A couple of days ago, PKR removed its deputy president Nurul Izzah Anwar as the party’s election director.
Nurul Izzah, the eldest daughter of PKR president and Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, had been appointed co-election director alongside Saifuddin Nasution Ismail in June 2025, just a month after defeating Rafizi Ramli for the party deputy presidency.
Yet less than a year later, she has been replaced by Amirudin Shari.
When I reflected on Nurul Izzah’s rather lacklustre stint as PKR election chief, I was reminded of Rafizi himself.
During his time in PKR’s upper leadership, Rafizi often appeared underwhelming. His tenure as economy minister was widely viewed as disappointing and uninspiring and he unceremoniously lost his Number 2 of PKR post to Nurul Izzah last year.
But after leaving PKR, whether we agree with him or not, it is difficult to deny that Rafizi suddenly began to shine.
He reinvented himself as a podcast host and political commentator. He began speaking more freely, sounding sharper, more energetic, and more politically dangerous than he ever did while constrained within PKR’s leadership structure.
Last month, he even succeeded in pressuring the government into not renewing Azam Baki’s contract.
In fact, Rafizi has been shining so brightly outside PKR that even my own perception of him has changed. Last year, I viewed him as something of a sore loser after his defeat within PKR. Today, however, I increasingly see him as the main reason why Anwar and PKR will most likely fall in the coming election— and perhaps also emerge one of the winners of the next general election.
And this raises an uncomfortable question.
When Rafizi appeared lackluster within PKR but suddenly flourished outside it, and when Nurul Izzah herself now seems unable to shine within the party structure, we must ask whether the problem lies with the individuals themselves — or with PKR.
Of course, there is always the possibility that Nurul Izzah simply lacks leadership qualities.
People often forget that leadership requires both desire and ability.
Some people desire leadership without possessing the skills necessary for it. Others possess the skills but have no genuine desire to lead. Neither makes a good leader.
A true leader must possess both.
They must possess vision, courage, energy, determination and the ability to understand the hearts and minds of the people. They must be capable of inspiring others and willing to shoulder the greatest burden of responsibility in leading their people, according to their vision, towards the "promised land."
But beyond that, they must also genuinely enjoy leadership itself — they must take delight in interacting with people, serving them, earning their trust, and take pride and satisfaction in being bestowed with honours and praise for a job well done.
If you only have the desire but not the skills, you will end up not enjoying serving or interacting with the people, and you are definitely not going to be praised or honored by your people either.
On the other hand, if you have the skills but lacks the desire, you are most definitely going to burn out before you make a mark, because no one can sustain long-term commitment to something they do not genuinely desire.
Without both desire and ability, leadership eventually collapses.
Now, one of the most important responsibilities of any leader is preparing the next generation of leaders.
And to do that, a leader must first be capable of recognising leadership potential in others.
As the saying goes, “it takes a thief to know a thief”—and as it is with thieves, so it is with leaders.
It is only when a leader worth their salt, who posses both the ability and the desire to lead that is ruling at the top, that they will be able to recognise the same potential in younger leaders, and use their position and authority to give the younger leaders the space, platform, and opportunity to develop and improve themselves as leaders.
This is why PKR’s repeated failure to produce strong next-generation leadership raises troubling questions.
Not once, but twice, PKR seems to have struggled to elevate successors capable of shining within the party structure itself.
Which naturally brings us back to Anwar.
We know Anwar has the desire to be a leader, but does he have sufficient ability?
We cannot say that Anwar lacks ability—he is undoubtedly a daring figure with boundless energy, and he certainly has a knack for reading the hearts and minds of the people. But the deeper question is his vision. Is he truly leading the country towards a clear direction, or is he simply moving in circles, with no other aim than to ensure that he is at the head of the march thoroughout this endless carousel?
One way we judge a leader is by the calibre of the people surrounding him.
After the Battle of Issus, Sisygambis, the Queen Mother of the defeated Persian king , would mistakenly bow before Hephaestion, Alexander the Great's companion, because she that believed Hephaestion, who was taller than the Macedonian king and similarly dressed, to be Alexander.
Rather than taking offence, Alexander famously reassured her:
“Do not worry. He too is Alexander.”
That moment captured something important about great leadership.
Alexander’s companions shone brightly in their own right, to the point that those who did not know them had difficulties telling him apart from his companions.
The same can be said of George Washington, who surrounded himself with outstanding figures like Jefferson and Franklin during his reign.
Malaysia’s own founding father, Tunku Abdul Rahman, was surrounded by towering personalities such as Abdul Razak Hussein, Ismail Abdul Rahman, V. T. Sambanthan, Tan Cheng Lock, and Khir Johari.
On the occasion of Eid yesterday, I would say that even the early Islamic community offers a similar example. One sign that the pre-Islamic Meccan leadership was morally bankrupt and ethically corrupt, was that figures such as Abu Bakr and Umar could not flourish within it, but quickly rose to unsurpassed greatness outside of it under the leadership of Muhammad.
And this is precisely why the Rafizi phenomenon is politically significant.
If capable politicians repeatedly fail to shine within PKR, only to flourish outside of it, then eventually we must stop blaming the individuals alone, isn't it.
Considering how figures like Rafizi Ramli struggled to truly shine within PKR, and how even Nurul Izzah also appears unable to fully flourish in the same environment, and considering that Rafizi, seems to shine brightly outside of PKR—and considering that it is individuals such as Ramanan, Fadhlina Sidek and Farhash that appear to be doing well in PKR, it inevitably raises a difficult question: is the perceived underperformance of Rafizi and Nurul Izzah due to their own shortcomings, or is PKR that is the problem ?
I doubt Nurul Izzah will ever leave PKR. The party is not merely her father’s creation — it is also part of her own political identity.
But other PKR politicians are leaving PKR, if these politicians start shining brighter outside of PKR than within it, just as Rafizi did, then at some point, we are going to ask ourselves some difficult questions about Anwar’s leadership.
Is Anwar truly a leader worth his salt?
If yes, why doesn't anyone know what his vision is?
Why does he struggle to identify and cultivate strong successors?
Why do so many figures selected and elevated within his system disappoint, while those sidelined, rejected, or constrained by the party often appear far more effective once outside it?
A political party can survive one failed successor. Perhaps even two.
But when talented figures repeatedly stagnate within a party, only to flourish after leaving it, the problem may no longer lie with the individuals themselves.
It may lie with the culture, structure, and leadership of the party itself.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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