Principles before politics

PKR president (Datuk Seri) Anwar Ibrahim is facing a choice between options that are fast becoming mutually exclusive.

He can stop the current madness, stick to the people and parties that have stood steadily with him, and focus only on GE15; or he can continue to scrape the bottom of the barrel, trying to find some weird and awkward combination that will magically produce the numbers he has consistently failed to produce so far.

In this line of work, consistency counts for a lot.

If your enemies from yesterday become friends today, and then enemies again tomorrow, and friends again the day after - what signal does that send about the type of person or party you are?

PKR has consistently struggled with the accusation that it is a party centered around just one man.

It was some time before I realised that the odd shape at the center of the PKR flag was actually an eye, symbolising the black eye that Anwar got when he was abused in police custody.

I am all for fighting against such abuse, but should one man’s eye be the symbol of the entire movement?

I think the question of whether or not Anwar and PKR should continue pursuing negotiations with Umno boils down to that same question: Is this a party for Malaysia? Or a party for one man?

In America, you almost never see the same individual run for President twice. I believe the conventional wisdom is that someone cannot recover politically after being seen as a loser.

Anwar is not out of the game yet, but some may say that this explains why he has never really recovered from failing to win the 2013 general elections.

Perhaps he too knows that his career cannot really take another hit, and is thus gambling everything in order to try and cross the finish line before the next general elections. Perhaps without the power of incumbency (a disproportionate advantage in Malaysia), he too is not confident of facing the next elections.

If Anwar is concerned only about his political career, then steps like trying to negotiate with Umno makes sense. He may have nothing else to lose, after all.

If Anwar is concerned primarily with PKR and the future of the country however, then these steps do not make sense.

In my line of work, few things are more important than the ‘five second impression’ of brand association – what people think of within five seconds of hearing your brand name.

If you think of KFC, you think chicken. If you think of Samsung, you think handphones. If you think of Umno, you think Malay nationalism. If you think of PAS, you think religion.

What does the average person think of when they think of PKR?

I have a feeling they think of infighting, discord, and division.

The party seems to symbolise how politics is like a ‘dirtying machine’.

When you put clothes in a washing machine, they go round and round and end up clean. When you put people into Malaysian politics, they seem to go round and round, but end up dirty.

If PKR pursues a partnership by going round and round with Umno, this will exacerbate the party’s negative image – even if they succeed, and especially if they fail.

If Anwar miraculously does achieve a majority in Parliament via crossover - by now, a feat I feel can only be achieved via a serious compromise of principles – what are the costs and benefits?

First, he will of course achieve his lifelong goal of becoming Prime Minister. In the vastly over-centralised politics of Malaysia, this brings with it overwhelming wealth and power.

A caveat though, is that he will have at most two years to enjoy this power before having to face elections again.

If he becomes PM off the back of Umno support, he will find himself in the position of others who have relied on the party for support recently - constantly being held hostage.

Umno may be able to accept Anwar as PM for now, but I am certain they will put one of their own leaders for the next candidate for PM, no matter what happens.

I feel like if he was alive, Allayarham Tok Guru Nik Abdul Aziz Nik Mat would be the first to tell Anwar: you may think you’re using Umno, but Umno is only ever using you.

So again, regardless of what happens at the end of this road of courting Umno, PKR’s reputation and long term viability will invariably take a huge hit.

Some attribute Anwar’s biggest problems to impatience. His conflict with Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad around 1998 led to years in the political wilderness.

His attempt to replace Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim as Menteri Besar of Selangor during the Kajang Move led instead to Anwar’s chief rival Azmin Ali assuming that role, and the breakup of a political coalition that could have represented an entirely new paradigm for Malaysia if it stayed the course.

It is possible that his current impatient political moves will similarly lead to the breakup of Pakatan Harapan.

The original Alliance/Barisan Nasional model was simple and perhaps effective for its time. It can no longer be replicated. Since 2018 especially however, Malaysia has struggled to find a replacement model.

Again and again, coalitions are hastily assembled, only to fall apart because they were merely marriages of convenience – not alliances built on painstakingly defined common values, ideals, and principles (a better version of VIPs).

It’s no longer an exaggeration to say that at this point, literally no combination of Umno, Bersatu, PAS, PKR, DAP, Amanah, and so on would be considered surprising. Ideology is definitely secondary, and built around which boss one eventually chooses, not the other way around.

We talk a lot about “party hopping”, but politicians are not really swapping their belief in the political values of one party for another. They are merely “PM hopping” – switching who they support as PM.

That is the level of meaninglessness we have reached, regarding the very concept of a ‘political party’ in Malaysia. Values, ideals, and principles seem to all have taken a back seat to conflicts between feudal warlords.

To paraphrase a popular saying, our politicians are conditioned to think of the next elections, rather than the next generation.

With this mentality, the only question on their mind is either: ‘How do I become boss?” or “Which boss will bring me the most benefit?”

These questions completely eclipse other questions that we as a nation desperately need to be asking. Questions like: How do we help the most vulnerable Malaysians? How do we heal our painful social divides? What do we want our shared future to look like?

Politicians like to argue that you have to address the first set of questions before tackling the second.

I feel the reason we are in an neverending “dirtying machine” is because they are completely mistaken about which set of questions need to be answered first.

Until someone builds a movement which has hammered out slowly and painstakingly (handwashing style) what it is we truly – and consistently – believe in together, they will never be our leaders. Not for long, anyway.

NATHANIEL TAN is a strategic communications consultant who also works with Projek Wawasan Rakyat (POWR). Twitter: @NatAsasi, Clubhouse: @Nathaniel_Tan, Email: [e-mail]. #BangsaMalaysia #NextGenDemocracy. The views expressed here are solely his own.