When will Anwar ever learn?
(Free Malaysia Today) – From Rakyat Tulen, via e-mail
I’m not talking about his private life. I’m talking about his leadership style. By putting up so many candidates in the Sarawak elections, many of whom are hopeless, PKR is doing damage to the Pakatan Rakyat coalition.
DAP and PAS are doing much better in the campaign thus far. The record breaking, huge crowds at the main towns are the work of DAP. Anwar just went and spoke.
PKR’s stars like Baru Bian in Bakalelan and Nicholas Bawin in Batang Ai are strong leaders in their own right. They are credible Dayak leaders from earlier parties like SNAP and PBDS.
PKR only gave them the platform to contest after SNAP and PBDS were “deregistered” by the BN-controlled Registrar of Societies.
When will Anwar learn that he and his henchmen Azmin Ali and Tian Chua cannot go around talking down to people? Sarawakians are a proud lot. They do not like to be told what to do.
Dictator Taib Mahmud, too, does not like it when Najib and Muhyddin told him to step down. Sarawakians prefer to throw out Taib Mahmud themselves. There is no need for the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister to interfere. Sarawakians know what to do.
But Anwar does not know what to do. He is making the same blunder that he has made with PKR in Sabah. He chose the wrong leaders for the wrong reasons. Half of PKR’s Sabah leaders have left the party. The remaining half are at each other’s throats.
Anwar severely misjudged the politics of Sabah when he put a controversial, born loser Ansari Abdullah to contest in the Batu Sapi by-election last October.
PKR members walked out of the Pakatan gathering in protest after Anwar announced Ansari’s candidacy, followed by a humiliating boxing match at the Sandakan airport.
Along the way, Anwar burned his bridges with local party SAPP, the one and only party that left the BN government to help Anwar.
Anwar is creating enemies of friends everywhere. DAP in Sarawak, SNAP, SAPP, Hindraf, NGOs, MCLM, Movement for Change Sarawak and many other groups.
Pakatan to form the next government will need to rally more people from a bigger spectrum to take on the BN. What Anwar and his henchmen are doing is to drive away people who could help him become Prime Minister.
Are Azmin and Tian Chua and Anwar’s inner circle worried that more people will share their power when they form the next government? When will Anwar ever learn?
