PKR will be heading into its most closely watched elections at the party congress on the 24th May. Anwar Ibrahim is widely expected to retain his presidency unchallenged, but this will be his final term—as the party constitution caps the president’s tenure at three terms. That makes the race for the number two post all the more significant—it could determine who succeeds Anwar as the leader of PKR, and potentially be the next prime ministerial contender. Who might lead PKR after Anwar—and what kind of party will it become? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Dr Syaza Shukri, Associate Professor of Political Science at International Islamic University Malaysia.
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00:00hello and good evening i'm melissa idris welcome to consider this this is the show where we want
00:15you to consider and reconsider what you know of the news of the day pkr will be heading into its
00:22most closely watched party elections at the upcoming party congress on the 24th of may now
00:28ibrahim is widely expected to retain his presidency and challenged but this will be his final term as
00:36the party constitution caps the president's tenure to at three terms max now this will make the race
00:44for the number two post all the more significant it could determine who succeeds anwar as the leader
00:50of pkr and could potentially be the next prime ministerial candidate contender so on the show
00:56tonight we'll ask who might lead pkr after anwar and what kind of party will it become joining me on
01:04the show to discuss this further is dr shaza shukri associate professor of political science at the
01:09international islamic university malaysia iium dr shaza welcome to the show thank you so much for
01:15joining me today um based on the the recent pkr divisional polls i'm just wondering what those
01:22results reflect to you about the current internal dynamics uh and sentiment within the party the pkr
01:32thank you melissa well when we look at the results for the past few weeks i think the clear signal that
01:38we can take out of it is that the people want change well at least you know pkr members the grassroots
01:44members they want change we don't know why because of course there's no clear a research on it yet on
01:52why this happened but from what we've gathered here and there it's like there is a gap i guess they
01:59might say between the people and the current leaders that we are used to within pkr some of the things that
02:06we've been hearing is that you know some of these people um have getting a gotten a promotion you know
02:12and become a minister and so they're no longer around and and things like oh when they're around they feel
02:20like they're no longer the same person that they were back then so they're trying to trying to send
02:26a message basically um that this is not who we want or at least at this point this is not who we want
02:33to represent pkr but we want someone new um it's not for certain that the people that have replaced
02:41um those that we saw lost uh like nick nazmi you know that they want the new um
02:49hate such as afrin chowki to to lead the party we don't know if that's what they're saying but
02:54definitely that they want something new that's for sure okay so so it's a reflection of maybe some
03:00internal discontent brewing now uh dr shazza at the time of this interview it's still a few hours
03:06till uh nominations close for party elections we have rafizi ramley who's expected to defend the
03:13deputy president's post and their speculation that neural isa anwar and saifuddin nasution could
03:19challenge him for this uh position if neural isa contests for deputy president can i ask you
03:28how you see that move is that considered would that be for you a step forward for this change that
03:36you speak of or a step forward for party unity or might that be a step backwards in terms of a slide
03:45towards dynasty politics right so i think here is where we have this this classic not contradiction but
03:55do we want stability or we want democracy this is something that we always grapple with so why i say
04:01this because uh a lot of supporters of nulisa uh kept on saying that this is the name of democracy
04:08what's wrong anyone can come in anyone can challenge rafizi it should not be an issue i say in the name of
04:14democracy for a party that celebrates democracy this should not even be in the news but the question
04:21here is is is neural isa the right person for this position she might be but the thing that we're
04:28worried about and i think this is tsd for everyone is the perception that people might have if you have
04:35the president and the deputy president being a father-daughter duo right of all the negative things
04:43that pkr have campaigned on let's say over the past decades we've never had pkr's um political what
04:53shall we say oppositions uh the other parties is what i'm trying to say even they never had this kind
04:59of um but sorry father son or father daughter uh leading a party so this party that's supposed to stand on
05:07reform and then this is what um going to happen i don't know uh how does it look like so back to your
05:16question uh is pkr sliding back is it a good move forward we really don't know because in terms of
05:24stability perhaps this is good right perhaps oh you know you have a clear succession father to a daughter
05:32but is that the kind of succession we want so a lot of questions are going on so maybe norizak
