PRU 13 – The Rise Of ABIM & Mohd Nur Manuty
OutSyed The Box
Had another interesting conversation yesterday with some real ‘insiders’ with knowledge of the other side. Cant reveal names though. The information is very reliable.
There is a possibility that Parliament may be dissolved tomorrow April 3rd 2013. This would mark a full four years that the PM is in power. The other view, which I am inclined to believe is that Parliament will be dissolved towards the third week of April. Elections will then be held before end April or early May.
In four years the PM has done pretty ok. Both in the economic management of the country as well as managing the politics and society. Economic growth is real at 5.5%. The stock market has quietly climbed over 1660 points – a record high without anyone getting overexcited. (Has anyone noticed?) There is no talk of an overheating stock market.
And there have been no major scandals attributed to the Najib administration. In fact the remaining scandals that are being mopped up are leftovers from the totally corrupt Slumberjack. The Lembu Condo case was just one example. All these silly deals were done under the corrupt Slumberjack.
And Najib has proven that he can undertake huge mega projects without corruption or scandal. Under Najib’s Administration, the largest project in the history of Malaysia ie the RM26.0 billion MRT project (Phase 1) has been announced and launched at a super rapid pace. Yet despite being the single largest project ever launched in this country there has not even been a hint of corruption concerning this single largest mega project. The huge project has been very well packaged and handled. So far we have not heard Lim Kit Siang crying foul over the MRT (I think also because many Chinese companies are involved – so the racial demons have been placated).
What the PM has not done is make long, long overdue changes in the Cabinet, drop the Jurassic Park dinosaurs who still populate the Cabinet, the GLCs, who hold important public posts as well as the past shelf life MPs and party appointees. We really need to see these people go.
Some of these people have been in the public sphere for 10 years, 20 years or more. It is as though there are no other human beings in a country of 28 million people who can replace these lethargic, overweight, multi-millionaire parasites and hangers on who are really not relevant anymore. Other than the PM, the DPM and very, very few Ministers (like TokPa in Kelantan) the rest are not perceived by the public as doing any work at all – other than maybe lining their own pockets. They are just riding on the coat tails of the PM. They certainly have to go. And I think they will. The country will certainly change for the better if they go.
Anyway back to our topic. We were discussing yesterday what is the basis of Anwar Ibrahim’s struggle. What is he fighting for? The question arose after discussing the fact that over the years, so many people who had placed high hopes in Anwar Ibrahim have now abandoned him. Most of these people are well known and eminent personalities themselves.
I think the consensus was that Anwar Ibrahim has no philosophy or struggle in life other than personal glory and personal power. You can derive this very easily by looking at the people who have supported him and see him as their saviour. He is different things to different people – often at the same time.
The most glaring example is his anti-Israel and pro-Palestine stance in front of Muslim audiences and his ‘friend of Israel‘ stance in front of Jewish and Western audiences. I believe this is why the British newsmagazine “The Economist” so famously labelled him a ‘chameleon’.
In the 70s, in the aftermath of the May 13 disturbances of 1969, Anwar was the ultra-Malay ultra-Islam champion on campus. If you were Chinese, you would not want to go near him at all. This worked for Anwar because he became an acknowledged student leader. Power and personal glory on campus was his. Thousands of kampong kids making their way for the first time to campusrs and urban living saw him as their leader.
Post university campus, his ultra-Malay and ulta-Islam stance continued throughout the 70s. He was lost for a few years because there were no more student unions. Then he came across ABIM. Soon he managed to hijack ABIM – the Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia which was founded by other people like Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, Fadhil Noor (the late president of PAS), Ismail Mina and others. Then came the Iranian Revolution of 1979 where an Ayatollah overthrew a corrupt American puppet. The Iranian Revolution sparked an even greater religious fervour among the Muslims and Anwar Ibrahim rode the wave too.
The membership of ABIM grew into the tens of thousands. Again he had personal glory and power leading a flock of ABIMERs to Valhalla. Then he set his sights on political power. Everyone thought he would join the PAS – including his wife Wan Azizah. PAS held the keys to masuk syurga. They were anti-secular, anti-West, anti-Chinese, anti so many things.
As opposed to UMNO which did not claim to hold the keys even to Kuala Lumpur, UMNO which was so secular, so pro-West and pro-British, pro power sharing with the Chinese and pro so many things. UMNO was the exact opposite of what Anwar Ibrahim had been selling to the students on campus and to the ABIMERs.
But UMNO held power. And UMNO would continue to hold on to power. It did not take Anwar Ibrahim more than a minute to get this figured out inside his T Rex brain – if you want power you must join UMNO. Join PAS? Who wants to join PAS? PAS would never get to hold power.
So Anwar Ibrahim joined UMNO. Baling? What was that? Student leaders? Who the hell are they? ABIM? “Brader, kita akan membuat perubahan dari dalam. Kita akan menukar UMNO dari dalam. Sampai ke seluar dalam, kita akan mendalam.”
So now Anwar Ibrahim began singing the UMNO tune. For 16 long years. This is the behaviour of a real chameleon. The fear is that if he gets to power, he will never let go
Then September 2nd 1998 came as a shocker – he lost his chance at grabbing power. The ultimate dream became just that – a dream.
However strange things happened. He found out that there were others like him in the country. There were exact duplicate Anwar Ibrahim clones in Malaysia. There were other chameleons in the country. They were in PAS and the DAP. They were in the NGOs. They saw in him an opportunity to break the overpowering Malay unity and Malay political dominance in the country.
So Karpal who had boldly questioned his sexual preferences in Parliament became his lawyer. The PAS who had coined the phrase Al-Juburi became his champion. The DAP who had made fun of him and criticised his every move for 16 years suddenly started holding hands with him. It was a marvellous feeling for Anwar Ibrahim. It was like jumping from the frying pan into a huge jar full of chameleons. He was in chameleon paradise.
After his release from imprisonment for corruption he strengthened his ties with the Malaysian chameleons. He also found strong support from the Zionists, the Jewish radicals, the American neo-cons and other genocidal maniacs in the US and in the West. This is what finally led to that ‘chameleon‘ label by The Economist. The Mat Sallehs are finding out a little late that the guy has substantial amounts of India-rubber-man DNA. He is really flexible with his principles.
Along the way even the LGBTs and gay rights people have thrown in their support for Anwar. They all have confidence in him. He can do this because his ultimate aim is personal glory and power. He will do any thing to get it. He can be flexible towards UMNO, Karpal, ABIM, Islamic radicals, Jews, neo-cons, LGBT or anyone at all. As long as you can move him closer to his objective – grabbing power – he is your friend. Here even Machiavelli is still in kindergarten. Niccolo Machiavelli will have to rewrite The Prince.
In an interview with the Western media (Wikileaks’ Julian Assange?) Anwar said he spent his time in jail listening to western music. No mention of reading the Quran or saying his prayers in jail to the Western media (they may label him a terrorist). But in a recent open letter that Anwar wrote in Malay he said he spent his time in jail reading the Quran and doing his prayers. There is no mention that he listened to Elvis Presley or Western music. This is the chameleon again. One shade of colour to the West and another colour to the Malays.
