PKR - UMNO in the making?

PKR is going through real and democratic goings and comings. As from this weekend some 450,000 of its members are going to vote for their office bearers and officials and it is sizzling and scorching affair. The voting process is going to end on the 21st of November.

I am very enthusiastic to see the ultimate outcome of this party election as the party is going to determine its future outlook and disposition and from there we can safely conclude how the party is going to fare in the coming GE. It is exceedingly exciting and fascinating as PKR for the first time is allowing all its ordinary registered party members to vote for the party leadership line.

This direct voting by its registered members is the mode of election of party leaders which I wish to see to be applied in UMNO for past donkey years as part of the effort to do away with money politics which is at the moment impossible to restrain. In UMNO there were some effort to get some 45,000 members to vote for our national leaders but the issue is now in oblivion and no leader is mentioning anything about it any longer.

Now let us see how it goes with the campaign. Attention is very focused on the Deputy President post which imminently going to be a contest of 2 fashinable leaders Azmin Ali a founder member of the party and a newbie Datuk Zaid Ibrahim a person who is known to me as a strategic minded leader. Zaid, despite of being new has hit a mark as a very popular leader as he has been the darling of ordinary members and he is known as a very hardworking and much focused with what he wants to do.

But Zaid can have lots of lofty intentions and some of it has been visually realized since his entry in the party. Let’s talk about it later, but what disappoints many party members is lack of magnanimity of Anwar the party’s de facto leader who is undetectable with Azmin Ali. Azmin gets everything he wants and Anwar just can’t resist all demands from Azmin.

If Anwar is truly serious to strengthen the party he should be impartial and allow the delegates to choose freely. Nobody denies that Anwar can have his preference but going all out in the open to campaign for his favorite is just unwarrantable. If he succeeds in getting what he wants and whom to win then the party is not a party for its members but for his own family and lovable cronies. So what is the difference between PKR and UMNO?

One of its members said, ‘Let support Kak Wan as President and Nurul as one of the Vices. BUT let somebody from outside the family to be in between and the person proposed to fit in the need is Zaid Ibrahim.”

If Azmin is put in the slot, than the whole top stratum of the party is laden with Anwar’s family members and there is none from outside to represent the members in the lineup and that can be very precarious for a party which has been led by someone who used to shout aloud against cronyism and factionalism while he was in UMNO (baru).

Can Anwar explain how is he going to reconcile his stand while he was in UMNO (baru) and what he does in PKR at the moment?