Don’t underestimate Anwar Ibrahim, warns Raja Petra
(Harakah Daily) – While there are voices among Pakatan Rakyat supporters who appear not to fully endorse opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim’s current post-general election campaign, prominent blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin – himself a critic of Anwar – thinks otherwise.
Giving his series of analyses of the latest developments especially after Anwar vowed not to accept the results of the election until PR achieves its Putrajaya goal, Petra reminds cynics that Anwar is not someone to be dismissed easily.
And with prime minister Najib Razak performing even worse than his ‘unpopular’ predecessor Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Petra believes that Anwar is now more prepared to drag UMNO into its biggest nightmare – losing Putrajaya.
According to Petra, fresh elections was not Anwar’s aim as many would have thought, besides the fact that nobody should have the illusion that this would take place in Malaysia despite evidences of frauds.
“But that is not a problem because that is not Anwar’s real game plan. His real game plan is to ‘steal’ the government,” he writes.
Petra reveals that there is more to it in PR’s poor performance in Sabah and Sarawak – seen as key to Putrajaya.
“Anwar is not as stupid as you may think,” says Petra. “It may appear like he messed up in Sabah and Sarawak. Actually he was not interested to win Sabah and Sarawak through the ballot box because he knew that would be very difficult to do and you would be wasting a lot of time and money while achieving very little.”
He claims that Anwar had urged many BN MPs who recently won in the two states not to crossover to PR before the general election, convinced that there was no way to match BN’s might of money and machinery in bribing the locals in East Sarawak to continue voting for the coalition.
“Anwar told them to stay put in Barisan Nasional and contest the general election under the ruling party banner and then cross over after the general election,” he adds.
On Wednesday, barely 48 hours after he issued a call to rally, more than 100,000 people gathered in Petaling Jaya to protest what they called the sham elections.
Addressing the mammoth crowd, Anwar pledged to devote his time and energy to exposing the elctoral frauds, saying some thirty parliamentary seats were won by BN in such manner.
