Tuesday, February 26, 2008

Gerakan Party reinventing, Anwar Ibrahim reinvented

So, according to Malaysiakini, Anwar Ibrahim has vowed to end race-based discrimination policies in Malaysia, making it one of the major planks of his party's manifesto for the 2008 Election.

He said: "The New Economic Policy has been abused to enrich the family of Umno leaders and their cronies." Hmmm, I wonder which family had benefitted?

Then the world's greatest political reformer said: "If you really want to deal with the issue of poverty, why can't we just say we have an affirmative action policy helping the poor and the marginalised. It should not be racially based."

Wasn't this the same guy who told Hindraf off not to touch Article 153 of the Malaysian Constitution, the very Article which legalises race based (so-called) affirmative actions? I suppose he is in 'continuous self-evolution'.

Please read:
1)
Anwar Ibrahim, Article 153 & Hindraf
2)
Is Anwar Ibrahim backtracking on his policy on NEP?
And you anwaristas asked me why I don't trust Anwar - ha ha ha!
Fellow blogger xypre of Reduced and Recycled blog, said of my concerns and queries about Anwar telling Hindraf to lay off Article 153:
In this I agree. When I read what DSAI said in Malaysiakini, I had the sudden urge to tell him off. What more balanced and rational means? Through the castrated political process? Through an ambiguous opposition coalition? Through the intervention of MIC?
Just what balanced and reasonable way of doing things? Indians are, if DSAI doesn't get it, damn angry.

As for 'continuous self evolution' please read what Baradan Kuppusamy (who normally writes for Malaysiakini) wrote in his article in the Star Online titled Anwar reinvents himself again.

Note the emphasis by Baradan on the word ‘... again’ ;-)


ANALYSIS BY BARADAN KUPPUSAMY

Anwar Ibrahim changed his image from a Muslim youth leader to a Malay nationalist. Now, he has reinvented himself again by projecting himself as a populist leader who embraces the multi-racial politics. But can Anwar’s new attempt win over the voters?

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, who started as a firebrand Islamic student activist, reinvented himself as a Malay nationalist after joining Umno in 1982 while continuing to promote and defend Islam.

In 1999 after he was sacked, jailed and desperately fighting to save his political career, he had a difficult and momentous choice to make between forming a Malay-only nationalist party or a multi-racial party as his future political vehicle.

Considering the need to show a united, strong political face – both to Malaysians and his legions of foreign supporters, Anwar chose a multi-racial platform. It was a “politically correct” decision and successfully piled the pressure to free him and return him to the political mainstream.

But in the process Anwar lost the two main planks he had rode to come within a whisker of becoming Prime Minister – as champion of Malay nationalism and promoter and defender of Islam.

Now, as a leader of a multi-racial party, he cannot speak exclusively about Malay nationalism or about Islam but has to present himself as a Malaysian leader and stand on a platform of equality, justice and fairness for all Malaysian races.

He has been walking on this multi-racial platform since his 2004 release but has he succeeded in re-inventing himself, for a third time, as a Malaysian leader? The results of this election will show if he has succeeded or failed.

As I had blogged in
Anwar Ibrahim sings Canto-pop songs:

Anwar Ibrahim was, to put it euphemistically, not very nice to the non-Malays when he was in power. Chinese and Indian parents still bitterly remember his Education Ministry's draconian policy to make non-Muslim students perform prayers in Muslim fashion. I also recall
Saifulbahri Kamaruddin, a former Malaysian journalist writing in to malaysiakini on the hypocrisy of Anwar Ibrahim.

[…] … most non-Malays didn't view the so-called reformasi street protests as a clarion call for Malaysians to join in to protest against a repressive state. They didn't associate their own repression with Anwar falling on his Umno keris.


To them, Anwar was not the solution but rather part of the problem. Anwar had played for high stakes in a game that determined his personal ascendancy to the top of Umno, and which didn't include non-Malay Malaysians. So when he faltered in his ambitious endeavour, don't blame the non-Malays for not buying his spin that it was about political reforms. That's about as plausible as the Bush administration's fabrication on the Saddam Hussein-Osama Laden link.

… we, who have felt the sting of Anwar's official hands, weren't and aren't so enamoured by his claim for ‘reformasi’.Anwar Ibrahim is a man who sang the Islamic tune when he was in Abim, the nationalist chant when in Umno, Paul Anka's songs when he's talking to the Western press and now lots of Canto-pop.

4-face Brahma

Then in The truth of Brahma's faces I quoted Proarte, who wrote a letter to Malaysiakini stating:

Anwar Ibrahim has squandered all the goodwill he generated in the aftermath of his sacking and persecution. He tried cleverly to reinvent himself as a 'reformist' hoping that the ‘rakyat’ would easily forget that he was a Mahathir and Umno man, responsible for much of the unhealthy division in our society using Islamic demagoguery and Malay chauvinism for political advancement.

