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PKR heads into its 2026 National Congress this weekend at a pivotal moment for the party. While it remains the party of the Prime Minister, however, recent state election setbacks and high-profile departures have intensified scrutiny of PKR’s future. Will this weekend’s Congress mark the beginning of a renewal for PKR? On this episode of #ConsiderThis Melisa Idris speaks with Nabil Halimi, Vice Chief for PKR Youth.
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00:10Hello and good evening. I'm Melissa Igras. Welcome to Consider This. This is the show
00:15where we want you to consider and then reconsider what you know of the news of the day. PKR heads
00:20into its 2026 National Congress this weekend at a pivotal moment for the party. While it remains
00:27the party of the Prime Minister, however, recent state election setbacks as well as some high
00:32profile departures have really intensified scrutiny into the state of PKR's future. So
00:40will this weekend's Congress mark the beginning of a renewal for PKR? Well, let's ask our first
00:47guest tonight, Dr. Ku Yinghui, who is an Associate Professor at the Department of International and
00:52Strategic Studies at University of Malaya. Yinghui, it's good to have you back on the show
00:57with me. So heading into the Congress this weekend, how concerned should PKR be? How would
01:05you assess the state of PKR going into this weekend's National Congress? Well, I guess PKR should
01:12be very concerned, but I think that's not new entirely. But I think what we are now seeing
01:19is that it is not just one isolated setback, but there has been accumulated issues that we see,
01:26such as electoral losses in Johor and Negri-sen-Vilan, the important leaders leaving, and now we have
01:33Nuro Iza. And then of course, we have Wong Chan as well. And then the questions over the succession is
01:39serious. And also, I think the dissatisfaction among the parts of its traditional support base. And also,
01:48perhaps I think I would like to focus a little bit more on the growing uncertainty over what PKR now
01:56represents really. And I think that is really the gist of how people are frustrated. Because I think
02:02while we see PKR has survived turbulence throughout the histories, if we look at coming from the reformist
02:10movements and turn into the political parties, of course, we need to understand the history first,
02:16that where PKR coming from, but we cannot dismiss the fact that, you know, after decades, two decades,
02:22and of course, reformacy that the people now term it reformati quickly become much bigger than
02:30Anwar Ibrahim himself. And it became about, you know, we really need to talk about institutional reform,
02:38judicial independence and corruption, democratic freedom and so forth. But I think what we continue to
02:45see is that Anwar remained as a central of this story, really. And I think in November 2022, I think
02:54that's where it draws really the big turning point that the long political journey really reached the
03:01destination. So that makes people also questions, you know, now Anwar became the Prime Minister. So the
03:09question now is really what comes after achieving the goal around which so much of the party's history was
03:16being really organised. So I think that is where, you know, there was so much of a tension being put
03:21in
03:21Johor, Negeri Sembilan, that it is not just about election defeats, but really about the warning signs,
03:30as we are also talking about leading towards the general elections 16 as well. So I think what
03:38what we really see is that earlier, you also mentioned about the departures of Rafizi, and then we have
03:46the departures of Nick Nasby, and they formed Bersama. So collectively, I think we see the patterns.
