It's timely the DAP has given Anwar Ibrahim a ringing endorsement as their choice of prime minister should Pakatan Rakyat succeed in taking Putrajaya at the 13th general election.
Barring the unlikely instance in February 2009 when Karpal Singh irascibly vented doubts about Anwar's suitability, the DAP's choice of who is to be Pakatan's numero uno was never in doubt.
Presently, its reiteration became necessary when elements in PAS used their annual convention in Kota Baru last month to create the impression that the party was prepared to disturb the opposition coalition's reigning consensus that had settled on Anwar as Pakatan's prime minister-in-waiting as long ago as the middle of 2008.
The impression gained sustenance from the manner in which a party delegate proposed PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (right in photo) as its choice for the premiership of the country: He asked the assembled delegates whether they supported the idea upon which the floor stood up and erupted in unison with the battle cry, "Takbir".
No doubt, that display was juicy grist for the anti-Pakatan mills. They wasted no time in spinning the story that the opposition coalition was in disarray over the choice of supreme leader.
Anticipated wrangles in the distribution of cabinet portfolios among Pakatan are a favourite point of attack by BN against their opponents, besides, of course, the seeming absence of a common ideology.
Stumping in Sandakan in Sabah yesterday, BN chairman and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak pressed the attack: "Who really is in charge in the opposition?"
Though DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng moved swiftly after PAS had finished with its annual assembly to scotch speculation that the consensus on the Pakatan choice as PM was fraying, the party's endorsement of Anwar voiced through chairperson Karpal at its congress in Penang over the weekend has reaffirmed the status quo ante.
Failed September 16 coup
One must remember it was Karpal, alone among the DAP hierarchy, who had expressed qualms about Anwar's suitability when he decried three years ago the Anwar-spawned antics surrounding the ‘September 16' plan of 2008 that was supposed to have issued in several MPs from Sabah and Sarawak crossing over to Pakatan to enable it to form a federal majority that would give it the keys to Putrajaya.
In the event, the plan did not materialise; its aftertaste was sour on the credibility of Anwar as Pakatan supremo.
Karpal (left) was in high dudgeon at that particular time when crossovers from Pakatan to the independent bench in the Perak state assembly of one DAP and two PKR legislators helped bring down the then 11-month-old Pakatan-led state government, ably marshalled by PAS' Nizar Jamaluddin.
The DAP veteran angrily blamed Anwar for fomenting the crossover culture that had painfully boomeranged on Pakatan in Perak.
In that mood it was understandable that Karpal expressed reservations about Anwar's suitability as Pakatan PM-designate.
Those doubts soon proved to be a passing cloud as ties between Karpal and Anwar mended on the strength of the former's advocacy of the cause of the accused in the Sodomy II trial of Anwar.
All along it was obvious to all except the government that the legal shackles it had chosen to visit on the opposition leader were having the ironic effect of strengthening his claims to the mantle of Pakatan supremo.
Those claims, already strong prior, were hugely fortified after Sodomy II unexpectedly issued in Anwar's acquittal.
Acquittal before a High Court judge whose rulings in the proceedings presaged a guilty finding added immeasurably to Anwar's moral stature and portrayal of himself as victim of a longstanding government plot to finish off his political career.
Anwar's glue still holding fast
Vindication of his victimhood aside, Anwar's claims to the Pakatan supremo role are insuperable within the Pakatan fold.
It is his travails that galvanised the opposition movement and his cachet on the hustings that broke the myth of BN's invincibility at the 12th general election.
It is his charisma that is the glue that keeps a rigorously secular DAP and a theocracy-leaning PAS soldered to an opposition coalition that is still holding fast despite their diverging dispositions.
And, finally, it is his career-long connection to a world-historical issue - whether Islam is compatible with democracy - that propels him to the fore, not only in Malaysia but in other restive parts of the world.
In fulsomely endorsing Anwar, Karpal did not enumerate the reasons for DAP's backing.
In democracies, the authority behind choice rests on the furnishing of good and persuasive reasons. The above-mentioned reasons for Anwar's claims are beyond compare within Pakatan.
