The sacking of Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim as deputy prime minister in September 1998 and his subsequent imprisonment unleashed a broad-based reform movement in Malaysia.
Never before in Malaysian political history had a political power struggle among the political elite generated such widespread interest and mobilisation among the masses. Street demonstrations filled the streets of Kuala Lumpur, and chants of “Reformasi” rang loud and clear.
Malaysians increasingly felt that something was fundamentally wrong with the country’s political and judicial systems. The excesses of developmentalism had begun to reveal their cracks, exposing deeper tensions within Malaysia’s political and institutional order. Growing authoritarianism and competition for political largesse revealed the weaknesses of a one-party-dominant political system characterised by weak checks and balances.
Consequently, Anwar’s sacking and imprisonment became a rallying call for an all-out reform of a political system that many Malaysians regarded as increasingly unresponsive and unaccountable.
The Reformasi movement subsequently gave birth to Parti Keadilan Nasional, which emerged as a political vehicle for the reform movement and, following its merger with Parti Rakyat Malaysia in 2003, became Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
From its inception, however, the party was shaped by the intense political struggles surrounding Anwar and the competing ambitions of its senior leaders. While PKR gradually established itself as one of the principal components of the opposition and later of the Pakatan Harapan coalition, internal tensions repeatedly challenged its organisational cohesion.
The political crisis in Selangor in 2014, culminating in the removal of Tan Sri Abdul Khalid Ibrahim as menteri besar, exposed deep divisions within the party and the competing political ambitions of Anwar and Datuk Seri Azmin Ali. These tensions would resurface more dramatically in the events leading to the Sheraton Move in February 2020, when Azmin and a group of PKR and Pakatan Harapan politicians withdrew their support for the then government, contributing to the collapse of the Pakatan Harapan administration. Azmin subsequently left PKR, taking with him a number of senior party figures and elected representatives.
The departure of Azmin did not, however, bring an end to factional competition within PKR. The emergence of Datuk Seri Rafizi Ramli as a prominent political figure and his subsequent political contestation with Anwar and other elements within the party reflected another phase of internal tension.
Rafizi’s eventual resignation from PKR in 2025 further illustrated the difficulties faced by the party in managing competing political ambitions and maintaining internal cohesion. These internal struggles have occurred against a broader backdrop of electoral challenges.
PKR and its coalition partners have suffered setbacks in a number of state elections, including in Sabah, Johor and Negeri Sembilan, raising questions about the party’s organisational strength, electoral appeal and ability to translate its position at the federal level into sustained support at the state level.
More fundamentally, the evolution of PKR raises questions about the transformation of a protest movement into an established political organisation.
The party that emerged from the streets of Reformasi was initially defined by opposition to executive dominance, political patronage, institutional abuse and the concentration of power within the ruling establishment.
Yet, as PKR moved from opposition to government, it became increasingly exposed to the same political pressures it had once criticised. The demands of coalition politics, the management of competing personalities and the pursuit of electoral viability inevitably created tensions between the party’s reformist ideals and the practical requirements of political survival.
This transformation has also altered the nature of the party’s relationship with its supporters. The emotional appeal of Reformasi in 1998 was rooted in a powerful sense of injustice and a belief that political change could fundamentally transform Malaysian society.
Almost three decades later, that sense of historical purpose is inevitably more difficult to sustain. Younger voters, many of whom did not experience the events of 1998, are less likely to view Reformasi through the same historical lens. For them, questions of economic opportunity, governance, corruption, institutional performance and the cost of living may be more important than the political struggles of the past.
PKR is facing the difficult task of renewing its political narrative while preserving the reformist identity that gave birth to the party.
The trajectory of PKR therefore presents a striking paradox. Born out of a powerful popular movement demanding political reform, greater accountability and an end to authoritarian practices, the party eventually became part of the federal government it had spent decades opposing.
Yet its evolution has also been marked by recurring leadership struggles, factionalism and defections.
The political crises involving Khalid, Azmin and, more recently, Rafizi suggest that the tensions that have characterised PKR are not merely personal disputes between individual leaders but reflect deeper questions about power, succession, ideology and organisational control within the party.
The history of PKR is consequently not only a story of the transformation of the Reformasi movement into a political party; it is also a story of the difficulties of institutionalising reform within a political organisation itself.
