PKR and DAP faithful meet this week with Anwar’s fate on the line. Here’s what to watch

KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s party is in dire straits. 

No Malaysian leader has ever seen his party win less than 10 per cent of electoral contests in the preceding year. Since the Sabah polls in November 2025, only four out of 49 Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR) candidates have taken their places across three state legislatures.

After a huge loss in Johor in July, the latest blow came in the Aug 1 Negeri Sembilan polls, where his Pakatan Harapan (PH) coalition was dumped after two terms in power as the so-called Malay unity pact between the UMNO-led Barisan Nasional (BN) and Parti Islam SeMalaysia’s (PAS) Perikatan Nasional (PN) swept a two-thirds supermajority.

With a general election due in 18 months, PKR needs a silver bullet and needs it fast. It now heads into its national assembly starting Aug 13 in Melaka – the next state to hold polls which are expected by November.

Similarly, its PH ally Democratic Action Party (DAP) will hold its national congress in Shah Alam, Selangor, on Aug 16. The party, home to more ruling MPs than any other, also suffered drubbings in the three states.

As both PKR and DAP convene this week, here are some themes to watch.

DAP’s loyalty to PKR and PH is put to the test

There is a seeming lack of urgency within the PH linchpin even as the coalition struggles with its worst-ever run of results since being formed in 2015. 

Vice-president Amirudin Shari told reporters on Aug 10 that motions submitted for debate at the congress revolved around “the reform agenda, economic development and strengthening the party”. In other words, the same as any other year.

Contrast this with key PH partner DAP, which will vote on whether to relinquish positions in the Anwar administration at its annual congress to signal its protest against government policies.

But before 4,200 DAP delegates make their decision, Anwar will get a chance to make his case to them, his own party faithful, as well as Malaysians at large during his presidential address on Aug 15.

Party insiders including lawmakers and central committee members told The Straits Times that DAP is likely to stand loyally behind Anwar – as it has since he was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 and began the Reformasi movement. However, this will probably come with some caveats.

This referendum was announced after the Sabah polls when PH won just one of the 20 seats it contested, giving the government a half-year timeline to accelerate reforms and deliver on election promises from the 2022 general election that propelled Anwar to power.

But the situation has only worsened since then, with PH’s core support base of non-Malays and urban voters increasingly taking the view that the Anwar administration is neglecting their concerns, leading to the attrition seen in Johor in July (down to eight from 12 seats) and Negeri Sembilan (11 from 17) in August.

Hence, even if DAP stays the course for now, calls from within the party rank-and-file to leave PH if there is no change of direction are only going to get louder.

Will PKR address its leadership vacuum?

Meanwhile in PKR, mutiny has already begun.

Just days after the Negeri Sembilan reversal, Anwar’s daughter Nurul Izzah quit as deputy president. Second-term PKR MP Hassan Karim, the party’s former Johor chief, claimed it was in protest against the government’s weak anti-graft efforts. The official party line is that she has taken a study break – and her resignation has been rejected.

Nurul Izzah had taken the No. 2 position from former economy minister Rafizi Ramli in 2025 after a rancorous party election marred by claims of vote-rigging. PKR is now seemingly without a deputy to Anwar a year later – as it heads into the crucial national congress.

Worse still, in May 2026, Rafizi led other rebels, including another former minister Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad, into a new vehicle, Parti Bersama Malaysia, that seeks to wrest reform-minded voters from PH.

Malaysia’s former economy minister Rafizi Ramli has since left PKR to form Parti Bersama Malaysia.

ST PHOTO: ARIFFIN JAMAR

PKR lawmaker Rodziah Ismail said on Aug 7 that Nurul Izzah’s resignation is a sign that the party needs to re-evaluate its direction and struggle.

“I hope the top leadership does not treat the position (of deputy president) lightly,” news portal Malaysiakini reported her as saying. “If we accept a position but do not carry out the entrusted responsibilities, then the matter deserves to be given attention.”

Typically, the deputy president of a major party in Malaysia takes charge of its election machinery. The role was entrusted to Nurul Izzah until she was replaced by Amirudin and Home Minister Saifuddin Nasution in May, a week after her conspicuous absence at the PH convention in Johor ahead of the state polls.

The situation now is a far cry from the euphoria of November 2022, when Malaysia’s first-ever hung Parliament saw Anwar finally end his and PKR’s more-than-two-decade wait to claim the prime ministership. This came after former foes such as BN and Gabungan Parti Sarawak, which dominates the eastern state, agreed to set aside differences to form a unity government.

In the four years since, Anwar has set off on a mission to convince the Malay-Muslim majority that he can get them to greener pastures. On the evidence of the recent votes that ranged from the easternmost to southernmost states and even one situated within PH’s western base, the strategy has failed.

Meanwhile, the BN-PN pact has so far been a winning formula, sewing up the lion’s share of Malay voters which has helped UMNO win a whopping 52 of 53 seats it contested in Johor and Negeri Sembilan (36 and 16 seats, respectively). 

There are signs of trouble in paradise as UMNO wants to defend all 21 seats, or three-quarters of the state assembly in Melaka. But given how the Malay support has seen near-complete transferability between BN and PN candidates, this cooperation offers huge dividends at a general election where 123 parliamentary constituencies have a Malay majority, far surpassing the simple majority mark in the 222-strong chamber.

Several projections already have PH going from the largest coalition in 2022 to the bottom of the pile against BN and PN if the same voter trends seen since the Johor polls play out at the national level.

What will an alliance with PKR look like in the future?

Just what can Anwar say or do to steer PH away from defeat? An operation on his 79th birthday on Aug 10 to treat para-umbilical hernia has also been an unfortunate distraction.

Some in PH have extreme ideas, such as former DAP deputy minister Ong Kian Ming. The adjunct professor at Taylor’s University told ST that the prime minister should openly state that he will not lead PH into the next election so the coalition can rebuild afresh.

More realistically, there are some within PH who accept that it cannot take on both BN and PN alone.

PH government officials told ST that there have been exploratory discussions on cooperation with Parti Pribumi Bersatu Malaysia, in terms of confidence and supply agreements or loose electoral pacts, rather than a re-entry into PH. Bersatu left the coalition in 2020 and took a clutch of PKR MPs along amid fears of ebbing Malay support. This effectively toppled the Mahathir Mohamad administration, scuttling a transition plan by the elder statesman to Anwar that was agreed before the 2018 general election.

Former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s Bersatu has been increasingly sidelined by PAS since the end of 2025, with the Islamist party clearly preferring to ally with sacked former Bersatu deputy president Hamzah Zainudin’s Parti Wawasan Negara.

That history with Bersatu still shadows any renewed talks today, according to sources.

“But it does not seem like Anwar is too keen at this point as he wants to be diplomatic with UMNO but as (vice-president) Amirudin said, PH is open to working with all parties,” said a close adviser to the PKR leadership.

Anwar is also set, despite his health issues, to meet divisional chiefs on Aug 14 ahead of his speech the next day.

Perak PKR chief Hairul Amir Sabri told ST that he would suggest at the meeting that “if BN-PN remain as a team, then PKR must also explore new alliances such as parties outside of government”, naming Bersatu as one potential ally.

“Even with Rafizi’s Parti Bersama Malaysia, I am personally open, although the final say must be determined by the central leadership. But if you ask me, political cooperation is needed to add support from smaller parties,” he said.

At the very least, delegates heading to both PKR and DAP meetings after three straight defeats at state polls will want a morale boost from their leaders.

None more so than Anwar, whom they have followed for nearly three decades. Whether it will stretch into a fourth successive defeat in Melaka could rest on the week’s outcomes.