PENANG PKR is mourning the death of a pioneering activist, Datuk Mustafa Kamal Mohd Yusof, who played a crucial behind-the-scenes role to help the party and its ally, DAP, to win over the state in the 2008 general election.
Mustafa, 73, died recently from an undisclosed illness.
He served PKR as a Senator and was a key lieutenant in the movement.
Mustafa, or revered simply as Pak Mus, was the Penang PKR elections director, the state movement secretary and was also an acting Perlis PKR liaison chairperson.
"He was a quintessential PKR leader. A behind-the-scenes person, with sound connections and the ability to quell the discontent in the initial period of PKR's formation as a Parti Keadilan Nasional. He was wise," said former PKR Balik Pulau Member of Parliament Yusmadi Yusoff.
A Malay leader who used his experience as a grassroot organiser to effectively mobilise the party to face several elections in the past, instead of just relying on the polemics of race and religion, said Yusmadi.
Yusmadi, who credited Pak Mus for mentoring him in 2008, said that he was a true reformist to the end, regardless of what his detractors may have accused him of.
Former state PKR vice-chairman Datuk Jason Ong Khan Lee said that Pak Mus was a loyalist to the party despite various stages of betrayal of previous party leaders from the initial group, who had quit to those involved in the "Sheraton Move" to seize power through backdoor political manoeuvrings.
Ong said that Pak Mus had galvanised the party in the 2008 election to upset the odds, as both PKR and DAP stormed into power on the back of the voters' dissatisfaction with the long-serving Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition.
Those days were the height of "people power" with reforms high on the agenda, said Ong, who said that the party was solidly united when they were in the Opposition.
Ong's successor in Kebun Bunga, Lee Boon Heng, also praised Pak Mus for his leadership attributes.
Former PKR deputy secretary-general S. Raveentharan said that Pak Mus was originally from Umno and had followed Prime Minister and party president Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to the reform cause.
"Pak Mus was an otai (pioneer), and we had learned from his wisdom. His desire to remain in the back room was legendary. He exudes quiet confidence."
Raveentharan extended his condolences to the family and hopes that Pak Mus's legacy of fusing together a political force of persons from diverse interests and causes can be replicated by the party with the next election looming soon. - March 31, 2026.
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