03:52And now everybody was talking about Nurul Izzah, the temporary leaves, and there were contradictions
03:59among what the PKR leaders has been saying, why she actually left the PKR itself. So I think
04:05coming towards this National Congress this weekend, I guess the worst thing will be if the PKR still
04:13continues saying about reassuring itself that everything is fine, but I don't think so. I guess
04:19a political parties like a PKR now really should ask the question, as I earlier mentioned, Anwar has
04:28become a Prime Minister? Was it the end of the political journey of the PKR? And what exactly is
04:35the beginning of the PKR, the next one? So I think that is a very big question that everybody was
04:41asking. Wonderful. So you're right, absolutely right. I mean, PKR was built on a very powerful proposition,
04:48right? Reformasi, Anwar Ibrahim, multiracial democratic politics. But after four years being
04:54in government, the proposition has become harder to distinguish from incumbent politics, ordinary
05:01incumbent politics. I'm wondering, Ying Hui, whether you think that being in government, has that changed
05:08PKR more than PKR has changed the way Malaysia has been governed? Well, I must say I really love that
05:16question because I think it somehow forces us to really reconsider one of the explanations we have
05:23relied on for the past few years. As I earlier mentioned, since November 2022 especially. And of course,
05:30my answer is yes. Increasingly, I think there is a real danger that we see how government has changed
05:38PKR more than PKR has changed the nature of the government itself. And since 2022, whenever people
05:48have criticized about the pace of reform, why is it so slow? The standard response is always because
05:55it's a unity government. I think we should really move beyond that and stop using that as
06:00an excuse of how PKR and PH do not govern alone. So they had to compromise and things like that
06:08because they have to work with the Barisan Nasional and the others and do not have simple parliamentary
06:16majorities and therefore compromising is unavoidable. And we see Bakatan Harapan and the PKR still
06:23continuing singing this kind of tune. And I think that argument, of course, is not entirely wrong. But I
06:30think after nearly four years, you also mentioned about four years, yeah, being in the government,
06:35and I think at some point, a political party has to stop explaining itself through the coalition
06:41partner itself and start answering for themselves as well. Because PKR does have a very different history
06:50compared to many other political parties that we have here. So I think to answer this question,
06:55we need to go back to the spirit of the original spirit of PKR really. So when we evaluate PKR
07:03today,
07:04I know a lot of analysts will look at, you know, you have not fulfilled certain manifestos, your election
07:09manifesto. But I think the more important question now that I reflect that because I used to say, oh,
07:15because it's a unity government compromising, but it's just too long. And I think we should really ask,
07:22does PKR still behave according to its political principles that justify its existence in the very
07:31first place. So that means I think we are not just looking at legislation reforms, but I think the
07:39political culture, have they really changed that? And we all know that political culture is one of the
07:44main culprits when it comes to Malaysian politics. So how does PKR actually exercise powers? How does it
07:53react when being criticized? How comfortable PKR is when, you know, people do not agree with them? Or do
08:00they still see the civil society as a democratic partner, for instance, you know, all these questions
08:07remain unanswered? Yes, to be to be fair, I think we've seen some progress, but very limited, I will say,
08:16given the years that has really passed by. So my criticisms were really about, my assessment will be
08:24really about whether the scale and the character of the transformation actually match with what they
08:31have been always talking about. The reformacy that is, well, I think people no longer really believe. So I
08:39think today also to answer that question, ideological boundary is also very important. And I think in
08:49several occasions, I've talked about ideologies quite a little bit. And I think the ideology boundary is
08:55less clear now, almost none actually. So pragmatism is being used very frequently. And I think, but I, in my
09:06view, political parties always become very vulnerable, when their ideology no longer distinguish from the
09:15needs of their leaders or the requirements of the governments, you know. So I think when we ask these
09:20questions like, you know, whether being in the government has changed PKR more than PKR has changed
09:26the government, I think I would just like to conclude this question with three points here. First, I think
09:34we need to ask about institutions, has the PKR actually changed the rule of Malaysian politics so that
09:40the future government can be actually constrained by the stronger institution itself? The second is the
09:48ideology that I mentioned earlier on, that can PKR still explain very clearly, how does it different
09:55from the other political parties, their coalition partners and the competitors. And third is the
10:02leadership culture, which I think also something that we're going to talk about is PKR producing people
10:08that capable of exercising authority independently of Anwar Ibrahim, just that one man itself.
10:15Yeah. Well, on that note, PKR really does have a succession problem. It's now becoming very,
10:20it's becoming impossible not to talk about, impossible to avoid, and not still the centre of gravity.
10:26Amiruddin Shari and Saifuddin Nasution, I think, increasingly coming to the fore, becoming the next,
10:32the next phase for the party. What do you think? Do you think that these, these are figures that can
10:38command authority that can command or take PKR to the next phase, maybe even a post-Anwar era?
10:46Yeah. Well, I think that is a problem of not just PKR very often, yeah, in the context of Malaysia.
10:53And I think at the moment, I really don't see PKR has demonstrated that it has a credible succession
11:01system. I'll call it a system. Yes, there are a few names that you have just mentioned, like the upcoming
11:07leaders.
11:08But my question is how much power that they have, how influential they are really. And I think I deliberately
11:16say
11:16succession system because rather than asking who is a successor is, because I think Malaysian politics are often very obsessed
11:25with personalities,
11:26personalities, yeah, very personalities driven and then it's never changed. So we always ask who comes,
11:33who is next after Anwar Ibrahim. But what's more important for me in the context of PKR is whether
11:42that does the PKR actually build a party that capable of producing leadership after Anwar et al?
