The Magic of Anwar Ibrahim?

Much as I have been abused and reviled for allegedly ‘hating’ Anwar Ibrahim, and most certainly for criticizing him ;-) I have never denied that he has been the glue that kept the diverse component parties in the loose coalition of Pakatan Rakyat together – see my post Can we trust Anwar Ibrahim? where I wrote “No doubt Anwar had done his part to keep the Pakatan in a cohesive form during the election campaign (and no one can take that away from him) …..”

Recently, in my post Anwar Ibrahim's worst nightmare emerges I discussed the dissatisfaction by Pak Haji Hadi Awang* of PAS who voiced his preference to deal with UMNO rather than the Pakatan with a secular DAP as an undesirable ally, where he stated:

* as different from Pak Haji Nik Aziz who is very suspicious of UMNO

“If others can meet Umno (leaders), why can’t PAS meet Umno? (Such comments) show a lack of understanding. On the basis of Islam, we have the right (to do so). PAS can negotiate with any party.”

Pak Haji also took pot shots at Anwar Ibrahim for being the de facto leader of the Pakatan, stating in no uncertain terms:

“No one is the sole leader of Pakatan Rakyat. (Its) leadership is collective, and we have mutually agreed that the respective party leaders can seek to influence our friends in BN to join us. Because of this, the issue of why PAS is meeting Umno should not arise.”

“After the victory, the role of PAS people needs to be taken into account. PAS people are not stupid. Do not sideline their contributions after the win.”

But if Pak Haji Hadi had read Malaysiakini news article Pakatan suspects Khairy has access to police report he may well change his mind about the DAP, because Malaysiakini reported that when Mukhriz Mahathir “… slammed Pakatan Rakyat MPs for insisting on more stringent standards of evidence as contained in Islamic laws for accusations of sexual violations”, alluding to the impossibility of having four male witnesses to the alleged sodomy case against Anwar Ibrahim, and that a DNA sampling should be more preferable and fair to all parties.

Mukhriz said: “There are leaders over there who are demanding for four witnesses (to the alleged act of sodomy). How can there be four witnesses? They would have sinned if they saw the commission of the act but did not do anything to stop it!”

Pak Haji would be (spiritually) heartened to note that many Pakatan MPs, both Muslim and non-Muslims, stood up to protest against Mukhriz’ alleged “… disparaging' of Islam.”

Now, get this Pak Haji, a member of those 'quasi-satanic' DAP MPs, Charles Santiago (DAP-Klang) also jumped up to defend Islam, demanding of Mukhriz: “Are you challenging Islam?”

Alhamdulillah and a secular 'wow'!

And of course apart from Charles Santiago defending Islam on behalf of PAS, in that Malaysiakini article, we also see ‘enemies’ like Mukhriz Mahathir and Khairy Jamaluddin joining forces to demand that Anwar Ibrahim provides the DNA sample.

The Anwar magic of cozy cohesive compulsion on others, even across the political divide into UMNO, is just amazing, and even when he was not present!

Appendix:

Oh, that anwarista word ‘hate’ which I have been accused of demonstrating against Anwar Ibrahim can be explained by an article by Raja Petra Kamarudin (RPK) titled The cult called PKR.

RPK wrote that piece criticizing Ezam Mohd Nor but his observations are equally applicable to all anwaristas. He remarked (relevant extract):

… The problem at that time, though, was that Ezam was PKR’s blue-eyed boy, the darling of the party, and any negative comments about Ezam, or Azmin Ali for that matter, was considered a treacherous act. You are a traitor to the cause, a traitor to PKR, a traitor to the opposition, a traitor to the Malay race, and a traitor to the entire nation -- all in one -- if you badmouth one of the PKR darlings.

That is the trouble with PKR. They dabble in cult personalities. When you are the current hot favourite, the flavour of the day, even your fart smells sweet. But once you fall out of favour then they even curse your poor innocent mother who has nothing to do with your political business and does not even know what is going on.

The PKR crowd is one emotional group of people. I suspect that if Anwar was to order them to commit mass suicide they might just do so. And that is dangerous, as time and time again history has proven. If Anwar could get a religious scholar somewhere in the world to come out with a fatwah (religious decree) that if you die for PKR you will go straight to heaven where 70 virgins are waiting for you, I bet we will not be short of candidates who will volunteer to undertake suicide missions.

Whether it is Anwar, Dr Wan Azizah, Nurul Izzah, Azmin, or Ezam, they all have their cult followers. The PKR people revere their idols and appear to lose their senses when in the presence of these demigods. So how to tell these PKR herds that Ezam is not what he appears to be and that he is a plant, a Trojan Horse, a termite meant to weaken the ranks of PKR? Try doing that and you will get a beer bottle broken on your head. So it was best to just keep quiet and watch. Time would reveal the truth. And, true enough, the truth has now been revealed.

I remember when I was once the sub-editor of the party newspaper, Suara Keadilan, and I published a letter from a reader that criticised PKR’s Youth Movement. The letter was about the high-handed manner the Youth Movement ‘security squad’ handled the crowd. Even Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, when he was still Prime Minister, was not that well-guarded and his security team did not push and shove the crowd the way the PKR Youth boys did.

It was not my comment. It was a letter from a reader and I allowed it to get published. Wow, you should have seen the SMSess I received. The PKR Youth boys cursed me and one of Ezam’s ‘groupies’, Jo, even challenged me to a boxing match. I was having dinner with Johari Abdul and Dato’ Kamarul at that time and I showed them the SMS.

Another aspect of Anwar Ibrahim's magic!

Amin! - oh, this one is meant for the attention of Pak Haji Hadi Awang ;-)