If I give you a list containing the names of Anwar Ibrahim, Abdul Hadi Awang, Muhyiddin Yassin, and Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, how would you describe Anwar relative to the others?
You would probably describe him as :
The winner.
The favorite.
The dominant figure.
At the very least, the contender to beat.
But now imagine another list: this one has Anwar, Rafizi Ramli, Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar, Anthony Loke, and Khairy Jamaluddin.
Now suddenly, the words that come to mind are very different.
This time, if you were to describe Anwar, you would probably use the words:
Old.
Dated.
Yesterday’s man.
A political dinosaur.
And this may become one of PKR’s biggest problems heading into GE16.
PKR is now arguably the only major party in Malaysia that does not visibly project a younger generation of leadership.
Now, you might say: “But UMNO also isn’t exactly youthful.”
Fair enough. UMNO is still led by the septuagenarian Zahid Hamidi, who is arguably the least popular major political leader that we have had in recent years. But ever since Khairy rejoined UMNO last month, the party at least looks younger today than it did last month
PKR, meanwhile, has moved in the opposite direction.
Just yestersay, the party has effectively replaced Nurul Izzah Anwar with Amirudin Shari and Saifuddin Nasution Ismail as key faces of its election machinery.
Nurul Izzah was supposed to represent PKR’s next generation.
When she defeated Rafizi to become PKR’s number two last year, many assumed she was being positioned to spearhead the party’s generational transition and prepare PKR for the post-Anwar era.
But now that she has been sidelined, PKR increasingly resembles a senior citizens’ party that seems oddly uncomfortable with younger leadership.
First, it could not manage Rafizi.
Now, it cannot even retain Nurul Izzah — its own “Puteri Reformasi” and Anwar’s daughter.
Imagine a GE16 campaign stage featuring Anwar, Dr Sam, Rafizi, Anthony Lokeand Khairy together in the near future.
Dr Sam, Rafizi, Anthony and Khairy would probably look like politicians from the same political generation — modern, energetic, and able to speak the same cultural language.
Anwar, by contrast, risks looking completely out of place.
For all you know, if Rafizi, Dr Sam, and Khairy nostalgically talked about Windows 98, Anwar might respond by recalling how he too was saddened when the lead singer of The Doors died 71.
The more he tries to fit it, the more he will appear like a square peg in a round hole
That is the danger PKR faces.
Anwar risks looking like a horse drawn carriage in the middle of the Federal Highway.
An abacus in the age of AI.
A dial-up modem in the age of broadband.
He will, in other words, look like something that should be stored in a museum, not running to lead the country.
In one sense, this may not entirely be PKR’s fault.
Until earlier this year, Anwar still looked comfortably at the top of the game. Rafizi and Khairy were merely podcast hosts, while Dr Sam had not yet emerged as PN’s dominant figure.
Then everything changed very quickly.
Muhyiddin fell, taking Hamzah Zainudin down with him. Dr Sam suddenly rose to replace them and become PN’s central figure.
Khairy also unexpectedly returned to UMNO last month.
Then a week and half ago, Rafizi left PKR to lead a different party.
Within just a few months, Malaysian politics shifted from being dominated by senior citizens such as Hadi, Muhyiddin, Zahid, and Anwar to one increasingly centered around politicians in their late 40s and early 50s.
Who could blame Anwar and PKR for being caught off guard by such rapid change?
But there is also another way to look at this.
Perhaps PKR and Anwar were caught off guard so suddenly because they spent too long relying on the weaknesses of their opponents rather than strengthening themselves.
They became too comfortable assuming they did not need to evolve as long as UMNO and PN remained stagnant.
But history repeatedly shows that those who depend on the weakness of others instead of their own strength can fall very quickly once circumstances change.
And perhaps that is the real lesson here.
That there truly is nothing new under the sun.
That as the historian George Santayana said : “Those who forget history are indeed condemned to repeat it.”
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