11:49Did they really serious about, you know, the succession plans and things like that? Because for me,
11:53succession is not just simply about looking for a charismatic figure and just transfer the authority
12:00to that person, you know, because a mature political party, which we have yet to really find in the context
12:07of Malaysia, really, should have the leaders with their own ideas, their own credibility, even their own
12:14disagreement with the president sometimes. But all these are very often not being tolerated very well,
12:21not being discussed very well. So we see a lot of internal party titles and things like that. And I
12:27think that is particularly important because it also creates this thing about looking at PKR just from
12:35the historical narrative or the political destinations of a party that has been there for more than two
12:43decades with a very different history as reformist parties, as I earlier mentioned. And of course,
12:50now we're talking about Nuro Iza. Earlier, also, you mentioned about, you know, well, this is where I guess
12:57Nuro Iza has to be discussed whether you agree with it or not agree with it. Of course, it is
13:02to simplify if we just
13:04reduce her role to be she's Anwar Ibrahim's daughter. Well, yes, you cannot deny that she has her own political
13:12record and
13:13her in parliament, build an identity of her own and won the deputy presidency and so forth. That legitimacy should
13:23be
13:23somehow acknowledged. But I think the family question also cannot simply be brushed aside either. I guess it is a,
13:31you know,
13:32it's a dilemma being, having, you know, if you happen to build a family dynasty, which is also something that
13:40we
13:40go against with. So the question is really then, what's next? And I think the issues, the next issues about
13:50the
13:51succession is of course, they really talk about succession plan genuinely open and transparent. And I think that is also
13:59missing, you know, there was a lot of conflicting
14:02reporting, reporting coming out, this PKR leader does not agree with the other one. And I think those have actually
14:08created a lot of dissatisfaction also from the people as well, when it comes to the succession plan.
14:14Yeah. Well, Ying Hui, we're running out of time for this segment, but I do just in a minute or
14:20so that we
14:21have left, can I ask you, coming into the Congress, what is it that you're coming out of the Congress
14:26this
14:26weekend? What is it that you think that the PKR's new political proposition should be?
14:30I would think that they need to really re-look at this, the original spirit that they want to
14:39build a multi-racial political parties. This is still something that I think is still missing in the
14:45context of Malaysia, whereby we continue to talk about the divisions of the race, religions.
14:49So, and now we know a lot of political parties are built around, surrounding the race and religions.
14:56So PKR has advantage of that, but they have not really lived up to that aspiration. So I think they
15:04should rebuild on, you know, being a genuinely multi-racial political parties, because that is
15:10really important in the context of Malaysia. And so that, because we do need a different political
15:17language nowadays that can be cutting across all these boundaries. And you know, the three R's really
15:23does not sit very well over here. And I think to talk about this is that I think the political
15:31propositions, there's a few points that I will summarize it. That is, one is the democratic institutions.
15:38That is not new, but I think they should become the party that continue to talk about building
15:44institutions strong enough to survive the changes of the government. Because the goal is really not
15:51making just one person become the prime minister and then that continues and keep winning the elections
15:57by doing all the calculations of C's and things like that. And the second is the economy. I think
16:02economy is seriously very important. While they always put up a lot of beautiful statistics, but yet I think
16:10Malaysians, particularly the younger Malaysians here do not really see that happening to them. And I
16:18think that has to be tackled as well. And then the third is to rediscover these multi-racial propositions
16:26that I earlier mentioned. And my fourth, the last one will be the genuine generational renewal. We talk too much
16:34about young voters, but I think young politicians is also very important. So give the younger politicians
16:42the actual power and allow them to actually build their own independent constituency and not actually
16:50have to rely on the old political cultures and let them have the say to actually debate the leadership
16:57itself. Wonderful. Ying Hu, thank you so much for being on the show. Dr. Ku Ying Hu there from University
17:02Leia. We're going to take a quick break now and consider this. We'll be back with more. Stay tuned.
