rakyat is that there is at present no visible suitable candidate to replace Anwar.

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