DAP, rein in Anwar before he ‘kills’ reformasi

It’s becoming very obvious to all now, including Anwar Ibrahim’s own supporters, that the latter is a lacklustre leader.

By his own admission, Anwar made it clear that he was not rushing into implementing reforms so as to not rock the boat too much.

And the Tambun MP had the audacity (or perhaps it’s lack of knowledge) to mention that he was doing so after “learning lessons from the French Revolution”. I will get to that later.

The problem with Anwar is that it has become apparent that he takes his support base for granted.

For example, despite DAP having the most number of MP seats, they are given a lesser ministerial role compared to others, including Umno.

But we understand why that happened. Learning lessons from 2018, DAP decided against having a more ministerial role so as to not offer any points to the rightwing forces to attack Putrajaya.

However, DAP must realise that they cannot and should not allow themselves to be taken for a ride, especially by Anwar when it comes to ensuring reforms are being implemented to safeguard the future generation.

As it is, I believe DAP is deliberately “underperforming” to ensure rightwing forces from PN and to some extent, those in the coalition government are not driven to each other to undermine Putrajaya.

This is the sacrifice DAP is making for Anwar’s sake but what does the latter offer in return; he just ignores their grievances and panders to the rightwing forces.

And I believe DAP should no longer remain quiet about this. The more Anwar does this, the more he alienates Pakatan Harapan’s core base – which will affect DAP, particularly in the next general election.

Harapan’s base consists of progressives and mostly non-Malays. They have consistently backed the coalition believing that Anwar and his team would embark on structural reforms that would push Malaysia forward in an uncertain geopolitical climate.

Looking in the wrong direction

But the problem with Anwar (ever since he became prime minister) is that he panders too much to win votes from those who would hardly back him, no matter what he does.

Take for example, when he decided to deride an Indian female student for asking a genuine question on pursuing meritocracy in the education system.

Think about this. The girl and her family would have been Anwar’s supporters and voted for his coalition in the last general election. It turns out that the person they voted for to become prime minister decided to insult them in front of an audience over an important question about meritocracy.

But the ones who clapped for Anwar are probably those who would never support him. Ponder on that for a moment to understand the man’s mindset.

Given the rise of the “Green Wave”, a right-thinking leader would hasten reforms such as dismantling repressive laws and reforming the education system to ensure the next generation would have a chance to secure a better future for themselves.

And if the Tambun MP has any foresight, he would also speed up the process of putting agencies such as the MACC under strict parliamentary purview to ensure no one can abuse state apparatuses in the future to silence critics, but Anwar doesn’t seem to get that.

As such, the DAP must rein in Anwar and knock some sense into him. One can make as much sacrifice as they want to - provided the person benefiting from it takes that opportunity to do the right thing.

But in this case, DAP must see by now that Anwar is using its sacrifice by running down almost every ideal DAP stood for over the decades, with equality and transparency becoming “victims” in his quest to please the rightwing forces.

And DAP itself should never take its supporters for granted. While I do agree with certain people’s assessment that non-Malays and progressives would back Harapan despite Anwar’s poor performance out of fear of PN coming into power, that argument may not hold for long.

It’s just that they lack credible alternatives to swing their votes for now. However, if parties like Muda and PSM (perhaps even a loose group like Gerak Independent) could market themselves better, there is no reason why non-Malays would not back them in the next polls.

Hence, I hope DAP will do what it takes to ensure reforms are implemented as soon as possible; if not for the nation’s sake, then at least for their own political survival.

As for the French Revolution, I may not be an expert in world history but perhaps the Tambun MP should understand what happened between 1789 and 1799 was a revolution, where law and order took a backseat.

But Malaysia changed its government through an electoral process which went smoothly without any untoward incident.

Plus, our security forces maintained order in the country all throughout. In case Anwar was sleeping while these were happening – since 2018 – our bureaucracy and security forces have shown that they were capable of running the nation’s day-to-day affairs while politicians were running around trying to get support to form the government.

Oh yeah, as for Maximilien Robespierre, he was sent to the chopping block (pun intended) because he failed to implement the very reforms he preached to the masses which led to the nation’s monarchs being overthrown.

In fact, from my reading, Robespierre became worse than King Louis XVI when it came to suppressing dissent.

Sounds eerily familiar, doesn’t it, saudara Anwar? - Mkini

---

G VINOD is a member of the Malaysiakini team.