Anwar Ibrahim and PR should have faith in the people of Malaysia. Malaysians have shown that we are beginning to mature politically. He should see things in the longrun.

As BN regroups behind Najib and UMNO, PR’s ability to entice BN members to defect will be severely diminished. However PR’s standing with the Malaysian community is not a function of BN but what how it performs its role voicing the peoples concerns.

BN has been discredited. The dismal performance of BN – unprecendented in Malaysian history – will give serious food for thought to BN. Najib is no reformer and neither is UMNO but in the light of recent development, Najib will have to seriously rethink how he and BN will move forward.

Badawi should set the ball rolling and Najib should follow-on. And with Anwar and PR playing a key role as an effective opposition in the Parliament and managing the states it controls well, will see Malaysia in general benefit.

This can be done without the dirty politics of defections.

PR’s current position must be examined in the light of recent developments within UMNO, specifically on the fact that Najib is now (presumably) the Prime Minister in waiting. While there are obvious democratic problems of UMNO in effect choosing the Malaysian PM come UMNO elections, the more pressing issue (since by all accounts Najib will clinch the party post he so seeks) would be the observation that Najib is in no way a reformer. He has never uttered words of democratic progress and reform, and it has been pointed out by observers (specifically Zaid Ibrahim) that Najib’s term will be another Mahatir term.

As you have pointed out, Anwar already have the formidable challenge of keeping PR together, and by your suggestion, turning PR into the political voice it would be. Based on what is observable with Najib’s behavior, another authoritarian regime would throw a spanner into the works.

Abdullah Badawi’s promise of democratic reform is a hopeful one, but after the term he has already served, it seems unlikely (or downright unbelievable) that he would actually deliver. As I see it, the best route for Malaysia is for Abdullah Badawi to make good on his promise for reforms, strengthen the foundations of state, and gaining for himself a legacy more powerful than the previous Prime Ministers before him.

Hope springs eternal.