I hope those naive believers in him would read Proarte’s description of the de facto leader as being “responsible for much of the unhealthy division in our society using Islamic demagoguery and Malay chauvinism for political advancement”. The term 'de facto leader' is in itself already a blasphemy to his oft-preached democracy - what hypocrisy!

Anwar must realise his 'all things to all men' modus operandi is downright dishonest. He cannot use the language of secular idealism and democracy including the 'Jeffersonian Focus' in the West and when addressing a non-Malay crowd, and then be an Islamic demagogue who feels it is right that Lina Joy a Christian convert should be tried for apostasy in the syariah courts which he feels we should have 'more confidence' in. This duplicitous behaviour will be the unravelling of him and his party.

“... duplicitous behaviour ..” says it all. I had described him as Brahma-faced.

Proarte continued:


Anwar has also betrayed the people of Sabah over the
Ma Zu issue in Kudat. Anwar has been silent on this issue. Abim, an institution which Anwar co-founded, has supported Sabah Chief Minister Musa Aman in preventing the Ma Zu statue from being erected.

So much for his 'wo men dou shi yi jia ren'.

The opposition however is divided and PKR has an unprincipled person as its de facto leader. The non-Malays in the party, including the self-conscious 'intellectuals' of PRM have been taken for a ride. Those who remain are pawns or opportunists who are drawn to delusions of grandeur and powerless party positions.

Please wake up!

Sadly, they could not resist their human desire for power and limelight, and were easily seduced by Anwar's rhetoric of justice, the primacy of human rights, freedom of conscience and upholding the secular nature of our constitution.

Urghhh, I need to wash myself!

But what happens if PKR is demolished? Will Anwar reinvent himself again?

Well, Baradan Kuppusamy also wrote: With PAS, Anwar is on a better footing. PAS traditionally saw Anwar as an ally even during Anwar’s Umno days and this was made possible by Anwar’s close relationship with PAS president, the late Ustaz Fadhil Nor, who saw him as his successor in PAS.

I guess we know where he will go then, as he had 'in spirit' when he was Education Minister!

18 comments:

  1. Metamorphosis my man, metamorphosis!

    I believe it's got something to do with evolving one's principles as the situation warrants it. :P

    Right now, I am just waiting for the spinning to stop.

    Kaleidoscopic I must say!

    Spot on with the analysis!

    Brilliant my man! Brilliant!

    Cheers!

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  2. Wah, acres and acres of criticism heaped on the man Bedol says he "has forgotten"...

    I'm an "Anwarista"...no apologies :-)

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  3. Sir, I have said earlier in your immediate anti-Anwar crusade post, rearranging your prejudice will not plant defeatist culture in any one of us because we don’t wear those glasses. I’m reminded of Edith Wharton’s words. “After all, one knows one's weak points so well, that it's rather bewildering to have the critics overlook them and invent others.” The question is not about Anwar being the Minister of Education in the past. Yes he was, mistakes were done. But here comes the question: was MCA, UMNO, MIC or Gerekan against it? No. The same people who sat with Anwar in the cabinet that passed the Education Ministry’s resolutions are the same people who are offering the same alternatives. However, for personal reasons, you choose to “close one eye.” That’s how scandalous minds work. Being a leader is not easy and the period in which a leader lives counts too.

    For Lina Joy, Muslims have a position in general with minor differences, may be we should ask MCA, MIC and Gerekan who support UMNO for Lina Joy’s ordeals. Still, apostasy is not a simple issue to many rural and even urban Malays who will deem it an affront and an attack on Malaysia including all of UMNO leaders. Addressing these people doesn’t come in the teeth of luxury just like every province or region has its variations and potentials. For NEP, it must be reformed not removed. That has been the clear position of PKR. So all will benefit but it will stay. Baradan Kuppusamy’s Star article serves the interest of those who write it. So it is a known fact. Blaming Anwar for ABIM’s position today is to go beyond any level of decency in showing your reversion to Anwar, because ABIM today is a BN small component. Only that, hate has blinded so much that you can’t go beyond clichés and engrained mantras of suitable people who may support your side of the story. No wonder you take great pain in looking for their concoctions. Blaming non-Muslim PKR members and supporters for being stupid people who are looking for raw power and limelight is to show the height of your buffoonery. I have never seen a so condescending fellow who tries to lord over others in his desperate disparaging barren campaign. Sir, don’t you think they have their million reasons for taking the positions they have taken? By what law, by what justice do you puke on their shoes as you try to portray them as little confused, illiterate, unexposed fellows? I love this. No wonder Zeuxis said: “criticism comes easier than craftsmanship.”


