As we celebrate Anwar’s freedom, we celebrate ours too

QUESTION TIME | First we cheered when Pakatan Harapan kicked out a kleptocratic, corrupt government at the polls, but waited with bated breath for the official announcement by the Elections Commissions whose fairness everyone doubted and was wondering if there would be any last-minute tricks. We cheered when the results became final.

And then we waited for the new prime minister to be sworn in and heard the former prime minister’s grudging speech accepting defeat but saying at the end that no party had a majority in the elections.  Harapan had an outright majority although it was not then registered as a party.

We sat on the edge of our chairs wondering whether they will do something to thwart the will of the people and waited anxiously yet again. Only at 3.45pm on the day after the elections were the results presented to the king.

When the king asked if Wan Azizah Wan Ismail was prepared to form the government as her party was the one legally considered to have a majority, Wan Azizah and others kept to their promise that Dr Mahathir Mohamad was their choice as prime minister and Mahathir was sworn in that night. We heaved a collective sigh of relief yet again, cheered and celebrated.

And then the core cabinet of five was announced and we groaned as PKR complained of lack of consultation and the question of when its de facto leader Anwar Ibrahim was going to be released loomed. We wondered whether Anwar was going to be released any time soon. The weekend came and went.

He was expected to be released Tuesday. And he was, but a day later, on Wednesday - fittingly a day before the start of fasting month of Ramadan. His wife, Wan Azizah, clung to him as he walked the corridors of the palace and obtained a full pardon, not forgiveness but exoneration because he was persecuted, the system was bad. And we again, felt a wave of relief flood over us.

After all, he was the man who started it all with the reformasi movement way back in 1998 two decades ago. His foe then was Mahathir, who had him arrested first under the ISA in 1998 and then had him charged for sodomy. He would get his freedom only in 2004 when Abdullah Ahmad Badawi took over as prime minister from Mahathir.

Abdullah won a landslide victory in 2004 when he promised change, a clean government and greater freedom. The public, tired by Mahathir’s excesses, patronage politics and repression of Anwar, gave Abdullah the largest mandate to any leader since independence.

But a disappointed public, when Abdullah failed to deliver, gave him the biggest drubbing to date of any government four years later. The opposition Pakatan Rakyat took five states and denied BN a two-thirds majority. Abdullah stepped down in favour of Najib Razak. And then Anwar’s problems started again when he was charged again - sodomy 2 - and went to prison again in 2015.

Reformasi agenda

Yesterday, he was fully pardoned - he can enter politics, he can do anything. “The most significant lesson from prison life is the value of freedom -  no one, not Anwar, Ah Chong or Murugan should go through this travesty… We must stop this once and for all,” he said on his release.

For him, the “reformasi” agenda is supreme. He supports Mahathir, things are fine between them, he bears Mahathir no ill will, it’s been like that for a long time. “Why do you all doubt it? I have said it before.” 

He has discussed timelines with Mahathir and is quite happy to leave things as they are for now. It would seem they have agreed on a time frame. There is no need for him to be in the cabinet. He has commitments and things he wants to do. He is in no hurry.

The Malay agenda is still there - the majority and the most disadvantaged group are the Malays - that still has to be addressed. The policies were right but the implementation was bad. We need economic programmes to ensure incomes are increased.

On May 9, it was about us, Malaysians. We had kicked out a kleptocratic, corrupt government. We wanted our freedom and our right to speak and we were gaining it. And somehow it was not right that the man who more than anyone else helped gain this for us was not there, not yet free. Still in detention.

This man who was so trustingly willing to work even with his previous oppressor to gain victory at the polls, the person who would support his pardon, who will be interim prime minister while Anwar waited - again.

Now everything seems alright. There is trust, there is agreement and we can go forward to do what is right and right what is wrong.

Last night, exactly a week after the elections, thousands flooded onto Padang Timur opposite Amcorp Mall in Petaling Jaya. They stood shoulder to shoulder waiting for him to speak and roared when he came on. It was a celebration of Anwar’s freedom - and by extension ours too. And we basked in the hope that no one will ever again be persecuted the way Anwar was.

---

P GUNASEGARAM says for the first time in a long time, Malaysians have more than hope for their future.  E-mail: t.p.guna@gmail.com. -Mkini