Umno And Pkr Should Merge To Preserve Anwar And Zahid S Legacy

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WHETHER we admit it or not and no matter whether we approve or not, the writing on the wall is that UMNO and PKR should merge in the future. The timing for UMNO and PKR to merge is also right, on account of the fact that the PKR president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is 77 years old while the UMNO head honcho Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi is 71.
Let me explain why.
The Malay identity is currently unstable because a stable identity group will have at most two political parties to represent it.
During a time of peace, it will have two political parties to represent it but when war is looming, it will have just one political party and perhaps even a supreme leader to represent it.
This is why in the UK, only the Conservative party and the Labour party are significant.
In America, you have the Democrats and the Republicans, although the Americans today, feeling more warlike and hawkish, seem to be gravitating towards a single party representation with Donald Trump as their supreme leader.
The communist party under the Kim dynasty is also the sole dominant political party of the ever-hawkish North Koreans.
Considering this: there are at least half a dozen Malay or Malay-inclined parties in the country today, with UMNO, PAS, PKR, Amanah and Bersatu being the main ones, which is an indication that the Malays are not a stable identity group.
If they continue in this condition, a schism will appear in the Malay identity group and cause the Malays to split into two or more smaller identity groups in the future.
Pakatan Harapan (PH) might not have a problem with unstable Malay identity group today because Anwar is a charismatic leader who is capable of controlling PH.
This is despite the fact that it is the non-Malay DAP that is the more powerful political party in the coalition although this will change when Anwar is no longer in charge.
The second-in-line Malay leaders in PH like PKR’s Rafizi Ramli cannot be expected to control PH as securely as Anwar when the non-Malay leaders and other parties in PH are more experienced and powerful than Rafizi and PKR.
Rafizi Ramli (Image: Malaysia Bangkit)It might be a bitter pill to swallow but Anwar is not going to be at the top forever. He might look young, but he is already 77 years old.
Before Anwar steps down, he has to set up a transition plan to ensure that his legacy is preserved even after he is gone.
Anwar should know what happens to a leader when they fail to set up a legacy before they step down. All he has to do is look at Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Tun Daim Zainuddin to see what the future holds if he doesn’t leave behind a legacy.
Presuming that Anwar wants to have his daughter Nurul Izzah to continue his legacy, what he would need to do is leave her a strong and stable PH that she can use to win elections and rule the country.
To secure Nurul Izzah’s position, Anwar will likely have to merge PKR and UMNO so that the PKR-UMNO super-Malay party can balance the DAP effect in PH.
That Zahid is six years Anwar’s junior makes Zahid the perfect person to replace Anwar as the head of the merged PKR-UMNO super-Malay party after Anwar steps down.
By promising to pass the baton to Zahid, Anwar and Zahid can also set the condition to persuade their respective members in PKR and UMNO to accept the merger of their two parties.
UMNO members will accept the deal because it will give them a pathway to return to power while PKR members will accept it because it will ensure Nurul Izzah will someday lead the party.
Anwar also probably should think about merging PKR with UMNO to keep Rafizi at bay. Without a merger, it will be Rafizi, not Nurul Izzah, that will replace Anwar after Anwar vacates his position.
A merger will ensure that 1) PH will still be a stable coalition after Anwar steps down; 2) Rafizi can be contained and Nurul Izzah can succeed Anwar and continue his legacy; 3) Zahid and UMNO can be persuaded to continue to serve the PH agenda; and 4) the Malay identity can be stabilised by reducing the number of political parties that represent it to two.
In fact, Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz’s desire to jump ship from UMNO to PKR is receiving very little backlash from UMNO president Zahid is a probably a sign that Zahid and Anwar might already have a tacit agreement to work towards combining PKR and UMNO into a Malay super-party at some point in the future. 
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT. 
- Focus Malaysia.

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