Tunku Abdul Aziz, once of Transparency International, latterly of the DAP, and in his most recent incarnation - one can't be sure there will be no further mutations to his evolving political character - a critic of Pakatan Rakyat, has written a couple of articles in the New Straits Times where he ruminates on the character of Anwar Ibrahim.
The gist of Tunku Aziz's musings convey his apprehension that Anwar may not be the man he publicly comports himself to be.
In other words, Anwar, the Pied Piper of political reform to a dysfunctional and sclerotic Malaysian socio-economic system, may well turn out to be a Frankenstein.
Tunku Aziz doesn't name them but, in attempting to give factitious credence to his misgivings, implies that some senior ex-colleagues of his in the leadership of the DAP share his qualms about Anwar.
Tunku Aziz was national vice-chairman of DAP in the brief period of his flirtation with the party that, in its haste to induct high-ranking Malays, had regarded enlistment to its ranks of the founding chairman of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International as a coup.
The party had long strained to shed its tag as a vehicle of Chinese chauvinism. So when it succeeded in enticing a Malay of Tunku Aziz's stature - urbane and supposedly liberal - it wasted no time in projecting the value of its catch: it placed him near the top of its hierarchy.
The gist of Tunku Aziz's musings convey his apprehension that Anwar may not be the man he publicly comports himself to be.
In other words, Anwar, the Pied Piper of political reform to a dysfunctional and sclerotic Malaysian socio-economic system, may well turn out to be a Frankenstein.Tunku Aziz doesn't name them but, in attempting to give factitious credence to his misgivings, implies that some senior ex-colleagues of his in the leadership of the DAP share his qualms about Anwar.
Tunku Aziz was national vice-chairman of DAP in the brief period of his flirtation with the party that, in its haste to induct high-ranking Malays, had regarded enlistment to its ranks of the founding chairman of the Malaysian chapter of Transparency International as a coup.
The party had long strained to shed its tag as a vehicle of Chinese chauvinism. So when it succeeded in enticing a Malay of Tunku Aziz's stature - urbane and supposedly liberal - it wasted no time in projecting the value of its catch: it placed him near the top of its hierarchy.
Following his exit from the party early this year, a departure - if Tunku Aziz's expostulations over it are vetted - prompted more by a want of punctilio than of principle on the part of secretary-general Lim Guan Eng - the DAP presumably knows better now how to differentiate glister from gold.
In fact, given Tunku Aziz's affinity for the polemical word, it looks like the DAP is going to be given more reason to rue its haste in misconstruing his persona - ironically, the very same misapprehension he is at pains these days to suggest besets the DAP's and the public's view of Anwar.
Anwar's DNA
Tunku Aziz is nothing if not a survivor. In him, the line between the art of survival and the infamy of opportunism are blurred.
Some years ago, at an early stage in the controversy over the second round of sodomy accusations against him, Tunku Aziz, in a column in the NST, admonished Anwar over the latter's refusal to give the police a sample of his DNA.
The police and the then government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had been urging Anwar to do so.
The call from Tunku Aziz was particularly egregious because he, as a member of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the police force (December 2003 to March 2005), was on record as having been deeply skeptical of the integrity of the force.
From expert testimony that was subsequently adduced at the trial's proceedings, it could be inferred that it was fortuitous that Anwar had declined to give police a sample of his DNA.
In the event, doubts raised at the trial over the integrity of the DNA samples taken from Anwar led to High Court judge Mohamed Zabidin Diah's acquittal of Anwar of the charge of sodomy.
Shortly after Tunku Aziz had called on Anwar to furnish his DNA sample, he joined the DAP, a move that soon led to his appointment as a member from the party to the Upper House of Parliament.
Thereafter, at a public seminar which was attended by Tunku Aziz and at which Anwar eloquently had held forth on the issues of accountability and transparency - incidentally, the pet themes of Tunku Aziz's career before he joined the DAP - the party's newfangled vice-chairman praised Anwar in felicitous terms.
Crossovers in Sabah
Now this erstwhile columnist of the NST (the paper dropped him as contributor during the brief period of his membership of the DAP but restored him after his exit) plies a tune that is at odds with his stance of not so long ago.
The immediate occasion for Tunku Aziz's casting of aspersions on the character of Anwar is the latter's encouragement of crossovers from Sabah BN to the independent bench and to Pakatan.
Two crossovers late last month of Sabah BN federal legislators to the independent benches had the effect of forcing Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to empower a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah who have been given citizenship and are allegedly on the electoral roll.
In his columns (NST, July 27 and Aug 18), Tunku Aziz goes on at self-righteous length about Anwar's lack of principle in fomenting the crossovers and berates his slavishness to political expediency.
Only the tin-eared would miss the irony in Tunku Aziz's strictures: a man with his revolving door stance towards political beliefs is hoist with own rhetorical petards.
In fact, given Tunku Aziz's affinity for the polemical word, it looks like the DAP is going to be given more reason to rue its haste in misconstruing his persona - ironically, the very same misapprehension he is at pains these days to suggest besets the DAP's and the public's view of Anwar.
Anwar's DNA
Tunku Aziz is nothing if not a survivor. In him, the line between the art of survival and the infamy of opportunism are blurred.
Some years ago, at an early stage in the controversy over the second round of sodomy accusations against him, Tunku Aziz, in a column in the NST, admonished Anwar over the latter's refusal to give the police a sample of his DNA.
The police and the then government of Abdullah Ahmad Badawi had been urging Anwar to do so.
The call from Tunku Aziz was particularly egregious because he, as a member of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the police force (December 2003 to March 2005), was on record as having been deeply skeptical of the integrity of the force.
From expert testimony that was subsequently adduced at the trial's proceedings, it could be inferred that it was fortuitous that Anwar had declined to give police a sample of his DNA.In the event, doubts raised at the trial over the integrity of the DNA samples taken from Anwar led to High Court judge Mohamed Zabidin Diah's acquittal of Anwar of the charge of sodomy.
Shortly after Tunku Aziz had called on Anwar to furnish his DNA sample, he joined the DAP, a move that soon led to his appointment as a member from the party to the Upper House of Parliament.
Thereafter, at a public seminar which was attended by Tunku Aziz and at which Anwar eloquently had held forth on the issues of accountability and transparency - incidentally, the pet themes of Tunku Aziz's career before he joined the DAP - the party's newfangled vice-chairman praised Anwar in felicitous terms.
Crossovers in Sabah
Now this erstwhile columnist of the NST (the paper dropped him as contributor during the brief period of his membership of the DAP but restored him after his exit) plies a tune that is at odds with his stance of not so long ago.
The immediate occasion for Tunku Aziz's casting of aspersions on the character of Anwar is the latter's encouragement of crossovers from Sabah BN to the independent bench and to Pakatan.
Two crossovers late last month of Sabah BN federal legislators to the independent benches had the effect of forcing Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak to empower a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the issue of illegal immigrants in Sabah who have been given citizenship and are allegedly on the electoral roll.
In his columns (NST, July 27 and Aug 18), Tunku Aziz goes on at self-righteous length about Anwar's lack of principle in fomenting the crossovers and berates his slavishness to political expediency.
Only the tin-eared would miss the irony in Tunku Aziz's strictures: a man with his revolving door stance towards political beliefs is hoist with own rhetorical petards.
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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