You must be joking. He comes from the same breed and is just a lamp (sic) in a wolfs outfit. Hope u are not serious.
I am absolutely serious, Marcus. There has been a systematic attempt to undermine Anwar's credibility by those who recognize that he is indeed the most intelligent, adaptable, and charismatic leader to emerge from Umno's ranks. Mahathir's vicious attack on him which led to Anwar's 6 years of humiliation, imprisonment and intense suffering was the furnace that remolded the man into a prime ministerial candidate that I personally endorse. I have no fear of Anwar Ibrahim and am pleased to have him (as well as Lim Kit Siang) as Facebook friends :-)
An important factor people who irrationally hate and fear Anwar seem to have forgotten is that PKR is no longer just Anwar Ibrahim. He is surrounded by many good people who will immediately quit PKR if ever Anwar's dark side begins to reassert itself and turns him into a monster. Anyway, having survived and outlived the Greatest Monster of Them All (yes, I mean Mahathir) we can deal with any wannabe Monsters that show up!
Having met Wan Azizah and Nurul Izzah during the Reformasi days, I have no doubt that they are very fine people and will always have a moderating effect on Anwar.
Since September 2, 1998, the day Anwar Ibrahim was fired, I have been monitoring the man closely and his every move and utterance has impressed me favorably.We are living in a whole new era now, Marcus. All those who have spoken negatively about Anwar Ibrahim can only warn about his ambition and lust for power - and they say he was just like the other Umno politicians before he got sacked. Anwar Ibrahim WANTS to be PM. He has always said so. He was, in fact, next in line for the job before September 1998, having been groomed by Dr M for 16 years. Nobody can say the PKR has no experience governing. I have no quarrel with people who are ambitious - so long as they have what it takes to be at the top, and what it takes is a willingness to learn from their own mistakes and to keep their minds open to feedback from others. The recent elections was largely won through a free flow of information via the blogs and news portals like Malaysiakini.
If Anwar becomes PM and starts regressing into authoritarianism he will hear about it immediately. In any case, I will personally hold him accountable to his pre-election promise of abolishing all repressive laws (ISA, OSA, etc). Once those laws are gone, the mechanisms by which citizens can keep their elected leaders in check will be restored.
Your nervousness probably comes from the views of so-called experts who move in power circles. They all suffer from the same disease: hero-envy! They are secretly envious of Anwar because he has the capacity to reinvent himself - from victim to victor within 10 years. Remember those images of Anwar from early 1999, with black eye, frogmarched around by policemen, in constant pain from a spinal injury, attending his mother's funeral in a wheelchair, not allowed to seek medical treatment in Germany... slowly poisoned by arsenic mixed into the paintwork of his Sungai Buloh cell. Look at him today. I for one am very impressed and will publicly name him a national hero. He showed Malaysians you can defy Mahathir - and live!
Cheers & Hugs,
Antares
~^@^~
P.S. In any case, there isn't anybody from Umno who qualifies as PM. Certainly not Najib, the urbane sleazeball with blood on his hands and Lady Macbeth on his back! Hishamuddin is a braindead lout and Khairy J is definitely the most hated Malay in Malaysia (people believe he had to cheat to win in Rembau). All the old farts are out - and none of the newer faces has a personality or even a known opinion outside of Umno party dogma, viz., the Malays need Umno to defend their special rights. No PAS leader is acceptable as PM - not yet - because they are too closely aligned with a religion. The DAP leaders may be sincere for the most part but many are from the ranks of hawkers and sundry shop owners - a bit uncouth and unsophisticated when it comes to dancing with the complex Malay psyche. This leaves PKR - the first workable multi-ethnic party in Malaysian history - and I'm extremely pleased Selangor is now managed by PKR. No, I am not a card-carrying member - though in 1999 I paid my RM2 to join KeADILan in KKB. Unfortunately the schoolteacher who was acting as treasurer absconded with all the money collected and later rejoined Umno - so I was never registered! [Correction: my application was approved nevertheless and I subsequently received a certificate of membership.]
Antares
Magick River
44000 Kuala Kubu Baru
Malaysia
Antares
Magick River
44000 Kuala Kubu Baru
Malaysia
Seconded your view.
ReplyDeleteAnwar is by far the more suitable person to be the next PM. Simply name a person who have better credential than this guy to be PM? I guess not many. He's learnt a lesson and I'm sure he's a lot more wiser now as compare to 1998.
As for Lim Kit Siang, I think he's been too long around as opposition party leader, and he's develop himself a kind of attitude, which would hampered the opposition coalition party's progress. I respect him as a party leader and for what he's been done to us, but he just lack that little bit of quality to be up there. Maybe Lim Guan Eng can be a better choice.