05:40could have waited a few more years then it would be much better perhaps all right well the the thing
05:47is i mean we've seen political tendencies before uh abno had the raza family the on jaafa line the uh in
05:56dap had the limb family as well is that just how malaysian politics works i mean the fact that there
06:04are these consolidations of power within um you know powerful elite political families or is it that
06:11we should be holding pkr to a different maybe higher standard well okay firstly that at least they're not at
06:19the same time um that's the the main difference uh the second thing is sometimes it is natural you
06:26know we always talk about nipo babies and things like that uh is is a nipo baby perhaps but the thing
06:32is is you know i don't blame her this is how this is natural this is normal you have your father in
06:38position and he has all the network in the world he passed down his not just credentials and credibility
06:46but perhaps over the years he trained you as well so this is nothing you're not just in malaysian
06:52politics you know you can see all over the world right you know the best i can think of at the top
06:57of my mind i josh bush josh hw bush you know berklington so it's always there we don't say that it runs
07:03in the family but it's just natural but the thing is we want to go into politics you just have to be
07:09strategic about it um so we don't say that so i said we don't say i cannot uh come and become number
07:16two but is this the right time for you to do it um so that is the question okay well you mentioned um
07:22pkr and its reformist roots right but what the party is currently is this really is is in a kind
07:30of precarious position it sits very uncomfortably trying to unify the unity government and also trying
07:36to stand for reform you know it's not quite um this tension i'm wondering whether you see this tension
07:44um straining the party uh whether it's reflected in the internal discomfort or internal discontent and
07:52where do you see pkr today and where do you see it heading
07:57this is a very difficult one um you know it's easy for me to answer about internal division because
08:03i think that we can definitely see um the best example of course we can just look at rafizi as a
08:10person as a person as a leader himself right it's been a very difficult journey for him the past few
08:15years knowing what he have done how he came about and that the kind of relationship that we have in
08:21unity government today so it has been difficult and it's not just rafizi of course i'm thinking of all
08:27pkr members um that are not fully comfortable but you know they support this uh this out of convenience
08:35and for the sake of you know being in power and whatnot so there's definitely tension but the
08:42thing is where pkr shall go from here that is the bigger question is it really um because there's that
08:50that that that duality that you need to think of again if they continue with this relationship
08:55if i'm not this close relationship there's a better chance for them to stay in power to be in power and
09:01in power you can do a lot of the things that you've been talking about reforms and everything else
09:08but it would be it would not be at the pace that you want um but if you're not happy with that
09:13relationship for various reasons that maybe it's out of the topic today uh then you'll be in the
09:18opposition what can you do then you can go back to what you were 20 years ago you know you can just
09:25scream and shout and do all the things that perhaps pkr is good at but would that lead to
09:32the changes that you really want to see so this is a difficult question uh that i think pkr has to
09:39figure out uh so it's very great at this at this moment these party elections are really important
09:45because i think it sets the tone as to what um we can expect from pkr headed into ge16 now you've
09:53been watching this party what what what kind of leadership do you think pkr needs at its helm as
10:02it heads into um preparations of the war room for ge16 you know the thing that that that that came to
10:10my mind is that even before um pkr or let's say pakistan harapan even had this um marriage of
10:19convenience with umno and barisan national ph itself still came out on top uh meaning that what i'm
10:26trying to say is that there are a lot of voters out there that want to see uh the idealism that uh pkr and
10:36ph claims to be fighting for so if you talk about what they should think of going into ge16 maybe they
10:44should remember that i think they've kind of lost that vision because like i said earlier for the sake
10:50of okay at least now we empower how do we continue but they have to remember who they are in the sense
10:57that people voted them because of those ideals those vision those reform promises so back to her the
11:06kind of leadership they need they need this kind of brave leader that can really uh bring back pkr
11:14back to its root in the sense that do not be afraid do not cower for the sake of i don't know
11:20opportunities um but really stand your ground for for for what you really stand for do they have that
11:27leader i think they do but is that the leader that they're going to vote for we don't know okay dr
11:32shazza that was quite cryptic at the end thank you so much for joining me on the show that was dr
11:37shazza shukri from iium we're going to take a quick break here and consider this we'll be back with more
11:43stay tuned