The Pakatan Rakyat coalition needs to overcome its internal differences and stand united following the incarceration of its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim, political activist Ambiga Sreenavasan said last night.
The former Bersih 2.0 co-chairman and former Bar Council president said the voting public was fed up with the squabbles between component parties DAP and PAS over fundamental policy proposals such as hudud law and local elections.
“Pakatan Rakyat has no choice but to unite. It has to unite now for the people. It’s something we anticipate and it’s something we demand,” The Malay Mail Online‘s Mayuri Mei Lin reports her as saying, at last night’s ‘Anwar Imprisoned: the Future of Malaysian Politics’ forum in Petaling Jaya.
“Question now is, with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim in jail, can Pakatan Rakyat pull their socks up and pull themselves together? I think they can do it.”
Also speaking at the Malaysiakini-organised forum was PAS MP Dr Mujahid Yusof Rawa, who urged the parties in his coalition to admit it has internal problems.
“Stop saying we (PR) don’t have a problem. Yes, I admit, we have a problem but we are working to solve it,” he said.
He also dismissed the exaggerated impact of Anwar’s absence from Opposition politics, insisting that the unity of the PR coalition is a higher priority.
“Who will do the job (of leading PR) is not the issue, there’s no way they (Anwar’s replacement) can be the same (as him). You have to do away with that thinking. But Pakatan Rakyat must stay strong and united,” Mujahid said.
Ambiga also said that Anwar’s incarceration could prove to be a source of motivation for his supporters.
PKR vice-president Tian Chua, however, described Anwar’s incarceration as a major setback to the reformasi movement.
“To me, in 2008 (election) with the leadership of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim… the people wanted to see development from both Pakatan Rakyat and Barisan National. At first I saw this as a good sign, because we entered into a state of normalcy with two parties,
“Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s conviction shows we’ve turned back the clock to before 2008. We’re still having to talk about rights and freedom,” he said.
