BN-Hindraf alliance: Anwar’s shame
I was terribly disappointed to learn of the BN/Hindraf alliance. What could have easily been one of Anwar Ibrahim’s most shrewd political manoeuvres has instead left him and the PR hierarchy looking like a bunch of first year amateurs. Today was when Anwar should have made amends for his past.
FMT LETTER: From Oliver Gomez, via e-mail
It could have been the day when Anwar Ibrahim finally exorcised the ghosts of Umno past. Here is a man once mercilessly betrayed by his colleagues and left to die in a hole somewhere. Had Mahathir gotten his way, it is no stretch to think that Anwar Ibrahim would have become nothing more than a footnote in the sordid history of the National Front.
Against unbelievable odds, however, Anwar defied his former mentor and two subsequent Prime Ministers to rise up, a seemingly renewed man, to finally become a legitimate challenger for the highest public office in Malaysia. It is a striking story and indeed, one that roused the imagination of the long dormant Malaysian public.
I must admit that a few short years ago, I myself was deeply taken by this awe inspiring story. Anwar Ibrahim is scarily intelligent and highly charismatic. That is of course to say nothing of his natural talent for public speaking. I can therefore understand that in the current political climate, Anwar Ibrahim is almost unimpeachable to those of us who are sick and tired of BN.
Yet let us not forget that the same man was once held up as the future of the utterly corrupt National Front. He has so many times in the past, made appearances at Umno assemblies, declaring in typically rousing fashion that he is a champion of the concept of ‘Ketuanan Melayu’ or ‘Malay Superiority’. At the same time, he would appear under the banner of the National Front and claim to be fighting for the rights of all Malaysians.
This time, and for as long as BN remains corrupt and practices race based politics, my vote will be for PR and by extension, its de facto leader. One thing I will never allow myself to forget however, is the disgusting hypocrisy that Anwar Ibrahim displayed during his time with the National Front.
A day that will live in infamy
Remember this date: April 18, 2013.
I was terribly disappointed to learn of the BN/Hindraf alliance. What could have easily been one of Anwar Ibrahim’s most shrewd political manoeuvres has instead left him and the PR hierarchy looking like a bunch of first year amateurs. Today was when Anwar should have made amends for his past.
At this point, it can be said with confidence that many of us going to the ballots are more concerned with voting against BN than anything else. While on the surface this viciously anti – BN mentality does no damage to PR, there is very much the other side of the coin to consider.
In the run up to GE13, PR can fully expect to capitalize on a massive wave of public vitriol towards BN (possibly all the way to Putrajaya). The PR top dogs however must realize that this situation will not last indefinitely. There will come a time when merely pouncing on public sentiment against BN is no longer enough.
Why should PR give a crap?
In order to remain a serious choice, PR must pre – empt the inevitable softening of public opinion. Its leaders will have to take serious and measured steps to actively shore up their support base. Currently, PR is simply an alternative. In order become a solution, it must actively generate intelligent and sustainable methods of their own so as to send Malaysia back to the top of the pile in South East Asia and beyond.
For the purposes of this article, I will only concentrate on one of these methods: PR must reach out to sections of the Malaysian public most in need of help and protection. As a result of decades of institutionalized racism and sheer force of evil will, BN has made it so that this section of the public happens to be overwhelmingly Indian.
Given the extent of voter fraud, the fact that BN have the EC practically bought and paid for, as well as the ongoing ICgate scandal in East Malaysia, PR should have known that they would need every last legitimate vote to count.
In the short term, this was a golden opportunity for Anwar & Co to acquire much needed support against the BN election machine. In the mid to long term, PR could have galvanized the Malaysian citizenry by taking a lead role in championing the rights of the most marginalized in our society. If nothing else, this move would have secured a huge chunk of Indian support for PR in the upcoming elections.
Further, had Anwar and the rest of the Opposition leadership made Hindraf a priority, PR could very well have dealt a permanent and fatal blow to the ineffectual and frankly incompetent MIC. After all, supporters of Hindraf had lost untold millions to the Maika Holdings scandal. Hindraf was a potent reaction to what the marginalized Indian public rightly saw as complete neglect on the part of Samy Vellu’s MIC to their plight.
It would have been an amazing piece of history had Hindraf been convinced to shun the one alliance with a party that supposedly caters to Indians. The act alone would have highly symbolic in that it would have brought to attention the fractious and ultimately broken nature of BN’s race based politics. Had Anwar & Co succeeded, they would effectively be giving the one fingered salute to BN’s ineffectual divide & conquer style of politics.
Instead, we bore witness to PR’s awful complacency towards the people who are in the most need of PR’s help. Through sheer inaction, Anwar and the PR leadership practically herded an entire section of the Malaysian public right back into the mouth of the lion.