17:07Hi, welcome back to Consider This. I'm Melissa Idris. Let's continue our discussion about PKR as it heads
17:14into its national congress this weekend. Delegates there will face a difficult question as to recent
17:21electoral losses, party unity and whether reformasi still has the same meaning today for a new generation of
17:29Malaysians. So let's speak to our next guest who is the vice chief for PKR youth, Nabil Halini. Nabil,
17:35thank you so much for being on the show with me today. Going into this weekend's Congress, can you maybe
17:40give us some insight? Can you describe the mood inside PKR right now? What are you hearing from your
17:46party members? Thank you, Melissa, for having me today. First of all, I think Congress is I think next
17:54tomorrow will start with our ceremony. And I think this is a ticking point for us after two consecutive
18:04elections that we've lost. You know, as though we government in federal, but now we were struggling in
18:10the sense of being relevant and getting the supporters down to vote first. And a lot of disheartening
18:20from the members of the party. And I think this time Congress would be a place where, you know, members
18:28would come up to express their feelings about where should the party go. And I think that the laws in
18:35two consecutive
18:37state elections would also see how do we strategize, how do we realign as a political party. And I think
18:45now it's about surviving as a federal government and also surviving the survival of the party. And
18:53the Congress would also be as a good platform for us to reassess, to realign, to re-strategize.
19:02And I mean, the most important part is to rejuvenate our support, our base supporter of
19:08Pakatan Harapan and also Keadilan.
19:10Right. Nabil, is there a sense, a kind of awareness within the party that there is a problem, that there
19:17is
19:17a need for rethinking that you mentioned there's concern about survival of the party even. Is there a
19:25feeling that there's a problem or is there still more a discussion about a diagnosis of the problem
19:30and the like?
19:31I mean, I've got to be honest. I mean, as a leadership in the youth wings, I hold a bit
19:37more
19:37progressive thoughts on this. I mean, let's be honest and let's not sugarcoat things that we are
19:44struggling. We are looking in the sense of how do we survive after PRU16. And I've got to say, of
19:53course,
19:53we have the strength of being the federal government, being the government in Selangor.
19:57But the votes that we've seen for two consecutive state elections showed that we are not doing
20:04enough as a government. I'm pretty sure, yes, Keadilan and the Reform Party have done their best
20:14tremendously in the sense of economic stability. But I think peoples are not getting to understand
20:21what's going on up there.
20:23Right. So does being in government make it harder for PKR to be a critical voice? You know,
20:30the critical voice that it once was, that it once was when it was in opposition, especially because
20:35a lot of the times we hear the explanation of PKR when kind of justifying government decisions. They say,
20:43oh, it's a coalition government. It's a unity government. We are part of, we have to consider our
20:48our members. Is it harder for PKR now to defend the decisions made by its own coalition?
20:55I think it's, it is hard. I mean, we've got to be realistic. We are in a, in a unity
21:01government.
21:02A compromisation has been the age of this stability. And I believe despite the compromisation, despite the
21:12challenge that people are saying, we are not doing enough, I think Malaysia Madani has, has been doing
21:18their best in the sense of pushing things in parliament, especially good bills are coming,
21:26is already done procurement bill, you know, rationalisations of subsidies, but probably it's not
21:34enough for the people to see Keadilan as a reform party. And I'm guessing after this two state election,
21:40especially in the sense of BNPN combined, you know, we've got to put our firmness in doing reforms
21:50in the parliament and to actually get that confidence from the public.
21:57Right. So, so for you as a young person in PKR, what does reformasi mean to a younger member of
22:04PKR today?
22:05Yeah, I'm, I'm guessing back then reformasi, it was, was some, some word that would, you know,
22:12you would see it as a change, a hope for Malaysia. But now I think we are a government. And
22:19I think
22:20the current generation, especially mine, we are expecting things to be done despite whatever reason,
22:26despite compromisations that's happening. I think we've got to be firm with our decision. We've got to make
22:32sure that the initiatives that's being done in the federal government in every inch of supports that
22:39we've given to the public is, uh, transferred into, uh, understanding, uh, in the, in, in, in, in the words
22:48of,
22:48you know, um, off ground. And I think what, um, is our pressure is now is our communication breakdown as
22:56a government,
22:56in the sense of explaining to the people, making sure that they've actually understood what changes
23:03that we've made across this few years. And probably, yes, of course, in a good sense, you can see our
23:10microeconomics is good, but for some people, they feel that their microeconomics is not moving.
23:15Uh, it's not being failing. Uh, there's not much mega projects or, or, or businesses doing good. So,
23:22I think that's, that's some improvements that, that should be looked into, uh, alongside, um,
23:29other ways for us to actually communicate it to the younger generations that we are doing our best
23:36as the leading coalition in the government. Right. So, so I want to focus on PKR as a political
23:42party, as opposed to it being in the, in, in Putrajaya at the moment. When, as a party member,
23:48Nabil, do you see PKR to be more than just Anwar Ibrahim? More than the political vehicle?
