COMMENT | It is that time again. The time when Pakatan Harapan goes into circular firing squad mode and reminds rational Malaysians why the opposition could not organise orgies in a brothel much less dethrone a kleptocratic regime.

While the Harapan base is in a state of apathy and frustration and the country polarised along racial and religious policies, the linchpin of Harapan – PKR – which is supposed to hold the coalition together is involved in a protracted internal fight for political relevance.

The always combative – which is a good thing – Saifuddin Nasution, is already waging a very public war – which is a not such good thing – with outlier personalities to prop up Anwar Ibrahim who has suffered setback after setback and imperilled the coalition with his political plays that border on the delusional.

If Saifuddin really believed in accountability, then the PKR political apparatus is to blame for the party’s abysmal performance for the past couple of years.

Not to mention, if decisions are truly made collectively, that the people leading PKR knew Anwar was making deals with corrupt Umno kleptocrats to gain strong formidable numbers which not only turned out to be a dud but also means the reform agenda was a crock of horse manure.

This would also mean that Anwar’s protestations, that Harapan and PKR failed because of low voter turnout and his supporters’ claim that the Johor election was a train wreck because of the lack of participation of Chinese voters, is complete bunkum.

Using Saifuddin’s logic, the people who hold responsibility – good or bad decisions – for PKR and Harapan's poor showing, is PKR and Anwar should accept full responsibility for these failures and should be held, check that, he would want to be held accountable. Of course, this is Harapan so everyone is pointing fingers.

Dissension in the ranks

Remember that manure show, which was the Malacca state election, where Harapan failed spectacularly? Anwar said Harapan - though there was dissension in the ranks - was giving frogs time to formally apply to join the coalition which was another nail in the coffin for the coalition.

In other words, he did not give a damn what his partners wanted, only what he and his coterie hoped would gain them an electoral advantage.

Tian Chua claiming that Harapan needs to work with anyone to ensure victory should inform us of the mindset of political operatives in PKR who coddled the old maverick and played dumb about the events leading up to the Sheraton Move.

Of course, this is not only a PKR problem, there were many in DAP and Amanah who felt the same way but PKR is supposed to be the Harapan centre.

Now is it any wonder that Rafizi Ramli says, “Sometimes these loyalists are the ones dragging him down”. Actually, it is not sometimes, it is always, and the real question is, who is enabling whom?

Is Anwar so frustrated that he has been so close to the crown but never able to wear it, enabling his minions to further his ends, or are his minions whispering in his desperate ears, that the only way to power is through the Malay establishment that has used and discarded PKR and Harapan?

It has come to a point where the emperor has no clothes and those around him have decided that PKR is a nudist colony instead of belling the cat.

Nobody wants to hold anyone accountable despite what Saifuddin claims and everyone is tiptoeing around the reality that the leadership in PKR has only one goal, and that seems to be getting Anwar onto the throne in Putrajaya.

PKR’s internal bickerings

In this situation, what are PKR members who think that this strategy is not only morally wrong but disastrous for Harapan to do?

Are they supposed to voice their dissent, like the usual sandiwara of mainstream Malaysian politics and just accept PKR is going down the crapper, or should they retreat from the fray?

The news cycle should not be dominated by items highlighting the internal bickerings of PKR. The narrative should not be of how Harapan is attempting to obstruct an election or courting political frogs or how Harapan is attempting to form another government through the backdoor.

Why? Because even as a strategy, Umno does it better. All these news stories do is feed into the narrative that Anwar is a power-hungry incompetent hack and that the “Chinese” DAP will do anything and everything to hang on to the coattails of Malay power brokers to secure power.

Now I am not unsympathetic to the realpolitik Anwar is in. He has the weight of expectations of the non-Malay community on his shoulders. The base of Harapan is the non-Malays. This means racial and religious extremists have a strategy against Anwar, which has worked well for decades.

The only reason Harapan exists is from the moves Anwar made, aided in better days by cohesive, even if flawed, opposition political operatives.

Similarly, the failure of Harapan today, be it electoral or otherwise, rests in the hands of political operatives who believed that by any means necessary, they would ditch alliances and policy frameworks that got them to the position to challenge Umno/BN in the first place.

Leadership in PKR

However, this should not detract from the fact that the electoral strategies Anwar and his people are deploying are not only not working but dragging down Harapan with them. Saifuddin talks a good game about accountability but what does this really mean? It means nothing.

Rafizi says, “I don't think I have a problem with the president”. Really you mean you don’t know for sure if you have a problem with the president?

If nobody has a problem with leadership then all that means is there are going to be proxy fights and the whole of PKR would spend more time firefighting internal feuds than coalescing around a winnable narrative.

This is the problem right here. Saifuddin talks about accountability and collective decision making which ends with Anwar deciding what to do and everyone else bending the knee.

Rafizi talks about how people are leading Anwar astray. Neither of which does any favours for Anwar but more importantly, Harapan.