Kit Siang is built like a tank. That's how he managed to survive four decades of battering as Opposition Leader under an aggressive and arrogant BN government. But once the war is over, we switch from tanks to
ReplyDeletelimos (or fuel-efficient solar-powered cars if we want to be really with-it :-). I love and admire the man for his courage and tenacity but those who call him a bull in a china shop are probably correct. The hope lies in Guan Eng who has shown himself to possess his father's grit, but without the father's crustiness. Anyway, it will be at least another 5 years before Malaysia is ready to accept a non-Malay as PM - however, that is inevitable. Tempurungism a la Umno is definitely dead. The few jerks that remain are involuntary muscular spasms - just as the body continues to twitch after the head is severed.
To quote from a Meatloaf song, something I really don't do too often......
ReplyDeleteYOU TOOK THE WORDS RIGHT OUTTA MY MOUTH
Roll on the next five years, anyone got a shoe horn? It seems the present P.M is a little stuck in office.
Good article Antares.
ReplyDeleteI basically think that it's not important to discuss now for who is the coming PM for Malaysia...
I'm pretty worried about how the 3 opposition parties help to clear the shits that we have currently in our country.
A country cannot be led by just one hero...
Either Guan Eng OR Anwar is definitely better than Badawi OR Najib OR whoever in BN now....
:-D
For the very first time, I felt that im living in a democratic country...
Cheers.
Well, until another miracle happens and we get AI in the driver's seat, it's best to leave AB in charge. For all his shortcomings he is at least not a despicable person - and he did us all a favor by releasing AI from Sg Buloh. Now if he would just release the Hindraf 5 next week, he will be compassionately remembered for opening a couple of windows to let in a bit of fresh air after 22 years of acrid fumes. There are a few reasonable people left in the dinosaur party - Shahrir Samad has always struck me as likeable and Zaid Ibrahim seems a man of substance. But whatever credibility these guys may have is rendered utterly meaningless by the mere presence and proximity of insufferable goons like defler with two Muhammads in his name... not to mention the Nazi named Nazri and that sorry excuse for an Education Minister, Whatshisname? Yeah, another guy with double initials...
ReplyDeletebut to be honest I feel sick to my stomach every time I see Najib's face and wonder who he instructed to call up the Immigration Department and what his excuse might have been... I mean, how often does a phonecall come through
asking a civil servant to tamper with computer records? I guess all the outgoing BN state governments are now guilty of doing the same with incriminating files... I shudder just thinking about the shit that fills those BN heads.
Well written.
ReplyDeleteI am also of the opinion, AI is definitely the best candidate to kill a diseased BN (UMNO the villian).
However, I am also abit worried-lah of his past when he was fire and brimstone on ugama and bangsa coupled with his many years of UMNO indoctrination.
What if his dark self manifest and turn against us (meaning the non Melayus) once installed as PM?
I guess, that must be a chance to be taken if we want to slay the evil BN (UMNO primarily).
Thanks, Gan. Your residual anxieties about Anwar Ibrahim are perfectly understandable. Truth is, when he was invited by Dr M into Umno I saw Anwar as a political animal through and through who would do anything just to rise in the ranks. To a certain extent that ambition is still there or he would have given up by now. My point is: ambition isn't in itself a negative trait. Indeed, most of us would like our own kids to be ambitious and to reach for the stars. I was pretty ambitious in my mid-20s and perhaps still am, though in an entirely different direction. So I wouldn't distrust anybody on account of their ambition. Rather, it's important to understand where that ambition comes from. If you were a truly gifted musician you would surely dream of playing the Royal Albert Hall someday, what's wrong with that? Now that the climate of fear has been dispelled and Malaysians have regained their voice(s), we have no more need of overcaution. Anwar is no fool. He's acutely aware of the Zeitgeist and is ready to claim his political destiny, which was thwarted - indeed, ultimately reinforced - by Mahathir's inability to let go of power. Let us not succumb to unnecessary fear. Judgments based on fear are unsound. Let us instead be prompted by love of freedom and justice and harmony to call upon genuine reformers to institute a new government for a new dawn in Malaysia. Where are the reformers in BN? I can think of two genteel voices - Shahrir Samad and Zaid Ibrahim. Characters like Mat Taib belong in the dustbin of history - if not in jail for crimes committed against the environment!
ReplyDeleteYour point is taken, like I say he's the best candidate.
ReplyDeleteIf it's Heaven's will (translated from Hokkien "thee ee") that AI is destined to be the next PM - I believe Heaven's forces (together with the rakyats's power) will collaborate in his favour.
So maybe the rumoured 30 defactors might just jump ship on command by Heaven instead of being rumoured to be bought over, possible?
All you guys here must be dreaming.
ReplyDeleteSweet dream. Hidup UMNO !!!
It's not about DREAM.
ReplyDeleteBut it's about OUR NATION.
It's not that we do not support UMNO.
But they do not DESERVE the support until they've CHANGED.
Who is the one who is dreaming? Isn't the one who is still living under lies of the govenment??
Let's move forward as ONE!!
:-D