Character assassination and politics, truly inseparable

Hazlan Zakaria, The Ant Daily

There seem to be a link between PKR and character assassination, a trail that leads from its jailed de facto leader, to a once sitting MB, senior party leaders, and also to other opposition parties that it was supposed to be allied too.

For the most part, we would like to think PKR is the victim of character assassinations with the numerous attacks against its leaders brought upon by powers that be and their allies. And partly that is true, and would describe half of the story.

PKR leaders bore the brunt of character assassination attempts and had suffered for it. A prime example would be Anwar Ibrahim himself, the imprisoned de facto leader having been tried, convicted and jailed after numerous allegations many consider questionable.

Other party leaders have also been thrown with ‘mud’ and other ‘unmentionables’, in order to smear their character and dignity, via the media and other means.

But PKR may not quite be the innocent party, for observers noted that it too seems to have dabbled with the same in its internal politics.

For one, it has long been believed that party factions, believed to be vying for power in the party’s internecine squabble may have had a hand in leaked court papers detailing divorce proceedings that assassinated the political character of a front runner for a top party post.

And then similarly severe allegations were made against a sitting party MB just to get him off the seat and allow another leader to assume power, after supposedly playing politics with palatial ties and seeing another front runner to the post sidelined as well.

Indeed PKR leaders who had made the allegations against the former MB and ex-party member had to apologise to settle a defamation suit brought on by the latter.

The allegations though had ruined the character and political profile of the former MB which led him to be unseated and publicly slandered and ridiculed.

He may not have been an angel, but one wonders how much of the allegations are true, such that they cannot stand in a court of law.

And when it comes to political pacts, it seem PKR may be the one doing the same assassination of character towards opposition parties that it may not want to share the same platform, if critics are to be believed.

This as in the case of PSM, which as has been reportedly explained by senior PKR leadership to representatives from both DAP and Amanah, is supposedly opposed to special Bumiputra rights as enshrined in the constitution, and thus cannot be a part of the new Pakatan Harapan that is replacing Pakatan Rakyat.

PSM denied this accusation, while PKR leadership seemed to argue that this was why PSM was never in old Pakatan in the first place. Though weirdly enough, the matter was never brought to light until recently.

Which brings to question is it may be a bid to assassinate the character of PSM, though what can PKR gain by allegedly doing so is debatable, and whether or not this is true is also questionable.

Indeed it mirrors PAS’ reason to snub PSM last time, which was to accuse the socialist party of having ties to the godless communist ideology.

Maybe there is a reason that Pakatan then and Pakatan now cannot accept PSM, thought it stinks of politicking since neither then or now, Pakatan can come with a consistent reason, other than what seems like convenient opportunistic sniping.

Of course one can take the explanation given by PKR secretary-general Rafizi Ramli when he first announced the Kajang Move that intensified the infighting inside PKR as well as exacerbated the rivalry between DAP and PAS, and finally helped broke up Pakatan.

One can believe that this is all part of some elaborate political gamesmanship, the Game Theory manifested inside the long game of politics. Or not, because all the more easier to see is that it is a cluster-procreation activity of massive proportions.

This brings us to the very reason many actually support PKR and the opposition, to bring forth a different government that will not be like what the BN is and has been, corrupt and full of dirty political practices like character assassination.

And as a party which continues to lead the Opposition as its moral centre and the glue that unites them together, maybe PKR too should cleanse itself from such BN-like practices.

But then again in the final analysis, politics is still politics, and no matter who the players are, it is still and will always be dirty. Something which we may have to live with no matter who rules and what they claim to be.