Intrigues after intrigues – another Mahathir-Anwar story
KTemoc Konsiders
FMT – Dr M has no interest in Anwar’s release, says Reformasi veteran (extracts):
A pioneer Reformasi activist has questioned the sincerity of Dr Mahathir Mohamad in calling for the release of former opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim.
Abdul Razak Ismail had been part of the Reformasi movement since its inception in 1998, following the sacking of Anwar as deputy prime minister and Umno deputy president, when Mahathir headed both the party and the government.
He said that he believes that the former prime minister does not have any interest in pushing for the release of jailed opposition leader Anwar. […]
Razak, who was secretary of the Otai Reformasi 1998 NGO before quitting his post to become an ordinary member, lamented how the opposition coalition had welcomed Mahathir into their fold.
“The whole idea of Mahathir’s name being on the statement looked more like PH’s gimmick of wanting to bring Mahathir into the picture.
“If that’s what they’re trying to do, it’s bad ‘advertising’,” Razak said, adding that it seemed a moot point to have Mahathir release the statement when Anwar is set to be free in a matter of months anyway having served most of his jail term.
“Moreover, Mahathir doesn’t have to fight for Anwar’s release because his jail term is anticipated to end next year June.
“In fact, I hear rumours of Prime Minister Najib Razak wanting to release Anwar earlier but keep him under house arrest, just to get back at Mahathir.
“So this statement Mahathir made doesn’t carry any weight and won’t make any difference,” Razak said.
Once Mahathir hated only one person but today he hates two blokes with deep deep deepest vengeance. They are Najib Razak and Anwar Ibrahim.
He hates Najib for refusing to obey his dictates and ignoring him, failing to report to him, etc.
And he hates Anwar for trying to oust him in 1997-8.
Once Mahathir hates you with a giant-size HATRED, he never forgets, thus for him to join US human rights lawyer Kimberley Motley in calling for the release of Anwar Ibrahim is hardly plausible, apart from a gesture that’s hardly likely to receive any attention from Najib.
But as Abdul Razak Ismail said, that implausibility looked more like Pakatan Harapan’s gimmick of wanting to bring Mahathir into the picture, though we do not know who in PH dreamed up that personal-political incongruity.
I wonder whether it could have been one of PKR’s strategic-thinkers like Rafizi? Nurul? or even the outside-of-PKR LKS? Wakakaka. But Abdul Razak Ismail assessed it as a bad move.
But maybe that it would in the end be a meaningless gesture for Mahathir to call for Anwar to be released, an unwinnable move hardly likely to gain traction with the authorities, that saw Mahathir willing to participate in that useless act of tokenism, wakakaka.
