LETTER | Can Rafizi bring positive change to PKR, Harapan?

LETTER | With former Pandan MP Rafizi Ramli announcing his return to politics after Pakatan Harapan and PKR lost the Johor state election, many are anticipating him to bring positive changes to both the party and the coalition. They really need change, but is Rafizi the answer?

I did see some hope when Rafizi announced his return, but that hope was extinguished when he said he is going to contest for deputy presidency in the coming party election.

It is a known secret that the power in all Malaysian political parties is centralised towards the presidents and deputies can hardly do anything progressive. Even if Rafizi does win the position in PKR, he would also not be the president of Harapan, which marks another insufficiency in power to make progressive reforms.

I don’t know if voters want Rafizi to be the president of Harapan, but I do know clearly that they demand change in the opposition coalition’s central leadership.

With DAP having a new secretary-general, it’s time for PKR, as another central image of Harapan, to also apply changes. Switching to new leadership is not the solution to the current problems faced by Harapan, but it paves the way to solutions that the new leaders might generate, that the old ones never thought of.

PKR leaders are claiming that the combination of PKR president Anwar Ibrahim and Rafizi as his number two can win back the support of voters, but I doubt the rationale of that.

Rafizi did establish a strong presence since he announced his return by constantly voicing out loud on Harapan and PKR’s problems and suggesting solutions to them. He is also attacking Harapan’s rivals, and recently launched the “Ayuh Malaysia” project aiming to reform the country.

However, we need to understand that this fella had left politics for a few years and with the mass political turmoil in the country throughout the past two years, people hardly remembered him.

With this being said, the strength and loudness that he establishes now might just be another publicity tactic to let the voters, especially the younger ones, to recognise him again. He may just fall silent under the control of Anwar after he wins the position of PKR deputy president.

We all know how sceptical Anwar can be when his allies are becoming stronger, strong enough to threaten his own power. Just take a look at how former PKR deputy president Azmin Ali ended up when he built up a strong faction in the party during Anwar’s imprisonment.

One of the biggest problems with PKR and Harapan now is Anwar’s decreasing shine and his leadership. The combination of Anwar and Rafizi never won any general election before, and when the opposition finally posed a threat to the then BN regime by winning 83 seats in Parliament in the 2008 general election, that was all because of Anwar’s vibe in his Reformasi movement.

When Harapan finally won in GE14, Anwar was still in jail. There is just no solid data or achievement to prove that the combination of Anwar and Rafizi works. With the available evidence, we can only say that the decisive factor was Anwar, with Rafizi hardly contributing anything.

With Anwar’s Reformasi vibe fading and his decline in leadership quality, I really doubt how much Rafizi could contribute if he is only the deputy president.

Can Rafizi bring positive change to PKR and Harapan? Maybe, but I am not very optimistic about it unless he contests for the presidency and wins.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.