The death of Reformasi

PKR, which has its roots in the reform movement born 16 years ago, is now almost a duplicate of Umno.

COMMENT

The Reformasi movement was born 16 years ago in 1998, soon after Anwar Ibrahim was sacked from Umno and the Cabinet and subsequently arrested and charged with corruption and sodomy.

Soon after that, on April 4, 1999, an estimated 1,000 Reformasi activists attended the launching of a new party, Parti Keadilan Nasional (PKN), at the Renaissance Hotel in Kuala Lumpur. Jalan Ampang was so jam-packed that the police had to be called in to clear the congestion.

That was supposed to be a new era for Malaysian politics. PAS, the Islamic party that was born as a splinter of Umno and the greatest threat to the main partner in Barisan Nasional, watched with interest and concern as to which direction PKN was going.

PKN was initially seen as an insignificant Anwarina party, or a party created to fight for Anwar’s freedom. However, eight months later, in Malaysia’s tenth general election, it won five state seats and five parliament seats and together with PAS managed to form the Kelantan and Terengganu state governments. And one year later, it won in a by-election to deny Barisan Nasional its two-third majority in the Kedah State Assembly.

PKN appeared to be on the road to becoming a main player in Malaysian politics, but in the following general election, it practically got wiped out, with only party president Dr Wan Azizah Ismail winning a seat. And she won only after a second count of the votes. Some say that if a third count had been done, as it should have been done, she would have lost.

What happened to PKN? It started with great promise just to get massacred after only one election? The answer to that question is PKN treated itself like a shuttle; it jettisoned the Reformasi movement after it thought it was on the way to federal power.

The split between PKN and the Reformasi movement became visible in 2003 during Nurul Izzah Anwar’s wedding. Text messages were sent to the Reformasi activists to not cemar (contaminate) the wedding (meaning you are not invited). This was because many VIPs would be attending and the hosts did not want any scruffy people around.

Nurul Izzah, of course, did not know this. She was then Puteri Reformasi and she would certainly have been appalled had she been told that the street people, the Reformasi activists, were barred from her wedding.

According to activist Raja Komando’s security guards, posted outside the house to prevent gatecrashers, the directive came from Azmin Ali. In fact, Raja Komando himself said uninvited guests such as journalists and photographers would need Azmin’s permission to enter the house, even those from the party newspaper, Seruan Keadilan.

By 2004, many of the 1,000 people who attended the launch of PKN five years earlier had left the party. Some joined or rejoined Umno while many just faded away and rode off into the sunset. Very few of PKN’s founding fathers remain.

PKN, now called PKR or Parti Keadilan Rakyat, forgot its roots. It also forgot the ideals of its original struggle. Today, PKR is almost a duplicate of Umno while Umno is beginning to look like a duplicate of PAS.

Many who joined and/or supported PKN in 1999 did so because of the ideals of the struggle that the party was associated with. They were not so much politicians as they were activists for reforms. Many still hold true to their ideals but they no longer see PKR as the platform for that struggle. And this is why most of the 1,000 faces of April 14, 1999, can no longer be seen.

These people did not betray PKR. Instead, PKR betrayed them. And because of this PKR the Reformasi movement is now dead and buried in an unmarked grave somewhere.

Roslan Bistamam is an FMT columnist