PKR’S latest rift, the biggest so far in the party, is reason enough to delay the transition of power between Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his successor, Anwar Ibrahim, said analysts.

This is because the rift has split PKR to the point where almost half of its senior leaders are openly choosing sides between PKR president Anwar and his estranged deputy, Mohamed Azmin Ali, a minister.

Yesterday, 28 senior PKR leaders signed a joint statement chiding Anwar for not standing by his deputy president over the sex-clip scandal that had tainted him.

The split in the party’s leadership signals that Anwar, the presumptive prime minister, lacks the full support of his own party, said political scientist Mazlan Ali.

A political party’s full backing, said Mazlan, is crucial for a prime minister in a parliamentary democracy such as Malaysia.

However, some political scientists said a delay in the transition of power risks public backlash as according to a recent survey, 75% of Malaysians said Dr Mahathir should not be prime minister for more than two years.

This survey was done between June 28 and June 30, when PKR’s crisis and sex clips were already public knowledge.

Prof Mohammad Redzuan Othman, whose institute carried out the survey, differed from other analysts and said the Anwar-Azmin rift is not a strong enough reason to delay the transition.

“There will always be internal crisis in any political party. Are you saying there isn’t one in Bersatu or DAP?” said Redzuan of PKR’s component partners in the Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition.

“Even in Umno, a party which lost power, there are conflicts,” said Redzuan of think-tank Insitut Darul Ehsan (IDE).

“But the transition should happen within the two years because this is something Dr Mahathir promised,” said Redzuan.

“It was based on this promise that DAP, PKR, Amanah and Anwar himself agreed to Dr Mahathir being chosen as PH’s prime minister in the first place.”

Manufactured scandal

PKR’s latest rift deepened when Anwar on Tuesday said Azmin should step down if it is proven that a video of two men being intimate with each other was authentic.

PKR member Haziq Abdullah Abdul Aziz confessed to being one of them in the clips and named Azmin as the second person. 

Police said yesterday it’s probable that the sex videos are authentic but added that the results of the facial recognition, however, was negative and the video can’t be linked to the alleged personalities.

Azmin also hit back at Anwar, asking his one-time mentor and boss, to “look at himself in the mirror”.

This was a reference to Anwar’s own past allegations of sexual misconduct where he was accused of sodomy with two former aides and having sex with a foreign woman.  

The joint statement by the 28 PKR leaders, said Mazlan of Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), shows the fault-lines in PKR. But he stopped short at saying that the party was split into two.

“The rift is only among the top leadership, we haven’t seen anything at the grassroots level yet,” said Mazlan, a senior lecturer at UTM’s technology and informatics faculty.

But the saga would allow Dr Mahathir to justify staying on as prime minister beyond the promised two years, said another political scientist, Prof James Chin of the University of Tasmania.

“This will give Tun (Dr Mahathir) additional reason why he cannot step down. Anwar also cannot push (to take over) since he cannot even bring unity to his own party,” said Chin who heads UNitas’ Asia Institute.

Mazlan of UTM said Dr Mahathir’s statements over the past month indicate that the 94-year-old could be reconsidering his plans to step down after two years.

“He recently said he will not stay for more than three years and he had also said he will not leave until there is political stability in Malaysia,” said Mazlan.

“It is possible that Dr Mahathir may consider postponing the transition until PKR settles its internal problems. Dr Mahathir had once said that political stability is key.”

IDE’s Redzuan, however, doubts that PKR’s crisis is a strong enough reason to delay the transition as there is a belief that it is manufactured.

“All over social media people are saying that the whole scandal was created just to weaken PKR.”

For this reason, the crisis should not be a reason to delay the transition of power, Redzuan added. – July 19, 2019.