23:57That has been a big question, um, to everyone, especially in leadership like me, uh, as of course,
24:05when it could, when people say keadilan is only Anwar Ibrahim, but I think we've got a lineup of good
24:10leaderships on growing. We've got Amiruddin Shaari. We've got Seifuddin Asution. We've got,
24:16you know, Adam Adli, Kamil Munim. And I, I think that the only way is now is to promote
24:23these lineups as the future of Malaysia. We've not, um, we are the multi-racial party. We've been very
24:31committed to that. Um, I'm a Malay with whatever racial sentiment now, uh, I've never put away, uh,
24:38the non-Malay's importance, uh, in, in pushing forward reforms or in pushing forward our agenda
24:44as a nation and as a political party. Right. The reason I ask is because I wonder this,
24:51how the strength, I wonder about the strength of PKR as a political party beyond achieving
24:58what was once Anwar's political project to become prime minister. So that has been achieved,
25:03that vehicle has, has been achieved. Where do we go next? I think we've proved that a multi-racial
25:11party can work. We can work together in one coalition. Uh, and I think our dynamics comparing
25:17to our, uh, opponent is somewhat that we, uh, offer the true Malaysia. We offer a building a nation
25:26as a Malaysian. And I think that's what we should portray. And I think the, the, the struggle now
25:33is to make people understand that, um, yes, of course, um, taking into consideration all this
25:40racial tension, all this fear-mongering, um, narratives, uh, that is the strength. That is the
25:48big gap that keadilan should fill in to make sure that the Malays are confidence to them. And also the,
25:54the non-Malays would, would still be on board with the idea and idealism of keadilan.
25:59Can I, can I ask you just based on the electoral, um, the performance of the past, uh, couple of
26:07state elections, when young people, when you speak to young people and they are looking at the political
26:14landscape, what is the ideology of PKR that you tell them? Why should they vote for PKR as opposed to
26:24all the other political parties, race-based political parties that may, uh, that they may have, um,
26:31family history or family legacy with? What is the identifiable ideology that sets PKR apart?
26:40I, I think one, I think it goes back to, you know, we're consistent with reforms, we've consistent
26:46with, um, we, we're being a multi-racial party and we offer tremendous young talents in, in keadilan
26:52that I think, um, you know, during even in the state elections, we've offered almost five seats for,
26:58uh, the eight, the, the keadilan youth to actually contest it. Despite it's a tough seat that we lost,
27:04but I mean, eventually we're trying our best to really portray progressive politics. And I'm guessing,
27:11um, right now, uh, the challenge of the current generation is to actually make sure that they
27:16know the local leaders out there, the younger leaders like me, myself, to always serve and show
27:23that, you know, things are moving. We are doing great. We are doing our very best to, to, to, to
27:30make sure that,
27:31um, you know, the nation building is still moving. And I, I'm, I'm guessing, uh, in a sense of,
27:39of selling it now, um, probably we're not selling it at the very best. How do we market ourselves is
27:45a
27:45struggle to us. Yeah. Are you, are you happy with the pace of reforms, the pace of reformasi?
27:51I mean, of course, uh, it, it, it is, it takes time. I think it goes back to the compromisation
27:58again. Um, it's not that I'm not saying that it couldn't happen, but we should now force ourselves
28:04to make sure reforms happen with whatever is going on. But at the end of the day, political stability,
28:11economic resilience of the country should be put first, uh, despite of, you know, um, whatever that
28:17we are forcing, uh, it's not like things are not moving, you know, I've, I've, I've, you know, this
28:21is, this frustrates, I mean, in a sense, to explain, but, um, you, so, in a sense that I feel
28:28there is reforms that is being slowed down. Imagine, uh, for, for example, the two, two terms prime minister
28:35seniorship that should have been passed through, but it's not passed through due to, you know, um, certain
28:41groups of, uh, MPs is not supporting this. You know, that's a good reform that, that, that we're
28:47trying to do. So, there's slowed down reforms, there's reforms that's been done. So, uh, out of
28:52many years, the, the, the previous government doing, I think this is the best time that we've seen, just
28:59that our struggle now is to make sure that people understand that things are moving, things are
29:03changing, and our economy is getting better. Nabil, thank you so much for being on the show with me. I
29:10appreciate your time. Nabil Halimi there, wrapping up this episode of Consider This. I'm Melissa
29:14Idris, signing off for the evening. Thank you so much for watching, and good night.
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