Apparently, hell hath no fury like an intermediary spurned.
Former Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla is furious with Anwar Ibrahim; he's spewing sulfur at the Malaysian opposition leader, faulting the latter for an excess of ego and presumption.
The apparent cause of Jusuf's high dudgeon was the failure of his efforts at brokering a deal between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Anwar.
Jusuf (right) played the role of intermediary twice in the last three months, attempting to broker deals between the Pakatan Rakyat supremo and Najib.
The first time was before the May 5 general election in Malaysia, and the second was over the weekend of June 15-16 when both Anwar and Najib were in Jakarta.
Jusuf's internationally-circulatedrecriminations (in the Asian Wall Street Journal, no less) at the expense of Anwar after the failure of his initial mediation effort should have been sufficient warning that he did not have a clue that discretion is the better part of mediatory valour.
Jusuf, a tycoon of the sort in the Golkar party (which he once headed) engenders and endows with the delusion that their business acumen entitles them to vie for the Indonesian presidency, had another try at intercessory diplomacy between him and Najib two weeks ago in Jakarta.
A week after the failure of that second attempt, Jusuf went public with another round of recriminations against Anwar, this time accompanied by a dollop of venom.
Intermediaries are normally people who try to maintain detachment from the parties between whom they are trying to broker an agreement.
Detachment is de rigueur, the better to sustain the notion of neutrality and balance that aid and abet the intermediary's role as honest broker of a deal in the best interests of contending parties.
A pact which PM did not sign
The first occasion that Jusuf suggested he had only a foggy notion of the value of detachment to his mediatory role was when the pre-May 5 polls deal he tried to broker between Najib and Anwar supposedly failed.
This was a pact that required of the BN chairperson and Pakatan luminary to peaceably accept the results of Malaysia's GE13.
According to Jusuf, Anwar signed on to the pact but Najib did not affix his signature, relying on Jusuf to convey to Anwar that his word - on peaceable acceptance of the polls outcome - was his bond.
This was an astonishing concession by Anwar to an interlocutor to a pact who, it has already been established in the public domain, is a suspected felon in having induced a private eye to change the contents of a statutory declaration on a matter as grave as a murder.
When someone of prime ministerial standing is not denying in public that he has done something like that, you would have to be a gull to believe his word is his bond.
Anwar must have been desperate, not only to have acquiesced in a pact with only one signatory to its terms but also to come away with an understanding that an undertaking by Najib, extracted by Anwar through mediator Jusuf, not to allow the BN-controlled mainstream media to demonise Pakatan during the polls campaign would be adhered to.
As well believe that the Taliban would allow girls to go to school and women to work when and if they come to power after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan next year.
It was no big surprise that - given the terms - the first Najib-Anwar deal brokered by Jusuf vanished in the haze.
What was a surprise was Jusuf's reaction. He really thought the deal was viable, when it was patently not, and that his publicly-aired dismay at Anwar's lack of equanimity vis-à-vis the polls outcome was justified.
After establishing a case for his dismissal as neutral intermediary, Jusuf was again pressed into similar service, apparently by Najib on the weekend of June 15-16 in Jakarta.
Jusuf conveyed an olive branch from the Malaysian PM to Anwar who was in Jakarta after meeting up with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali on June 14.
The offer was apparently that Anwar would be made a deputy prime minister and four ministerial posts would be given to members of his PKR leadership cohort if the party joined the ruling BN coalition government.
Anwar avoided meeting Najib in Jakarta although the PKR leader was scheduled to call - at 3pm on June 15 - at Jusuf's residence where Najib happened to be a guest. Anwar called off the visit. Undeterred, Jusuf went to Anwar's hotel to convey Najib's offer which Anwar spurned.
Jusuf was said to be incredulous at Anwar's refusal. Anwar later told a PKR insider that Jusuf could not believe that he would refuse to do a deal with someone who had a high regard for his ability as a leader which the confessor had reason to feel he could not match.
Najib's turn to be desperate
Apparently, the second round of deal-making between Anwar and Najib, with Jusuf as intermediary, it was Najib's turn to be desperate.
This can be inferred from the type of deal he offered Anwar. The latter would have established a case for his insanity to have accepted it.
Anwar and Najib may have swapped turns at being desperate, but there was no modulation to Jusuf's dismay at the second failure of his mediatory effort.
He was apoplectic, denouncing Anwar as vainglorious and subservient to foreign and domestic concerns inimical to Muslim interests.
Fifteen years ago, one recalls the hapless mission of former Malaysian deputy prime minister Ghafar Baba who was dispatched to Jakarta, in the aftermath of Anwar's sacking from Umno and charging for sodomy and corruption, to explain to the Indonesian public, which had a high regard for Anwar, the sudden turn of events in Kuala Lumpur.
Ghafar was subjected by the Indonesian press and sundry Anwar sympathisers to a sharp and unceremonious inquisition on the goings-on in Malaysia.
He was thoroughly nonplused by the reception he got and proceeded to commit the blunder of telling his interlocutors that Malaysians would not accept a homosexual as their leader, but if the Indonesians would, they are free to accept Anwar as leader.
Needless to say, the Indonesians were not amused.
A befuddled Ghafar had to hightail out of the Indonesian capital and his minders were left wringing their hands at the wisdom of their choice of an expostulator for their cause, just as Anwar must be wondering what had prompted him to value Jusuf as a neutral mediator.
