From Terence Netto
In spurning overtures to assuage his defeat in the PKR polls, former party deputy president Rafizi Ramli is treading a sensible path towards a return to prominence in his party.
He has declined his successor Nurul Izzah Anwar’s offer to be appointed as a second deputy president in the party.
He has also said he is not leaving PKR to form a new party.
Also, he has cautioned PKR against accepting Tengku Zafrul Aziz as a member, now that the latter has resigned from Umno and is seeking to join PKR.
Rafizi said allowing Tengku Zafrul, who has not resigned from the Cabinet, to join PKR would set an unhealthy precedent.
Tengku Zafrul joined the Cabinet on an Umno ticket. If he leaves Umno, he should properly resign from his ministerial post.
By turning a blind eye to this flouting of rules, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim is weakening a rules-based system.
By contrast, Rafizi is seen as adhering to the rules that underpin the system, whereas Anwar is seen as sticking by them only when it suits him.
Combined with Anwar’s tardiness in implementing the Reformasi agenda, it is he who is losing credibility, while Rafizi appears to be gaining it.
Hence, it is better for Rafizi to tread the more sensible path of withdrawing from the fray following his defeat in the deputy president contest.
A brief stay in the political wilderness is sometimes necessary for politicians to resurge when circumstances change and those who replaced them are found to be terribly wanting.
Nurul Izzah is a candidate for this fate because she has done little to merit her elevation within PKR, her success at beating Rafizi coming when there has been an electoral wipeout of PKR in her family’s bastion of Permatang Pauh.
All she has going for her is the aura of being Anwar Ibrahim’s daughter.
But this kind of political capital is the flimsiest of assets. When the beguiled finally discover it to be empty, they are apt to regard it as fraudulent in the first place.
The reckoning that follows is often grim for aura-riding leaders, from Eva Perón to Imelda Marcos.
Rafizi would do well to take note that political exile has often been the proving ground from which estimable leaders have returned stronger.
What he could now beneficially do is formulate a political ideology for PKR, a party that has lacked one since the Reformasi movement was born 27 years ago.
The Reformasi movement was always sure of what it was against – cronyism, nepotism and abuse of power – than what it was for and the philosophical basis of that alignment.
It is easier to fight for principles than to live by them. The latter requires knowledge of political philosophy.
But just now, Rafizi has shown he has principles. He now has the time to explore their philosophical underpinnings.
Terence Netto is a senior journalist and an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.