Anwar Ibrahim - the new Mahdi, Messiah, Maitreya?

I like to read Malaysiakini because it gives us the news that the Malaysian mainstream media (msm) won’t, but in recent times I have to admit I beginning to understand why some of my blogger mateys have made snide remarks that it should be renamed Anwarkini ;-)

When I read Malaysiakini article The Anwar prophecies dissected, I was somewhat stunned that author Joe Fernandez appeared not to be employing the term ‘prophecies’ just as a catchy headline – as I see it, bloke actually meant it, because he wrote:

PKR (Parti Keadilan Rakyat) Advisor Anwar Ibrahim had prophesized -- predict being too mild a term -- that he would take his seat in parliament as the opposition leader, opposite the prime minister and look into his eyes.

His prophecy has now come true in the aftermath of Aug 26 when he took the Permatang Pauh seat which his wife, party chief Azizah, had kept safe for him through the ten long years when he was a lonely voice in the political wilderness.

Prophesized? Prophecy? Prophet?

That Anwar was already de facto, and would be de jure Opposition leader (after a long awaited by-election) has been known by Malaysians all along, way way before the Permatang Pauh by-election, so what is Joe Fernandez attempting to do … other than to mythologize or deify Anwar Ibrahim as the new Mahdi, Messiah, Maitreya.

It’s understandable when a PKR member or supporter writes like that, but for a journalist or media columnist to indulge in pseudo-religious hyperbole to describe a politician, you may expect more of the same bias in the rest of the article …

… for example … Fernandez writing about the Musa Hassan, the current IGP ...

It is hard to dismiss that Aug 26 was poetical justice and the run-up may have had something to do with the IGP going into emergency surgery with a heart condition. Had his maker been kinder, he would have been spared the embarrassment and sheer humiliation that is sure to follow in the days, weeks and months ahead.

Now, I know Musa is an asshole and I have written about him in:

(1) Malaysian PM must act against deputy IGP (end of 2005, Musa Hassan was still DIGP)

(2) What's AAB up to, extending Musa Hassan's service?

… but for us to wish his Maker would have been kinder to spare him further experiences in the days ahead, is really too cruel (even evil), judgemental and anwarista-ish. And I need to ask whether Joe Fernandez is a PKR card-carrying member.

Then he wrote: If Aug 26 sealed the fate of the Umno-led Barisan Nasional government, after the electoral triumphs of March 8 -- when Pakatan took 82 seats in the Dewan Rakyat, four states, one Federal Territory, and retained Kelantan -- how will the finishing touches come for Sept 16?

Well, apparently for this Malaysiakini journalist/columnist, the general elections haven’t completed yet ….. no ….. not until the desired PM Mahdi, Messiah, Maitreya (take your pick but he is one who prophesises) is installed as the scincillating, sublime, supreme Caliph.

Then he mentioned the grandstanding role of PKR MP Gobalakrishnan who stopped buses and reported them as full of UMNO phantom voters:

The sons of the opposition MP, Gobalakrishnan, who spotted a phantom busload were even beaten up in public by the overzealous police on duty for their father’s act of public spiritedness.

As I wrote in Anwar Ibrahim owes EC an apology

Then, Malaysiakini reported in 5 'phantom' buses stopped, MP and sons arrested that PKR leader Gobalakrishnan, MP for Padang Serai, and his two sons plus a supporter, adopted the PKR ‘core’ group’s habit of stopping buses, allegedly full of phantom voters.

OK, where was the evidence that the passengers were phantom voters? […]

Recall the Ijok by-election where PKR supporters blocked the car of Najib by placing flower pots on the road, with one sitting on the bonnet of that car? And in Lunas?

There has been a propensity by some PKR fanatical followers to take the law into their hands like the ruthless lawless vigilante corp of the American Wild West, stringing up people they suspected (only suspected, no proof whatsoever) of crimes whilst forgetting that in their vigilante action, they would be committing crimes themselves.

I am aghast that a member of parliament would stoop to such disgraceful grandstanding antics.

While I deplore police brutality, I do not see ‘… their father’s act of public spiritedness.’ If Fernandez had written ‘…for their father’s act of party devotion’ I might have accepted it.

Joe Fernandezs added: What other prophecies are in store for the people?

Well, September 16 will be celebrated as a public holiday like Hari Raya or Christmas, Malaysian fuel prices will plummet like manna from heaven, the NEP will be transformed into …….. (fill in blanks), and a Thousand Year Reich Caliphate will come into being.

Fnally Fernandez tells us that the ‘marginalized’ Indians have been the influencing factor for the Chinese swing. He wrote:

The Indian community’s almost total withdrawal of support for Umno. The community is the deciding factor in 67 of the Parliamentary seats in Peninsular Malaysia. The community has belatedly realized that they have been squatted on by the system and the government over the last 50 years.

The Indian "desertion" has had spillover effects on the Chinese community. The Chinese have traditionally looked to Indian leadership in trade unionism, NGOs and the law.

Well …….. ;-)

Now, I do wonder whether I should renew my subscription to Malaysiakini when I can get the same dissection of the prophecies of the Mahdi, Messiah, Maitreya free at the PKR website.