Wish for Anwar’s release, and while at it, wish for an Olympic gold, clear skies and polite drivers

Umar Mukhtar

That’s the fun thing about unstructured get-togethers. Especially of rainbow-coloured ‘make-a-wish’ groupings. A myriad of wishes from bleeding-heart groupies interspersed among the scheming and calculating types. What has Anwar’s release got to do with the bid to make an honest man out of Prime Minister Najib Razak?

Najib did not commit Anwar to jail. The courts did. Go picket the Halls of Justice in Putrajaya. If you think that the justice system is skewed, then reform it when you come to power. And while you are in that mood, you demand that Mahathir apologise and lick his wounds. Or is it let’s just forgive him for his misdeed? Such a school-girlish trait of naive un-meeting of the minds.

Opposite ends of the spectrum, which reflect the diversity of the hastily-called gathering arising out of the common desire to oust Najib as PM. And they talked of reforms and other lofty stuff — when all Mahathir wants to do is kick Najib out. The ink has not dried on the so-called Citizens’ Declaration and already the signs of cracks can be seen.

That’s what happen when you don’t do your homework and was just guided by your wishful thinking. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Mahathir just wants a platform but you want all the goodies in a beautiful pink-coloured basket with ribbons. And perfumed too.

It was such a change, and quite heartening to see old enemies greeting each other like lost lovers. Everybody nearby who should be there was there. Almost. Dr Wan Azizah Ismail was caught in the traffic jam when in Sungai Buloh to receive further instructions. Azmin took her place sitting lovingly next to ‘papa angkat’ Mahathir like a prodigy PM-in-waiting.

It was the return of Team Wawasan without Najib who is the enfant terrible, and Anwar who is on long leave courtesy of Najib, so they like to believe. Mahathir took the place of Najib, with Muhyiddin Yassin and Muhammad Muhd Taib at his beck and call. Lim Kit Siang, looking his age, sat next to the upstaged Zaid Ibrahim, and Mat Sabu looking his moronic cartoon self at the opposite end of the PAS people who presumably attended in their individual capacities (?).

The NGOs who as always make up the numbers were trying to look important even if not elected to their officious positions. Even an NGI anarchist was there. Quite a collection, really. And an Indian contractor, who seemed to know everyone, making his rounds like an UMNO Class F contractor for his presence to be noted by everybody. So it was a typical Malaysian political do.

Don’t get me wrong. I am happy that they are celebrating Mahathir’s leaving of UMNO and have declared their common intention to oust Najib. I am not too fond of him either, even before the 1MDB fiasco. But sadly, on both sides, I can see that hypocrisy rules the day.

First, a much-awaited report to the PUBLIC Accounts Committee by a PUBLIC agency was announced to be not a PUBLIC document, the breach of which will be at the risk of incarceration. Wow! It will be much like trying to guess if a woman has a nice voluptuous body when she is covered up with a light robe standing in the breeze, and you have to wait for the breezy gusts to help you. You know she has a shapely body much like you know that 1MDB has scandals enough to keep you awake at night straining your eyes at the computer but you just want a satisfactory everyone-can-see confirmation.

Second, I was brought up to believe that only truth is consistent and that justice is an end and not a means. Today that was shattered. So, the hours I spent listening to Lim Kit Siang upholding the truth about how crooked and mean Mahathir is, was just his way to be heard and his demands for social justice was apparently to get his son the job as chief land-reclaimer with perks. Truth, it seems, can be adjusted and justice is a compromisable commodity.

From the Machiavellian Mahathir, you can expect that kind of stuff. But this ‘an enemy of your enemy is your friend’ thingy sounds like something I won’t teach my kid. There’s something sinister about it. We are guided by the truth, and cherish that for people whom we care. Hypocrisy, in whatever form, is still hypocrisy, and it should never be the basis of a struggle for genuine justice.