Life After Anwar Ibrahim for PKR

As we all know, Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) is the most powerful Opposition party now. It used to be PAS and then DAP. After the Court release Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim based on technicalities from his jail sentence on sodomy, Parti Keadilan Rakyat is back in the mainstream.

Allow me to remind my readers that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was sentenced to jail based on two charges, corruption and sodomy. He did his time for corruption but was released from his sodomy charge based on inconsistencies from the Prosecutors in terms of the timeline of the "crime" and they failed to prove Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was guilty beyond reasonable doubt.

Nevertheless, the Court highlighted that the "evidence" showed that the said sodomy act took place but Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim was released due to inconsistencies on the Prosecutors' part.

To add to this, I am curious why Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim did not challenge the Court's verdict about the "sodomy". Perhaps the law does not allow him to do so? Or was there a deal between the Executive and Anwar for a win-win solution?

Well. I say win-win here because if the Court maintained that Anwar had in fact been involved in sodomy acts and announced that the Court released him by putting the blame on the Prosecutors, then Anwar gets out of jail and the Government and Police can assure the world that it wasn't a set up at all.

Hmm. I shall leave that alone because I am no lawyer and I don't really like to mess around with those in the legal system. Haha. You will never know what kind of trouble you can get into.

All right let me bring our focus back to PKR. The de facto leader of PKR and Pakatan Rakyat now is surely Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Let us leave the Pakatan Rakyat aside for now. And we all know that Datin Seri Wan Azizah is the President of PKR and the Opposition Leader of Malaysia. Her deputy is Dr Syed Husin Ali who used to be a leader of Parti Rakyat Malaysia.

Moving down the ranks, Vice Presidents are Azmin Ali, Dr Lee Boon Chye, Mustaffa Kamil Ayub, Sivarasa Rasiah, Datuk Dr Jeffrey Kitingan. The Secretary General is Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim. I believe I do not need to go down further and you can all check it here.

We all cannot deny that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim can pull crowds just like Tun Dr Mahathir. He is indeed a great debator and someone who can impress everyone who listens to him whenever he opens his mouth.

Also, we can see that Datuk Seri Anwar is the reason why Pakatan Rakyat is a shining star now. In the past, when Datuk Seri Haji Hadi Awang, Lim Kit Siang, Datin Seri Wan Azizah, Datuk Seri Nik Aziz and other leaders were heading the Barisan Alternative or any other alliance, they failed miserably to challenge Barisan Nasional.

With Datuk Seri Anwar back, he held all 3 parties together and march ahead. He is like the buffalo pulling the cart. And the cart moves forward because of this man called Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

However, if we look at his age, he was born in 1947. He will soon be 61 years old. Malaysia's life expectancy rate for males are 71.9 years. Assuming he lives a healthy lifestyle and gets another ten out of the life expectancy rate, we can predict that he will have at maximum 21 years to rule Malaysia if and only if he takes over as PM in September.

But we cannot discount the fact that he might not be that fit physically to lead Malaysia for so long. Perhaps a 10 year term? We dont know that for sure.

We must however accept the fact that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will no longer lead PKR and Pakatan Rakyat one day. Pakatan Rakyat must understand that they need to find someone as influential and as crowd capturing as Anwar Ibrahim. Or else, they will sink.

I believe PAS new and young leaders are up to the task. I am not sure about DAP leadership but I have my eyes set on M Kulasegaran, Fong Po Kuan and Lim Guan Eng. So what about PKR?

PKR did not fare well without Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim. Under Datin Seri Wan Azizah, they performed miserably. It also appears to me that PKR does not have a clear successor after Anwar Ibrahim.

Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim and Azmin Ali seem like probable leaders of PKR in the future. Perhaps not Tan Sri Khalid Ibrahim given that he is now into state politics in Selangor. And I wonder if Azmin Ali will be the successor of PKR and perhaps Pakatan Rakyat if PKR remain the party with the most Parliamentary seats.

Life after Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in PKR will not be good, I am afraid. They might not be as strong as they are now be it in mainstream politics or in the alliance of Pakatan Rakyat. Unless of course, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim grooms a successor, which he is clearly not doing now as he is more focused on his sodomy case and national politics.

Hmm. Malaysian politics are always interesting and we never know what will happen tomorrow. Take for instance we have the rumours about PAS and UMNO. And like I said, the probable crash of PKR in future when Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is no longer around to lead the party. DAP will also be interesting to watch when Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh retires from politics.

Perhaps their sons will take over? Lim Guan Eng, Gobind Singh, Jagdeep Singh, Fong Po Kuan, M Kulasegaran. They seem like future leaders of DAP.

To wrap up, I believe the current leaders of Pakatan Rakyat need to formulate a clear succession plan just like the Barisan Nasional. That way, everything will be clear, systematic and proper for the benefit of Pakatan Rakyat and their component parties as well as for the future of Malaysian politics.