Barring the unlikely instance in February 2009 when Karpal Singh irascibly vented doubts about Anwar's suitability, the DAP's choice of who is to be Pakatan's numero uno was never in doubt.
Presently, its reiteration became necessary when elements in PAS used their annual convention in Kota Baru last month to create the impression that the party was prepared to disturb the opposition coalition's reigning consensus that had settled on Anwar as Pakatan's prime minister-in-waiting as long ago as the middle of 2008.
The impression gained sustenance from the manner in which a party delegate proposed PAS president Abdul Hadi Awang (right in photo) as its choice for the premiership of the country: He asked the assembled delegates whether they supported the idea upon which the floor stood up and erupted in unison with the battle cry, "Takbir".No doubt, that display was juicy grist for the anti-Pakatan mills. They wasted no time in spinning the story that the opposition coalition was in disarray over the choice of supreme leader.
Anticipated wrangles in the distribution of cabinet portfolios among Pakatan are a favourite point of attack by BN against their opponents, besides, of course, the seeming absence of a common ideology.
Stumping in Sandakan in Sabah yesterday, BN chairman and Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak pressed the attack: "Who really is in charge in the opposition?"
Though DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng moved swiftly after PAS had finished with its annual assembly to scotch speculation that the consensus on the Pakatan choice as PM was fraying, the party's endorsement of Anwar voiced through chairperson Karpal at its congress in Penang over the weekend has reaffirmed the status quo ante.
Failed September 16 coup
One must remember it was Karpal, alone among the DAP hierarchy, who had expressed qualms about Anwar's suitability when he decried three years ago the Anwar-spawned antics surrounding the ‘September 16' plan of 2008 that was supposed to have issued in several MPs from Sabah and Sarawak crossing over to Pakatan to enable it to form a federal majority that would give it the keys to Putrajaya.
In the event, the plan did not materialise; its aftertaste was sour on the credibility of Anwar as Pakatan supremo.
Karpal (left) was in high dudgeon at that particular time when crossovers from Pakatan to the independent bench in the Perak state assembly of one DAP and two PKR legislators helped bring down the then 11-month-old Pakatan-led state government, ably marshalled by PAS' Nizar Jamaluddin.The DAP veteran angrily blamed Anwar for fomenting the crossover culture that had painfully boomeranged on Pakatan in Perak.
In that mood it was understandable that Karpal expressed reservations about Anwar's suitability as Pakatan PM-designate.
Those doubts soon proved to be a passing cloud as ties between Karpal and Anwar mended on the strength of the former's advocacy of the cause of the accused in the Sodomy II trial of Anwar.
All along it was obvious to all except the government that the legal shackles it had chosen to visit on the opposition leader were having the ironic effect of strengthening his claims to the mantle of Pakatan supremo.
Those claims, already strong prior, were hugely fortified after Sodomy II unexpectedly issued in Anwar's acquittal.
Acquittal before a High Court judge whose rulings in the proceedings presaged a guilty finding added immeasurably to Anwar's moral stature and portrayal of himself as victim of a longstanding government plot to finish off his political career.
Anwar's glue still holding fast
Vindication of his victimhood aside, Anwar's claims to the Pakatan supremo role are insuperable within the Pakatan fold.
It is his travails that galvanised the opposition movement and his cachet on the hustings that broke the myth of BN's invincibility at the 12th general election.
It is his charisma that is the glue that keeps a rigorously secular DAP and a theocracy-leaning PAS soldered to an opposition coalition that is still holding fast despite their diverging dispositions.And, finally, it is his career-long connection to a world-historical issue - whether Islam is compatible with democracy - that propels him to the fore, not only in Malaysia but in other restive parts of the world.
In fulsomely endorsing Anwar, Karpal did not enumerate the reasons for DAP's backing.
In democracies, the authority behind choice rests on the furnishing of good and persuasive reasons. The above-mentioned reasons for Anwar's claims are beyond compare within Pakatan.
PAS can offer their candidate as PM designate should the claims behind their choice be more cogent than Anwar's.
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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