    Looking at the past, weighing it against the present and pondering on the future, and taking into consideration your little personal bone with Anwar, I will say Theodore Roosevelt's famous quip will solve it:

    “It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood, who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again; because there is not effort without error and shortcomings; but who does actually strive to do the deed; who knows the great enthusiasm, the great devotion, who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement and who at the worst, if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly. So that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory nor defeat.”

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  4. Gerekan reinventing itself?

    For the time in Gerekan's history, no single Malay, Indian or otherwise except Chineese was allowed to stand as a candidate. A single one in Malaysia. But that's true in one sense as well. That's they re-invented themselves by turning out to what they are today. Jeff Ooi had a good entry on this. We wish him a crushing victory in Jelutong, A bangsa Malaysia indeed.

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  5. No offense KTemoc,

    Since people do not want this current government with Pak Lah as its leader..... And I presume that you would not like Anwar to be the leader .... May I ask you this question...

    Who shall be the Prime Minister if opposition were to succeed?

    If it is not Anwar, I would presume it is Lim Kit Siang/Lim Guan Eng. Would the Malay be pleased and agree?

    If it is not these people, could it be Hadi Awang or Husam Musa. I am ok with them but would the non-Malay community agree with the choice?

    Otherwise maybe you can suggest a solution to all of us and that should not include voting for the Barisan Nasional in 2008.

    If you ask me, I shall tell you my opinion that all politicians are "dirty" to a certain extent.

    It is just that how we can decide to make the best use out of them and have the freedom to discard them when they overdo the bad things.

    Furthermore, without a credible coalition with a leadership agreeable by both groups of races, there will never be a strong viable check-and-balance Parliamentary system. I think this should be the priority than rummaging old shits.

    The last I heard, someone actually admitted that he is sorry for his past mistakes and promises to repent.

    I am willing to give that person a chance.

    Regards

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  6. Adoi, this Mahaguru58 didn't get it. As a PAS supporter who even insults Christians literally, he must know he is not an option here even if Ktemoc spends sleepless nights on Anwar, because as you can from people's responses, people are on a higher ground. So PKR comes close to many people than PAS.

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  7. Sagaladola,

    I agree with you one million times. First of all, no non-Malay will ever become a PM fo now or in the near future. So we have Badawi, Hadi Awang and Anwar. I think Anwar comes out as better (not best) to the other two. We will move on and later the best will be found, but for now, he is better than Awang and the sleeping beauty: AAB (or Khairy?). Blaming Anwar for what happened 20 years ago, Lim Kiat sang had an entry as he apologised, can't be the mark of any meaningul person or criticism. Anyway, the same people who with him as Zulkipli observed continue to create havoc while he is in the out. He is exposed and can do better than they are. It is a fact unless we are looking for a personal or family issue.

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  8. Ktemoc, that's what self-discovery learning process is about; till to death we still need to learn. No one's perfect; but I think you're misrepresenting PKR with Anwar's solo voice rather than PKR on the whole as a voice for the rakyat. It seems like Anwar's finally admitting up to his mistakes (as I myself was brainwashed before) and genuinely listening to the rakyat from all races and religion; and that's a great thing. Stop being pessimistic or opportunistic like Mahaguru from PAS here (a racist-fascist through and through party who falsely reinvent themselves all the time just to gain power rather than genuinely championing rakyat's rights from all religion and races!). I also hope Hindraf will also move from using UMNO and PAS racist-fascist racial and religious language game towards struggling for equality and liberation for all, above race, religion and ultra-nationalism (i.e of defending one's own civilization as superior). For there are poverty amongst all races and religion including in the usually forgotten rural communities in Sarawak such as the [Christians] Penans - last time I was there no electricity, no clinics, no roads & bridges whilst their communal landrights and our million of years old rainforest all destroyed for greed of multi-racial/religious logging corporations and BN politicians. Time for a move on KTemoc for a new century of opposition politics of championing universal human rights above race, religion and ultra-nationalism as PKR, DAP and PSM are envisioning equally and progressively!

