PETALING JAYA: Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should be credited for promoting multiracial politics when he formed PKR back in 1999, but it could also prove to be his greatest weakness.
Former Umno Youth chief Khairy Jamaluddin explained that by leading a party that was not solely championing the Malays, it allows for the opposition parties to take advantage, considering the Malay-majority population in the country.
“Whatever you say about Anwar, at least he had the courage to set up a multiracial party. That is something you have to give him. Because when he was sacked by Umno, he could have set up a Malay-based party.
“But that is also Anwar’s problem, because by setting up PKR, it is very easy to move the Malay groups against him,” the Rembau MP said during the ‘Post-GE14 By-Elections: Implications for GE15’ forum, here today.
Khairy pointed out that the Malay support for PKR was not as high as it was with Umno, PAS or even PKR’s Pakatan Harapan (PH) ally Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia (PPBM).
“Perhaps, in an Anwar premiership, if it happens, we could see the strengthening of multiracial politics. Or it could go the other way, and we could see Umno and PAS attack PKR on that (race) ground,” he said.
Anwar was expelled from Umno and sacked as Deputy Prime Minister in 1998 by Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad after he was accused of sodomy.
He later led the ‘Reformasi’ movement and formed a new multiracial-based party known today as PKR.
