KUALA LUMPUR — PKR must make room for Reformasi veterans who feel sidelined while ensuring its younger generation understands the struggle that gave birth to the party, said newly returned leaders Chua Tian Chang and Dr Xavier Jayakumar.
The former PKR vice-presidents, who have both returned to the party following president and Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim’s call for estranged veterans to come back, said PKR must reconnect its younger members with the values and history of the Reformasi movement.
Their return is not about seeking positions but contributing to PKR’s future, the two former leaders said on the latest episode of Trick Lama, a podcast co-hosted by Big Boom Media Group chief executive officer Datuk Zainul Arifin, Group Editor-in-Chief Terence Fernandez and Group Executive Director Datuk “Rocky” Ahiruddin Attan.
Chua, better known as Tian Chua, said PKR should not overlook the thousands of activists who played a role in the Reformasi movement simply because they were no longer active in politics or held party positions.
“Many of them probably feel that the party doesn’t need (them) anymore. (The party is) already in power,” he said.
“But I want to see a greater movement where those people who slowly dropped out or felt that they have no more role… still have a role to play and we must create a place for them.”
Tian Chua said bringing back the party’s veterans was also important to preserving PKR’s institutional memory and ensuring its founding principles were not lost as the party evolved from an opposition party into one in government.
“The party needs to rejuvenate itself. The party needs both the newer generation as well as people who have experience to create a sense of history,” he said.
“It is not a party that came out from a vacuum. What we can embed again into PKR is the founding values and the founding history that this country has gone through and, in this extraordinary situation, PKR was born.”
“Reformasi” refers to the movement that came together seeking an end to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad’s authoritarian rule after he sacked Anwar as his deputy prime minister in 1998 on accusations of sodomy and corruption. This followed a clash between the two men over how to handle the Asian Financial Crisis’ impact on Malaysia, and a direct challenge by Anwar against Dr Mahathir to take over Umno.
Xavier, meanwhile, said one of PKR’s biggest challenges was ensuring its younger members understood the Reformasi struggle, particularly those who were too young to have experienced the movement first-hand.
“A lot of young people in PKR actually don’t know what the Reformasi years were about…they were not born at the time,” he said.
This lack of knowledge has become more apparent as PKR has attracted large numbers of new members after the 2018 general election and following Anwar’s appointment as prime minister.
“A lot of people came and joined the party in 2018 and onwards. And then, when Anwar became Prime Minister, there was a whole lot of influx of people from outside joining the party,” he said.
“Actually, these people have got zero feelings about Reformasi. They don’t know what Reformasi is,” Xavier added.
The party needed its veterans to help bridge that historical gap and pass on the lessons of the Reformasi struggle to younger members, he said.
PKR must also allow younger members to develop their own ideas while ensuring they remained connected to the principles that shaped the party.
“That is one of the biggest problems. PKR has to make the younger generation coming to join the party understand where the party came from and then to continue that vision to a certain extent,” Xavier said.
“Of course, you will bring in your own ideas and things that you need to change, and that has to be given and that has to be cultivated in order for that to happen.”
Meanwhile, Tian Chua said the call for veterans to return should extend beyond prominent former leaders to grassroots activists who helped build the Reformasi movement.
“There are thousands of people whose names were not recorded, but they were (on) the streets. They were part of the people who went and recruited members. They were part of the people who went and campaigned,” he said.
He said the party needed to recognise the contributions of those who had felt marginalised or believed they no longer had a role to play.
“When Anwar made that call to say the ‘otai’ and reformists have been sidelined, or they feel they don’t have a role, I think it’s time that we also appreciate what they have contributed before,” Tian Chua said.
“The party, as a movement, needs them back.”
Tian Chua said his return to PKR was not about securing a position, but about contributing to a political movement that he believed remained necessary for Malaysia.
Similarly, Xavier said he was not returning to PKR for “glory or a position”, but to contribute his experience and help strengthen the party and government.
“I’m not here looking for glory or a position and things like that,” he said.
“My whole aim here is just to make sure that whether we agree or don’t agree, Anwar is going to be the next prime minister as well because the country needs a person who is global and who knows what the country needs in order to make those changes.”
Xavier said PKR’s transition into government should not mean losing sight of its original purpose.
“The idea of Reformasi (is still alive) because our country still needs it. It’s not done yet. It’s a long way to go.” – September 3, 2026