A Good Conversation with RPK, Anwar , Tian Chua and Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz

By faroukaperu

I’m getting to be quite a veteran in the Malaysian political ceramah scene in London. Having attended a number of events already, asked a number of cheeky questions (for enlightenment , not amusement) and met a number of good people, I find myself expecting the same old story this rather wet afternoon. The event was ‘In Conversation with Raja Petra, Anwar Ibrahim and Tian Chua’ but we had a welcome surprise guest, DAP Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz as well. The venue was the Cruciform Lecture Theatre, University College London.

The event started with a welcoming speech by the protem chairman of the Friends of Pakatan Rakyat (FoPR) UK, Brian Morais who duly welcomed everyone. The recently launched FoPR has been hard at work gathering support for the Pakatan Rakyat. This support is not just monetary but also labour and time. So Malaysians in the UK, search for ‘Friends of Pakatan Rakyat’ on Facebook, ok ?

Our surprise guest was Senator Tunku Abdul Aziz. The senator, was in town visiting his daughter at UCL, had a long distinguished career in the private sector and was the president of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International, a worldwide body founded to combat corruption. One can easily see his commitment to fighting corruption. The man denounced the KLCC buildings a white elephant! Such blasphemy isn’t normally heard in Malaysian circles but the man’s honesty knew no discretion. It was refreshing, I must say. The senator talked about democratic practice in Malaysia and the strength of the judiciary which was exposed for all to see in Sodomy 2, a case which carried on despite the lack of even a shred of evidence. Such is the parody of justice in Malaysia.

Next came PKR MP , Tian Chua. Tian Chua who has been with PKR since the beginning of its struggles and deserves to be at its highest ranks. Tian Chua talked about open discussions which impressed me. He asserted it wasn’t about who won or lost the elections but the ability to have open dialogues. I suppose he meant that this is what the Pakatan Rakyat was all about, the ability to have open dialogue without a bunch of oversensitive babies crying out. Tian Chua also asserted that Anwar was not the sole unifier of Pakatan Rakyat which I’m sorry to say, wasn’t very convincing. We must remember that the ill-fated Barisan Alternative fell apart in 2002 when Anwar was still behind bars. There were no other unifiers then, only a traitorous PAS.

RPK came on next. Notwithstanding the quality of two preceding speakers, RPK took the room’s energy a few notches higher. That was his magic. He spoke about civil society’s role in the success of Pakatan Rakyat. I very much agree. I think without the bloggers and the NGO’s, Pakatan Rakyat would have not have won as big. The other factor of their success was of course the protest vote against the narcoleptic PM at the time. RPK bemoaned the unfair practices in the elections. Such practices resulted in the Pakatan winning slightly more than a third of seats, despite winning over 50 percent of the actual votes. Such is the situation of the struggle ahead.

Dato Seri Anwar Ibrahim came on next and gave RPK a run for his money. Anwar reminded the audience of Pakatan’s successes in governance and also that the Malays are changing. I concur with this as I have seen this myself in my last visit home. The Malays are indeed changing perhaps due to their exposure to the wider world (thank you Facebook!) and perhaps even due to their sheer frustration of the failures of the BN governance. Anwar also talked about the state newspapers which was the right of the state governments. Selangor was already publishing Selangor Kini. This is indeed progress as we need a Malay language newspaper to counter the racist Utusan Malaysia.

This event was after all a conversation with our four speakers and so after their speeches, the questions came. Most of the questions were your standard questions about corruption, race, religion. A few questions however was eye catching. One of them was by a mature gentleman who has been in the UK for decades. He claimed that the current patterns of events in Malaysia echoed that of 1968, just before May 13^th. This gentleman was somewhat loquacious and was thus silenced by the indignant crowd but I think his concern was the most pertinent of all.

This event on a damp London evening left everyone in high spirits. There is something powerful about being with fellow Malaysians talking about things only fellow Malaysians can truly feel. Let us hope that this rejuvenating talk isn’t the end of it. If for nothing else, can we do any worse than the government we currently have?