Though no one is certain of the date of the general election - wags crack that only Rosmah Mansor knows when it is going to be held - Anwar Ibrahim has already had his campaign themes mapped out.
“It's the economy, stupid!” was the famous quip that summarised the theme which enabled Bill Clinton to win the US presidency in 1992.
Ever since Clinton's victory over the senior Bush that year, presidential and prime ministerial candidates the world over have tried to conjugate their campaigns around the state of their country's economy.
True, for Anwar vis-à-vis Malaysia's 13th general election, it's the economy - to wit, its monopolisation by a self-serving Umno-BN - that is the main theme of his barnstorming the nation.
That and the travails of Anwar constitute front and back of the Opposition Leader's campaign.
Whether the polls are held next month or next March, the PKR de facto head is not likely to vary the content of his speeches on the stump by very much.
This shouldn't surprise because the indefatigable campaigner has often to make four speeches a day, between lunch and after dinner. If it's the weekend, he hits the trail early in the morning which only means another one or two speeches are tagged on to the punishing schedule.
With a pace that demanding, it's hard to vary content; only the style of presentation is tweaked to suit the audiences he encounters.
Thus, in a preview of the pace he will set and the themes he will expatiate, Anwar, in speeches in Johor Baru last Friday, in Penang the following day, in Perlis and Kedah on Sunday, and in Ipoh yesterday, had the formula honed to a campaign-winning sheen, judging by the reaction of the crowds that turned up.
There emerged, in his speeches, not only a steady thematic pattern but also a style of delivery that increasingly employs self-deprecating humour the better to give his punch lines devastating effect.
It is a rhetorical strategy that no other Pakatan Rakyat leader is able to match; they can't because part of the reason it is compelling is that no one else has had to endure his travails which Anwar shrewdly parlays into riveting content on the stump.
Delivery with flair
Anwar knows that the crowds want to see how he is holding up under the strain of being in the personal and legal crosshairs of the powers that be.
He is careful to tell them, especially if it is a Malay-majority crowd that he regards it all as “ujian” (a test) that he must endure for the nation's salvation.
If it is a non-Malay crowd, as was the case at a fundraiser in Gelang Patah, Johor Baru, last Friday, in alluding to his troubles, he rouses them by saying that his fighting spirit will not yield -“Lawan tetap lawan”(Never say die) is the battle cry.
The secret of Anwar's oratorical charisma is that he knows what appeals to the psyche of the crowds he is talking to and he serves it up with panache.
These days, he employs a form of subtle self-deprecation that redounds to his projection as a leader of international stature despite domestic denigration.
On all campaign stops he made since returning a week ago - from a trip to Munich where he delivered the keynote address at an international conference on religious pluralism organised by a Christian NGO to which secular and religious leaders were invited - Anwar played on the surprise expressed by luminaries over the contrast between his cachet as an international leader and his domestic situation as a hounded politician.
He made great play over how the president of Slovenia, a guest at the conference, had expressed puzzlement over Malaysia's apparent determination to throw him into prison.
“I corrected his impression by telling him that it is not the people but the crooks who run my country who want me jailed,” Anwar hammered home the point.
To another presidential personage at the same conference who wondered at Anwar's lack of presidential or prime ministerial status and his standing as keynote speaker, Anwar lifted the crowds with this reply: “Perhaps, after the coming election my status will change.”
The crowds lap up the stuff with brio. When Anwar is done with his spiel, they file away from the site of the rally, pleased to have heard what they heard and, perhaps, quietly resolved to make restitution at the next general election.
In which case, according to Pakatan's boosters, the summary of the crowds' resolution would not be “It's the economy, stupid!”, but “It's dignity and self-respect.”
If the latter, it's curtains for Umno-BN.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.
“It's the economy, stupid!” was the famous quip that summarised the theme which enabled Bill Clinton to win the US presidency in 1992.Ever since Clinton's victory over the senior Bush that year, presidential and prime ministerial candidates the world over have tried to conjugate their campaigns around the state of their country's economy.
True, for Anwar vis-à-vis Malaysia's 13th general election, it's the economy - to wit, its monopolisation by a self-serving Umno-BN - that is the main theme of his barnstorming the nation.
That and the travails of Anwar constitute front and back of the Opposition Leader's campaign.
Whether the polls are held next month or next March, the PKR de facto head is not likely to vary the content of his speeches on the stump by very much.
This shouldn't surprise because the indefatigable campaigner has often to make four speeches a day, between lunch and after dinner. If it's the weekend, he hits the trail early in the morning which only means another one or two speeches are tagged on to the punishing schedule.
With a pace that demanding, it's hard to vary content; only the style of presentation is tweaked to suit the audiences he encounters.
Thus, in a preview of the pace he will set and the themes he will expatiate, Anwar, in speeches in Johor Baru last Friday, in Penang the following day, in Perlis and Kedah on Sunday, and in Ipoh yesterday, had the formula honed to a campaign-winning sheen, judging by the reaction of the crowds that turned up. There emerged, in his speeches, not only a steady thematic pattern but also a style of delivery that increasingly employs self-deprecating humour the better to give his punch lines devastating effect.
It is a rhetorical strategy that no other Pakatan Rakyat leader is able to match; they can't because part of the reason it is compelling is that no one else has had to endure his travails which Anwar shrewdly parlays into riveting content on the stump.
Delivery with flair
Anwar knows that the crowds want to see how he is holding up under the strain of being in the personal and legal crosshairs of the powers that be.
He is careful to tell them, especially if it is a Malay-majority crowd that he regards it all as “ujian” (a test) that he must endure for the nation's salvation.
If it is a non-Malay crowd, as was the case at a fundraiser in Gelang Patah, Johor Baru, last Friday, in alluding to his troubles, he rouses them by saying that his fighting spirit will not yield -“Lawan tetap lawan”(Never say die) is the battle cry.The secret of Anwar's oratorical charisma is that he knows what appeals to the psyche of the crowds he is talking to and he serves it up with panache.
These days, he employs a form of subtle self-deprecation that redounds to his projection as a leader of international stature despite domestic denigration.
On all campaign stops he made since returning a week ago - from a trip to Munich where he delivered the keynote address at an international conference on religious pluralism organised by a Christian NGO to which secular and religious leaders were invited - Anwar played on the surprise expressed by luminaries over the contrast between his cachet as an international leader and his domestic situation as a hounded politician.
He made great play over how the president of Slovenia, a guest at the conference, had expressed puzzlement over Malaysia's apparent determination to throw him into prison.
“I corrected his impression by telling him that it is not the people but the crooks who run my country who want me jailed,” Anwar hammered home the point.
To another presidential personage at the same conference who wondered at Anwar's lack of presidential or prime ministerial status and his standing as keynote speaker, Anwar lifted the crowds with this reply: “Perhaps, after the coming election my status will change.”
The crowds lap up the stuff with brio. When Anwar is done with his spiel, they file away from the site of the rally, pleased to have heard what they heard and, perhaps, quietly resolved to make restitution at the next general election.
In which case, according to Pakatan's boosters, the summary of the crowds' resolution would not be “It's the economy, stupid!”, but “It's dignity and self-respect.”
If the latter, it's curtains for Umno-BN.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for close on four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them. It is the ideal occupation for a temperament that finds power fascinating and its exercise abhorrent.
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