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  9. Forgot to sign my name here below. Ktemoc, that's what self-discovery learning process is about; till to death we still need to learn. No one's perfect; but I think you're misrepresenting PKR with Anwar's solo voice rather than PKR on the whole as a voice for the rakyat. It seems like Anwar's finally admitting up to his mistakes (as I myself was brainwashed before) and genuinely listening to the rakyat from all races and religion; and that's a great thing. Stop being pessimistic or opportunistic like Mahaguru from PAS here (a racist-fascist through and through party who falsely reinvent themselves all the time just to gain power rather than genuinely championing rakyat's rights from all religion and races!). I also hope Hindraf will also move from using UMNO and PAS racist-fascist racial and religious language game towards struggling for equality and liberation for all, above race, religion and ultra-nationalism (i.e of defending one's own civilization as superior). For there are poverty amongst all races and religion including in the usually forgotten rural communities in Sarawak such as the [Christians] Penans - last time I was there no electricity, no clinics, no roads & bridges whilst their communal landrights and our million of years old rainforest all destroyed for greed of multi-racial/religious logging corporations and BN politicians. Time for a move on KTemoc for a new century of opposition politics of championing universal human rights above race, religion and ultra-nationalism as PKR, DAP and PSM are envisioning equally and progressively!

    Noor Aza Othman,
    noorazao@hotmail.com

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  10. Listen Noor, Anwar has never admitted he used Islam to further his interest at the expense of the non-Muslims. In this manner he is no different from PAS. As for the Penans the champion of unversal values have done nothing to defend them. While we are here let's not forget how he created a new 'tribe 'of Filipino bumiputras in Sabah thus robbing the natives of Sabah their right to rule their own land.
    Anwar Ibrahim has a lot of misdeeds he has to admit to. Until he does so he will forever be viewed with suspicions.

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  11. anon 4:20 AM,

    Anwar was not a government in himself. He was part of a party that carried out any given exercise and resolution. So get that. The same UMNO members and cabinet ministers are there still serving. So ask them what they have done. Anwar didn't use a personal plane to settle anyone in Sabah. MCA, MIC, Gerekan and all Sabah and Sarawak bumis supported UMNO policies. So it is very naive of anyone to point his gun at a person when BN made of 14 parties made some policies. Yet, Anwar travelled long in his solitary confinement and pondered over many realities. Jaila changes people. He was wronged, but I believe it made him reflect on life from a deeper side and he did. If you continue blaming Anwar, then you should be happy with Bawadawi who was with Anwar back then in the same UMNO and now the new PM: Khairy. Then you will see if they do better things for you.

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  12. Off topic: You might find this book an interesting rebuttal to your serial anti-semitic bashings

    http://www.filefactory.com/file/f01c20/

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  13. anti-semitic? As is known I am not against Arabs or any of the Semite groups in general.

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  14. I have my issues with Anwar mainly because of his change of heart on a lot of things. Now he championed himself as a multiracial leader. But can he be trusted? Basic principles don't change with time. Principles that change with time are not true principle. Unfortunately, there seemed to be no "better" candidate to act as a national leader. I think in the long run, it is better for Malaysia to have a Malay oppositon leader than a non-Malay opposition leader because it will remove the 'perception' that Malays are the pro-government and the non-Malays are anti-government. This is just being practical because this will help to remove the 'perception' that pro- or anti-government policy is based on ethnic lines.

    Talking about principle, the one leader I admire most is Tun Musa Hitam. Unlike other who had stood against Mahathir and lost, he had remained an ordinary member of UMNO and not formed a new party and criticise UMNO leaders and what they stand for. This showed that he really fight for the spirit of UMNO and not for himself! This is what principle is all about

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  15. As long as Anwar refuse to announce anything on liberal stands, I will not believe/trust him.

    When come to voting, if Anwar stand for opposition against BN, I will vote for opposition. But this doesn't mean I support Anwar.

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  16. Wormie,

    Are you sick or what? You are in the wrong arena my son. We are not here praising an scumbag entity called UMNO as you are doing here. You must be mad or what? How do you argue that it is good to have a Malay opposition leader and then praise Musa Hitam for not having stood up to be counted? Contradiction. You are an UMNO pussyfooter. Go and raise their flags in the kampungs. Lost boy.

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  17. moo_t,

    What are the liberal issues? And if certain issues are liberal for you, do you think they are for all? Basically yo are saying my opinion should be sanctified. It is a joke. What's liberal for you can be a sacrilege to others. You should say I want middle ground, because it is here that people can meet. But coming with your issues, perceptions and prejudices due to religion and race and then arguing them as liberal issues can't be said so. Malaysia is not made of few people with the same liking, thinking, religion and race for them to agree on liberal issues. There is nothing called liberal issue. People can become liberal in the sense that they act reasonably in relation to certain issues and it is here that we are going to. Come along, but you have to know what you are talking about is not your perception and world view becoming accepted. There are many sensitivities that must be taken into account. Whims and fancies sell neither reality nor idealism.

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  18. Dear Ktemoc...

    You are one hell of a writer!

    I know that you're a big fan of DAP but this is taking it way too far. Tell me Ktemoc, who the hell is perfect in today's world?

    If you keeps on blowing negativism like this, perhaps we should appoint rocks and stones as our leaders.

    Put that aside, keep up your wonderful writing. :-)

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