Anwar's seven costly mistakes

Anwar was very bold before the 2008 general election and it was he who managed to put the three parties together to form the Pakatan Rakyat. But he has changed since the sodomy charges were filed against him, and the embarrassing failure of a purported regime change scheduled for 16 September 2008.

By LIM SUE GOAN, My Sinchew
Translated by SOONG PHUI JEE

I am not sure who is behind the "Oust Anwar” campaign" mentioned by PKR adviser Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim.

But. I do agree that Anwar is surely not truly qualified to lead the Pakatan Rakyat based on an assessment on his performance over the past two years.

Anwar has made at least seven costly mistakes.

First, he has not responded to Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak's transformation plans.

Najib has been going all out to conduct reforms since he took the office in April last year. He introduced the 1Malaysia concept, Key Performance Indicators (KPI), National Key Result Areas (NKRA), Government Transformation Plan (GTP) and Economic Transformation Programme (ETP).

As the Pakatan Rakyat supremo, Anwar should have a counter-strategy to the Najib blueprint, but he has not responded at all so far, but just let swing voters gradually lured by the BN.

Secondly, he has allowed the Pakatan Rakyat morale to sink. Although the Pakatan Rakyat won eight of the 13 by-elections, it has been defeated in the recent ones, except in Sibu because of Chinese votes.

The Pakatan Rakyat has been facing both internal and external problems and its members have lost their high morale of the 2008 general election. Anwar has not come out with new strategies to boost morale.

Thirdly, Anwar has no plan to implement reforms. The Pakatan Rakyat was able to gain control of five states after the 2008 general election because it has promised to carry out reforms. Anwar has apparently taken the people's support for granted and does not fulfill his election commitments, making the promised reforms remaining as mere slogans.

Fourthly, the Pakatan Rakyat is still a loose organization, and there is no effort to consolidate and strengthen the coalition. Compared with the BN, the Pakatan Rakyat lacks an effective structure and organisation, and its discipline is in a mess.

The Pakatan Rakyat is also facing contradictions and conflicts in terms of political ideology and has failed to introduce new policies.

Fifthly, there is no no political resource intergration. Anwar should apply his administrative experience as the deputy prime minister in integrating the resources of the four Pakatan Rakyat state governments and introducing a plan to stimulate economy in the four states. The blank in this area has caused the Pakatan Rakyat state governments to lack performance to retain confidence of their supporters.

As the economic adviser for Selangor, Anwar has shown no achievement so far.

Sixth, Anwar seems helpless to quell the PKR infighting. Internal problems of the PKR had been started since the 2008 general election, including choosing inappropriate election candidates and resolving problems by creating by-election through resignations. The people will not be cheated again and again.

The withdrawal of Perak state assembly members from the party has caused the collapse of the Perak Pakatan Rakyat state government. A few MPs and state assembly members have also quit the party after that. Anwar claimed it as a plot by Umno, but he has never seriously put any effort in resolving the factional, personnel and power struggle problems in the party.

Eventually, it leads to the outbreak of a major crisis in the party. Again, Anwar puts the blame on a conspiracy outside the party. He is too lazy even to find a more decent reason.

Finally, Anwar lacks the ability to lead and judge: A leader should be responsible, fair and unbiased. Anwar's stand in the party election is ambiguous.

For the direct election mechanism, even outsiders have expected problems, but why did an experienced leaders like Anwar fail to anticipate them? Isn't the situation not serious enough to cause concern when 165 complaints about unfairness of the party election had been received?

Anwar was very bold before the 2008 general election and it was he who managed to put the three parties together to form the Pakatan Rakyat. But he has changed since the sodomy charges were filed against him, and the embarrassing failure of a purported regime change scheduled for 16 September 2008.

Leaders can always be replaced and the most important thing is achieving the main goals. Replacing the leaders might bring an opportunity to change. However, the plight of the Pakatan Rakyat is that there is at present no visible suitable candidate to replace Anwar.