Anwar to stand in Bandar Tun Razak?

There are strong indications from within PKR that Anwar Ibrahim might settle for the Bandar Tun Razak seat, as the party chief makes his second move out of his home town constituency of Permatang Pauh, MalaysiaNow has learnt.

If so, this would see the PKR president facing Kamaruddin Jaafar, a one-time Umno strongman who quit the party in the wake of Anwar's sacking and arrest in 1998.

"Anwar needs to show that he has Malay support, and an urban seat seems to be safer than returning to his home town where he was MP for multiple terms.

"But there are some disagreements among PKR strategists about the move, and some have even warned that Anwar is gambling his final chance to become the prime minister," a PKR central committee member told MalaysiaNow on condition of strict anonymity.

Anwar himself refuses to announce where he will contest.

"I myself don't know which seat I will be contesting," he told a press conference at the PKR headquarters today.

Anwar was the MP in Permatang Pauh for close to two decades before he was sacked in 1998 as the number two man in the Barisan Nasional government, following allegations of sodomy reported to then Umno president and prime minister, Dr Mahathir Mohamad. 

He returned as MP of Permatang Pauh in 2008, after his wife who stood in the seat during his imprisonment stepped down.

The seat was later contested by Anwar's daughter Nurul Izzah in 2018, completing the rotation of the northern rural constituency among three members of the same family.

Following his release from jail in 2018, Anwar contested in Port Dickson, just months after navy man Danyal Balagopal Abdullah won the seat for the party at the general election that year.

This time around, there have been rumblings over PKR's chances at the coming general election, as the party goes to the polls for the first time since its most serious split in 2020, as well as amid surveys showing a credibility crisis among the Malay electorate.

Anwar had remained vague when asked whether he would remain in Port Dickson at the coming polls.

Recently, he even suggested that he might take on Mohamed Azmin Ali in Gombak, a move welcomed by his former deputy and close aide.

A PKR source said party strategists were aware that Gombak, a Malay-majority seat in the middle of Kuala Lumpur consisting of both semi-rural and urban voters, was considered Azmin's fort.

Azmin first won the seat in 2013, when it was still considered an Umno vote bank. He won again in 2018 with a majority of more than 48,000.

"Not only can Anwar not afford to lose the seat if he faces Azmin, he must be able to win with a huge majority to send home a message to PKR members. Gombak is not the place for that," said a PKR assemblyman in Selangor.

'Popular urban politician'

But this is not to say that Kamaruddin will be easy prey. The five-term MP is among a handful of former PAS leaders who still enjoy good rapport with PAS leaders and supporters some seven years after leaving the party.

Once the Kelantan Umno Youth chief, Kamaruddin is widely respected within Malay intellectual circles as well as in PAS and Umno for his Islamic credentials.

In 2008, Umno decided to pit its own Islamic spokesman – Asyraf Wajdi Dusuki – against Kamaruddin, hoping to wrest the Tumpat seat from PAS. The move failed, with Kamaruddin winning handsomely.

Kamaruddin was considered a close friend of Anwar, and both were active in campus politics in their student days. But like many others who were once close to the PKR leader, he too split with him.

He was the secretary-general of the Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia (Abim), a one-time influential Islamic movement once led by Anwar.

Following his entry into PAS, he was appointed as its secretary-general, a post normally given only to those whom party elders consider representative of the middle ground between the religious and political factions of the Islamist party.

"With his Kelantan background and his urban outlook, Kamaruddin would be considered a tough nut to crack, even for Anwar," said an Amanah man who claimed to enjoy close ties with the Bandar Tun Razak MP.

During the 2015 split in PAS, Kamaruddin, who was the Tumpat MP in Kelantan at that time, took a different path by joining PKR instead of PAS splinter party Amanah.

But in 2020, he was sacked from PKR alongside about a dozen other MPs.

His exit from PKR was considered a blow to the "Islamic progressives" in the party.

"His absence is still felt by PKR in its need to show some semblance of Islamic-ness in its ranks," said a Kelantan Umno division leader who had worked with Kamaruddin.

In the 2018 election, Kamaruddin beat both Umno and PAS candidates to win the Bandar Tun Razak seat by a majority of 19,930 votes.