He used to be one of them, but now he says he isn’t. Should we trust the man with the goatee? Kimberley Lau ponders over Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim and his claim to power.
“You should move overseas” is something relatives, friends and acquaintances advised when I shed my graduation robe and flung my mortar board.
“The pay is at least two times better, they appreciate you for your expertise and they have bacon at McDonalds!” persuaded a friend who was planning his move to Sydney.
For many young Malaysians, the country was a lost cause. A police road block immediately meant forking out money for an offence – imagined or otherwise, complaints fell on the deaf ears of the ruling coalition Barisan Nasional (BN) and racial disparity, a given. It was a put up or get out situation – and most chose the latter.
With the March 8 general elections results however, hope for change came for Malaysians like frosty beer after a long, hard day.
The opposition Pakatan Rakyat (PR) – made up of previously standalone opposition groups, captured five states and denied the ruling coalition its customary two-thirds majority in parliament.
For the first time in 50 years of ruling the country, BN was forced to face a formidable opposition that, instead of rivaling against each other as they have done so for years, had formed a united front in their effort to topple the BN-led government.
Political pundits deduce that the opposition’s success (one which PR reportedly did not expect) was due to public voting against the government and not for the opposition.
But that was then and this is now, and right now, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow is the Prime Minister’s seat which opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim intends to take over by Malaysia Day on September 16*.
The former deputy minister’s clock has been ticking away – especially during the six years in incarceration for corruption (sodomy charges were dropped in 2004) and he is now ready to charm his way into Malaysian homes.
He has openly condemned the New Economic Policy (NEP), a social contract introduced to help Malays catch up with other races economically but now blamed for financial disparity among races in the country, and is all for discontinuing it.
Appearing to be quite liberal and valiant, he voiced out against government suspension of newspapers in February 2006 for reproducing Danish caricatures of Prophet Muhammad, calling it “unreasonable and repressive”.
He was critical of the government which took a fancy to throwing bloggers in jail, saying that Malaysians needed “open-minded and forward-thinking leaders, not those still trapped by an outdated political culture and unable to grasp the technological realities of today.”
He has promised that if he becomes prime minister, he would increase economic competitiveness, abolish the Internal Security Act, reform the judiciary, fight corruption and free the media.
The man also says that when he is Prime Minister, he will lower fuel prices via subsidies which the BN government cut drastically for development (mega-projects that Anwar believes will only “benefit the rich and the cronies”). If he fails, he will resign.
How could anyone dare to not believe his boasts? I’d be flabbergasted if anyone didn’t want him to be the next Malaysian prime minister based on all the things he has told us. What’s there not to trust? He promised, right?
In fact, I trust him so much that I’ve forgotten that Anwar was in support of the NEP when it was first introduced in the 1970s.
The incident about him having non-Mandarin educated headmasters transferred to Chinese schools in 1987, or that other one where the government he was part of took down crosses from mission schools – absolute rubbish! Lies!
How could this man, victimised by the government, not be our knight in shining armour? Especially with the recent sodomy charge; or Sodomy II as the Malaysian press has come to call it, he’s one of us now, isn’t he?
Whatever he really is, is between him and his pillow.
There are many, myself included, who don’t quite trust the “new and improved” Anwar. There’s however little left to do but to give him and the hope he’s selling a shot.
After all, it can’t possibly be worse than the government now.
But like all consumers trying a product for the first time, Anwar’s performance when and if he becomes Prime Minister will be scrutinised like bacteria under a microscope; any sign of it being the degenerative kind will not be tolerated.
He will have to deliver on his bluffs regardless of his true position on the matter, or supporters that have backed him these past months could very well lend a kick to his derrière come election time.
The current Malaysian public is one that has its hackles raised and is ready to scratch out the eyes of anyone who decides to cross its newly found claws.
As for me, I will observe the spectacle from a safe distance here in Sydney, enjoy my bacon burgers while I can, and hope that the new government acts like one.
*August 31, 1957 is Malaya’s (peninsular Malaysia) Independence Day while September 16, 1963 is when present day Malaysia was formed with the inclusion of East Malaysian states Sabah and Sarawak. The fact that present-day Malaysia celebrates Independence Day on Aug 31 and not Sept 16 is a sore point among many East Malaysians.
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Kimberley Lau is Malaysian and trying very hard to get her Masters in
Publishing. She tries to understand politics but keeps getting
distracted by the good food here in Sydney.