Where Anwar is ahead of Obama
FMT LETTER: From Harish Subramaniam, via e-mail
US President, Barack Obama, centered his entire election campaign on hope and change. “Change we can believe in” was Obama’s mantra at every campaign speech he gave. The clear victory against John McCain showed that the message of change resonated strongly with the people tired of eight years of Republican rule under the clueless George W Bush.
Obama convinced more than enough Americans that America should and can change. Obama himself has not changed and stuck to his principles and beliefs in his first term even though it would be politically more expedient to dump some of them, e.g. Obamacare and the individual mandate for health insurance.
While Obama is consistent and has not changed to bolster his political fortunes, in the spirit of ‘Malaysia Boleh’, we have Anwar Ibrahim who has changed and changed again to better his chances of concentrating power in his person. In this way, Anwar is clearly ahead of Obama.
In the 70s, Anwar was the head of ABIM, an Islamic youth group which defined itself exclusively as an Islamic group. The divide he nurtured in order to build his own relevance was a Muslim vs Non-Muslim divide. This paid dividends when Dr Mahathir decided that Anwar was so good at dividing the people through religion that it would be best for Umno to co-opt him. Mahathir wanted to see if Anwar’s proven skills could be used to divide the people a different way.
In the 80s and 90s, Anwar rose through the ranks in Umno to become deputy president and as we know, Umno is a party that defined itself exclusively as a Malay or Bumiputera group. The divide he nurtured in order to climb the ranks of Umno and reach the very top was a Malay vs Chinese/Indian etc. or a Bumi vs Non-Bumi divide. What he achieved by playing up and reinforcing these racial divisions was the deputy presidency of Umno and the deputy prime ministership of the country.
In the 2000s, when wayward sex and corruption forced Anwar back from the pinnacle, he and his family formed a vehicle called KeADILan to divide Malaysians once again as liberals and conservatives. He would become the champion of anti-corruption, press freedom, anti-ISA, anti-affirmative action for the Malays etc. The very same issues he championed and defended just a few months earlier as deputy president of Umno. He knew this would make him hero of the urban elite.
An elite who were more concerned with national issues rather than those the BN was good at addressing i.e. developmental issues from roads to clinics to schools. This also catapulted him to international stardom at a time when the Washington consensus was looking for Eastern puppets to repeat their mantras to ‘ignorant’ third world audiences. The dividends for this are still paying off till today in the form of foreign funding and grandstanding opportunities from and with foreign leaders and figures.
In the 2010s and even leading up to 2008, when his utter defeat at the hands of the hapless Pak Lah forced his family party KeADILan to the brink of extinction in 2004, Anwar would try the latest form of his dividing game. He would cobble together the left-leaning DAP and the simple-living PAS to put together a class war.
He would now pitt Malaysians against each other on the traditional Western basis of rich and poor. The dividends he has gained from this division is coming within 16 seats of capturing the Federal Government in the 2008 election and becoming the leader of the Opposition.
When a man is first an ultra-Islamic leader who can threaten a Government, to an ultra-Malay leader who can put fear into the hearts of Chinese and Indians, to a liberal leader who can fight against Government on all issues he used to champion just months before to a leader of the poor who can wreck the economy forever and therefore plunge the poor into ever more desperate straits if he takes charge, Malaysians have to again ask;
Ultra-Muslim to ultra-Malay to ultra-Liberal to ultra-Class Warrior? Who is Anwar really? Will we ever know?
He has divided Malaysians in four different ways over 40 years, how will he divide Malaysians once again when he becomes PM? Anwar can and will take the ‘Malaysia Boleh’ slogan to the next level by changing again and dividing again. PKR, DAP and PAS have to think carefully as they can still get rid of Anwar and all his divisiveness and put forward a leader who has the best interests of all Malaysians at heart.
