Ok, has anyone told the prime minister that the reason why he is losing non-Malay support is because of all the Malay uber alles things he’s doing, which antagonise the base that put him in power?

Has anyone told him that Umno is running riot with its Youth chief, Dr Akmal Saleh, defining the racial and religious narrative of this government that makes Anwar look weak to the Malays?

More people believe that the prime minister views PKR as a placeholder for Umno than that Harapan wants to carry out reforms.

And keep in mind that this bodek (apple polisher) culture has got Rafizi into trouble with the Big Cheese of PKR before. Three years ago, Rafizi warned of a bodek culture that was seeping through PKR.

“What is important for the party and the new leadership is not really to try to physically ‘bodek’ Anwar or defend Anwar. Anwar Ibrahim is Anwar Ibrahim, he doesn’t need to be defended.

“What we need to do is to appeal to the people and try to win again,” Rafizi said.

And how did Anwar respond?

“He knows his focus, his role. He is no longer Rafizi di pinggiran (on the sideline).

“The person you were talking about just now is Rafizi di pinggiran. Today’s Rafizi is in the party’s top leadership.”

Internal dysfunction, uncertain goals

And it is funny because Nurul Izzah talked about the youth vote and yes, the prime minister in the past has acknowledged that he is not attracting the youth vote as before - “Of course, I do not have the strength to attract youth’s support, unlike 40 years ago.”

But here is the thing. What is PKR offering to youths that is different from what Perikatan Nasional is offering?

Rafizi talks about a luxury culture seeping into PKR. He talks about how new members are only there for the positions and perks. But here is the thing. All this happened under Anwar’s watch.

Perhaps if Rafizi had support, we would not have all these opportunists infecting the party. Honestly, all those reformasi stalwarts who were claiming that Anwar had changed were correct, but unfortunately, they were shouted down.

Rafizi said, “Over the years, Anwar has been given the power as the party president to allow any new party member to contest in an election despite not meeting the one-year minimum requirement, and Rafizi has publicly said he wants to end this power.

The question is, how much sway do these opportunists have over the party and over the prime minister?

What is PKR fighting for?

What is PKR really fighting for? PKR is now in the position to offer the bounties of government to the flotsam and jetsam of the Malay political establishment. People are essentially fighting over positions in a moribund political party, which may very well be wiped out in the next general election.

Sure, they may cling on to power in various states, but the reality is that if by now PKR has not got a grip on what it is and what it hopes to achieve, this may very well be the death knell of the party.

And haven’t we all heard this before? Anwar and his second-in-command sniping behind the scenes before it becomes public?

PKR supporters and their proxies in the media have to take sides, while the situation in the country gets worse.

This, in turn, creates the optics that, as the “Malay” vote-getter in Harapan, PKR is failing miserably, which then allows detractors to wallow in the kind of racism, especially on social media, which feeds into the narratives of the Malay uber alles parties.

Maybe Rafizi has defined what PKR is or has become, three years ago when he said this - “This whole idea that you bring someone to the top that he becomes a messiah, we have seen this for decades, and that is the reason we are in trouble now.”

By his speeches, Rafizi has defined this fight as one between himself and Anwar, with Nurul Izzah as a proxy for the latter. It remains to be seen even if Rafizi wins, what kind of PKR he would be leading.