PKR heads for another proxy contest as Amirudin set to reluctantly challenge Rafizi for number 2

PKR deputy president Rafizi Ramli is likely to face off with Selangor Menteri Besar Amirudin Shari for the party's number two post despite the two having been allies in recent years, MalaysiaNow has learnt from sources familiar with jostling for top positions ahead of the upcoming leadership election.

But unlike his former rivals, Rafizi will now face a reluctant candidate as party insiders see Amirudin as being forced to do the bidding for its president Anwar Ibrahim.

In December, MalaysiaNow reported that Amirudin was facing “frantic gestures from the top” to enter the race for deputy president amid efforts to oust Rafizi.

A PKR source said Rafizi was increasingly seen as a liability, especially after he led the campaign in the Sungai Bakap by-election in July last year when Pakatan Harapan was trounced by Perikatan Nasional on the back of the removal of diesel subsidies.

Despite this, insiders say Rafizi was able to consolidate his influence in PKR by capitalising on both his position in the Cabinet and the vacuum in the party left by former deputy president Mohamad Azmin Ali, who defeated him in 2018.

They say this is also the reason why Rafizi was able to easily defeat Saifuddin Nasution in 2022.

Saifuddin, who is among the most loyal to Anwar, was included in the Cabinet and appointed as the home minister, despite losing both the party polls and the general election.

A former PKR leader said all signs point to a Rafizi victory if Amirudin were to challenge him for the number two position.

"Amirudin knows this, hence his reluctance. He is already in a comfortable position as MB and party vice-president. Besides, he was lucky to defeat Azmin in Gombak in the 2022 general election due to the vote split caused by Umno," he said.

Amirudin recently confirmed that he will contest the party leadership election in May.

He further fuelled speculation that he would run against Rafizi when he said there was "room for discussion" on the issue of excluding the two top posts from being contested.

"If contesting these posts helps strengthen and streamline the party's efforts, then that's fine, but if such contests lead to disputes and undermine the party's long-term stability, then this should be carefully considered," he said.

"But democratic rights exist," he was quoted as saying.

While Anwar's PKR presidency has remained uncontested, seeing that the party's raison d'etre is his political survival, candidates backed by either him or his family members have never won the race for number two.

In the 2010 election, which pitted Azmin against former Umno man Zaid Ibrahim, the latter was backed by Anwar's wife Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, who was then PKR president.

In 2014, Azmin was again challenged, this time in a six-cornered contest that included Saifuddin and then Selangor MB Abdul Khalid Ibrahim.

Azmin won that race despite Saifuddin being supported by Anwar, in an election held just six months before the Kajang Move, a strategy hatched by Anwar and Rafizi to replace Khalid with Wan Azizah. The plan fell through after the Sultan of Selangor appointed Azmin as MB instead.

Azmin was challenged again in 2018, this time by Rafizi, who was tacitly supported by Anwar, in an election campaign that was seen as a precursor to the great split in PKR two years later, which also caused the collapse of the then two-year-old PH government.

Party insiders say Anwar will view any rise in Rafizi's popularity within the party with caution.

They say Anwar has tried to allay his coalition partners' fears over a series of subsidy-cutting measures, the success or failure of which will determine Rafizi's political career.

One Umno politician said Rafizi's plans would come at a huge political cost to Umno more than any other party.

"Umno is competing in the constituencies where the subsidy removal measures will be felt the most. Therefore, we see Rafizi as someone who will slowly carry us to our graves if he pushes ahead with the so-called subsidy reforms," an Umno division chief from Pahang told MalaysiaNow.