Former Indonesian vice-president Jusuf Kalla is furious with Anwar Ibrahim; he's spewing sulfur at the Malaysian opposition leader, faulting the latter for an excess of ego and presumption.
The apparent cause of Jusuf's high dudgeon was the failure of his efforts at brokering a deal between Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak and Anwar.
Jusuf (right) played the role of intermediary twice in the last three months, attempting to broker deals between the Pakatan Rakyat supremo and Najib.The first time was before the May 5 general election in Malaysia, and the second was over the weekend of June 15-16 when both Anwar and Najib were in Jakarta.
Jusuf's internationally-circulatedrecriminations (in the Asian Wall Street Journal, no less) at the expense of Anwar after the failure of his initial mediation effort should have been sufficient warning that he did not have a clue that discretion is the better part of mediatory valour.
Jusuf, a tycoon of the sort in the Golkar party (which he once headed) engenders and endows with the delusion that their business acumen entitles them to vie for the Indonesian presidency, had another try at intercessory diplomacy between him and Najib two weeks ago in Jakarta.
A week after the failure of that second attempt, Jusuf went public with another round of recriminations against Anwar, this time accompanied by a dollop of venom.
Intermediaries are normally people who try to maintain detachment from the parties between whom they are trying to broker an agreement.
Detachment is de rigueur, the better to sustain the notion of neutrality and balance that aid and abet the intermediary's role as honest broker of a deal in the best interests of contending parties.
A pact which PM did not sign
The first occasion that Jusuf suggested he had only a foggy notion of the value of detachment to his mediatory role was when the pre-May 5 polls deal he tried to broker between Najib and Anwar supposedly failed.
This was a pact that required of the BN chairperson and Pakatan luminary to peaceably accept the results of Malaysia's GE13.
According to Jusuf, Anwar signed on to the pact but Najib did not affix his signature, relying on Jusuf to convey to Anwar that his word - on peaceable acceptance of the polls outcome - was his bond.
This was an astonishing concession by Anwar to an interlocutor to a pact who, it has already been established in the public domain, is a suspected felon in having induced a private eye to change the contents of a statutory declaration on a matter as grave as a murder.
When someone of prime ministerial standing is not denying in public that he has done something like that, you would have to be a gull to believe his word is his bond.Anwar must have been desperate, not only to have acquiesced in a pact with only one signatory to its terms but also to come away with an understanding that an undertaking by Najib, extracted by Anwar through mediator Jusuf, not to allow the BN-controlled mainstream media to demonise Pakatan during the polls campaign would be adhered to.
As well believe that the Taliban would allow girls to go to school and women to work when and if they come to power after the American withdrawal from Afghanistan next year.
It was no big surprise that - given the terms - the first Najib-Anwar deal brokered by Jusuf vanished in the haze.
What was a surprise was Jusuf's reaction. He really thought the deal was viable, when it was patently not, and that his publicly-aired dismay at Anwar's lack of equanimity vis-à-vis the polls outcome was justified.
After establishing a case for his dismissal as neutral intermediary, Jusuf was again pressed into similar service, apparently by Najib on the weekend of June 15-16 in Jakarta.
Jusuf conveyed an olive branch from the Malaysian PM to Anwar who was in Jakarta after meeting up with Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono in Bali on June 14.
The offer was apparently that Anwar would be made a deputy prime minister and four ministerial posts would be given to members of his PKR leadership cohort if the party joined the ruling BN coalition government.
Anwar avoided meeting Najib in Jakarta although the PKR leader was scheduled to call - at 3pm on June 15 - at Jusuf's residence where Najib happened to be a guest. Anwar called off the visit. Undeterred, Jusuf went to Anwar's hotel to convey Najib's offer which Anwar spurned.
Jusuf was said to be incredulous at Anwar's refusal. Anwar later told a PKR insider that Jusuf could not believe that he would refuse to do a deal with someone who had a high regard for his ability as a leader which the confessor had reason to feel he could not match.
Najib's turn to be desperate
Apparently, the second round of deal-making between Anwar and Najib, with Jusuf as intermediary, it was Najib's turn to be desperate.
This can be inferred from the type of deal he offered Anwar. The latter would have established a case for his insanity to have accepted it.
Anwar and Najib may have swapped turns at being desperate, but there was no modulation to Jusuf's dismay at the second failure of his mediatory effort.
He was apoplectic, denouncing Anwar as vainglorious and subservient to foreign and domestic concerns inimical to Muslim interests.Fifteen years ago, one recalls the hapless mission of former Malaysian deputy prime minister Ghafar Baba who was dispatched to Jakarta, in the aftermath of Anwar's sacking from Umno and charging for sodomy and corruption, to explain to the Indonesian public, which had a high regard for Anwar, the sudden turn of events in Kuala Lumpur.
Ghafar was subjected by the Indonesian press and sundry Anwar sympathisers to a sharp and unceremonious inquisition on the goings-on in Malaysia.
He was thoroughly nonplused by the reception he got and proceeded to commit the blunder of telling his interlocutors that Malaysians would not accept a homosexual as their leader, but if the Indonesians would, they are free to accept Anwar as leader.
Needless to say, the Indonesians were not amused.
A befuddled Ghafar had to hightail out of the Indonesian capital and his minders were left wringing their hands at the wisdom of their choice of an expostulator for their cause, just as Anwar must be wondering what had prompted him to value Jusuf as a neutral mediator.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades. He likes the occupation because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.
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