20 July, 2008
Anwar should be focusing his energies on building the coalition and strengthening intra-Pakatan bonds, particularly between DAP and PAS. If he can't be bothered, the net result will be failure.
By KARIM RASLAN, MySinchew
I had a very animated discussion with Anwar Ibrahim last week. I wanted to know about his contrarian oil price scheme but his charm-ridden answers didn't quite persuade me and we moved on. He was remarkably calm despite the looming storms and having last met him over a decade ago, I was struck by how little he appeared to have aged. Although in his sixties, he was trim and energetic, darting in and out of the room to field telephone calls. Yet as we talked I couldn't shake a sense of déjà vu, albeit last time he was a young man in a hurry. Now, he was just in a hurry.
I later realized I wasn't really too interested in what Anwar had to say, as much as what I wanted to say about him. Writing about a figure as divisive and yet charismatic as Anwar is fraught with pitfalls. The myths swirling around obscure the reality. Which of the various images is closer to the truth: the street-fighter-activist that many in the Malay establishment appear to fear more than fear itself, or the enlightened Muslim statesman jetting between global capitals sprinkling his speeches with quotes from Ibn Khaldun? Wherever the truth lies, we must commend him for one remarkable achievement which will earn him an esteemed place in Malaysia's political history.
On March 8th at the helm of the Pakatan Rakyat, he shook the nation's political foundations. Upending the stale status quo, he showed that there was an alternative to fifty years of Barisan and Umno, forcing the party of Merdeka into a measure of self-doubt and opening up our rotten political system to a degree of reassessment and possible reform. We owe him a debt of gratitude for his endeavours in this respect, and his formulation of 'ketuanan rakyat' remains a high-point of recent political rhetoric.
The Government won't move on the reform agenda unless there's continuous pressure to act. But with Anwar taken out of the equation reform may be hindered: Umno will remain mired in money-politics and destructive ethno-centric ideas; the security and judicial system will languish and improved civil liberties will remain a distant mirage. Yet his assertions that there will be Parliamentary crossovers by September 16th may distract himself from the real task of coalition-building.
Still, Anwar's return to the centre-stage has led to a reconfiguration of power - a shift that has forced the Malaysian elite to address glaring weaknesses in governance and politics. Without Anwar's energy and continuous political legwork there would be no Pakatan, no opposition pact and therefore no dramatic victories along the West coast of the peninsula.
Only Anwar could have united such disparate forces and hammered out some measure of trust and cooperation between Hadi Awang, Nik Aziz, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal Singh. He prompted and then benefited from the tectonic activity that resulted in the tsunami. Before he pulled it off, no one had thought that it was possible. This Herculean achievement may be his enduring legacy, even if the grouping currently suffers from a serious cross-party communication problems. It might sound strange to be talking about an 'enduring legacy' when he is fully planning to secure the Premiership by mid-September. But the Pakatan, with its fraying internal linkages, may be unsustainable as long as he remains distracted by his quest to seize power. He may have lost the plot.
Anwar should be focusing his energies on building the coalition and strengthening intra-Pakatan bonds, particularly between DAP and PAS. If he can't be bothered, the net result will be failure.
It's as if the former Deputy Prime Minister and global thought-leader can't bring himself to discuss, negotiate and then hammer out solutions to issues in Ipoh, Alor Star, Shah Alam, Kota Baru and Georgetown. Is politics in small-town Malaysia so beneath him?
Malaysians voted for the Pakatan to get a better and more responsive form of government, especially at the state level. Whilst we were tired of Barisan's high-handedness and corruption we definitely don't want political tightrope-walking on a daily basis. Anwar is in danger of forgetting that the mandate he received from the Malaysian people is 'qualified'. We entrusted him to help lead five states and to commit himself to the process of building a genuine and workable consensus within Pakatan that would in turn create a system of administration that was fairer, less corrupt and more attune with the needs of all Malaysians. We did not give him the mandate to occupy the Premiership. If he does a good job maybe we'll make him our Prime Minister...
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