Any wishful-thinking PKR supporter who was in denial about a split in the party would have had his illusion shattered by Anwar Ibrahim’s letter to party leaders, which was leaked to the public last week.

In fact, pundits had long observed that the two main factions in the party were operating almost independently of each other, with those aligned to party president Wan Azizah Ismail focusing on Anwar’s release from prison and the group led by her deputy, Azmin Ali, focusing on accumulating power for itself.

Anwar’s letter made it obvious that what might at first have been just a fissure was turned into a gulf by the Save Malaysia campaign. Azizah’s faction is ever distrustful of former PM Mahathir Mohamad, the de facto leader of Save Malaysia, but this is a sentiment not shared by the other side, as evidenced by Anwar’s expression of unhappiness over the eagerness of “some party leaders” to support Mahathir’s campaign.

Azmin himself has apparently made something of a mess of his party. Many blame him for the souring of relations between PKR and DAP. He must certainly take the blame if the Sarawak PKR chief was telling the truth when he said it was Azmin who told him to be in charge of deciding where the party should contest in the recent Sarawak election.

But neither is Azizah helping to make PKR a more credible political organisation. Her faction certainly needs to move beyond fighting merely for Anwar’s release from prison. It’s unwillingness to evolve past that point is detrimental to the party as it prepares for the next general election.

That being said, GE14 is not here yet, and we must first talk about the upcoming by-election in Sungai Besar, where PKR intends to head into a three-corner fight with Barisan Nasional and PAS, cutting off fellow Pakatan member Amanah, which was looking forward to facing off with PAS. We discussed in an earlier article how Amanah was in dire need of being given a spotlight to bring its profile up before the general election, but it appears now that it won’t get that opportunity. That’s a shame, especially when one considers the unlikelihood of either PKR or PAS taking the seat.

While opposition supporters may try to remain optimistic, the damaged brand of the opposition and the threat of an oncoming recession will likely ensure that Sungai Besar voters will return BN to the seat.

The rakyat kept an eye on the Sarawak election, and overall were not impressed by what they saw of the opposition. Whether this will lead to an uptick in votes for BN or merely an absence of votes for the opposition remains to be seen, but no opposition supporter can honestly say he is smelling roses.