THE Perikatan Nasional government has failed to handle the Covid-19 pandemic efficiently, said Anwar Ibrahim. 

The 73-year-old opposition leader said the Muhyiddin Yassin administration has also abused the emergency powers it obtained in January by arresting critics.

“The emergency powers are being used to threaten and arrest government critics instead of helping those in need or speeding up the vaccination process,” he said in a special online address after the 15th PKR congress today was stopped by authorities.

“They have even felt threatened enough by PKR’s virtual congress, to want to shut it down after approving it earlier,” he said of the congress, which was to be supposed to be held today virtually.

The PKR president then said the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme’s mistakes where the government task force had to admit misreporting the number of vaccine doses given out to Selangor and its website crashes two weeks ago.

“Yet they appear to be more concerned about chasing anti-vaxxers rather than focus on the 10 to 12 million Malaysians who to be vaccinated,” said Anwar.

“Going by these numbers, we are unlikely to vaccinate everyone by year end unless the government opens up the vaccination process to let employers procure the vaccines for their workers.” 

Anwar also took the government to task on the inadequate aid given to lower-income groups during the latest lockdown, and the puzzling economic data it has presented. 

“It’s almost as if the government is in a state of denial on the investments we have lost,” said the Port Dickson MP.

Coming up short

But while Anwar was right to lash out at PN over its failings, the address came up short. 

Anwar missed the opportunity to address several issues plaguing his own party.

In the 40-minute address, Anwar did not touch on the youth wing’s proposal to abandon the Pakatan Harapan logo in the next election and how it would affect the coalition, which also comprises DAP and Amanah.  

He also ignored Umno’s open rejection last March. 

And albeit the possibility of election after the Covid-19 pandemic has been brought under control, Anwar also did not address the issue of whether the party will work with Dr Mahathir Mohamad again. 

More than that, Anwar skipped the issue of PKR would revamp its leadership or candidate selection process after losing almost a third of its elected MPs since 2018. 

Since last year, PKR had lost 15 MPs and six assemblymen to PN through the “Sheraton move”, which was co-organised by former deputy president Mohamed Azmin Ali. The last three who quit the party were vice president Dr Xavier Jayakumar (Kuala Langat), central committee member Larry Sng (Julau) and Steven Choong (Tebrau). 

Surprisingly, although this is the first time PKR has held its congress since the “Sheraton move”, Anwar did not address the issue nor comment on where PKR’s future would be with regard to candidate selection, Umno, Dr Mahathir or logo.  

He just kept course by hammering PN and took potshots at those who questioned Malay-centric policies and the recent deaths in custody.  

The 15th PKR congress will be remembered for what was not said rather than what was said. – June 6, 2021.