YOURSAY | ‘It was these very "super liberals" who stood by Anwar in the early Reformasi days.’
Man Lee: Spot on, Mariam Mokhtar. Perhaps de facto Pakatan Harapan leader Anwar Ibrahim has been incarcerated for so long that he can no longer see reality for what it is. His obsession with becoming prime minister has relegated him to playing with the 3R card – race, religion and royalty.
Seems like Anwar could well have in recent months been manipulated by the ambitious Rafizi Ramli, who, incidentally, was using the term 'super liberals' (or at least a variation thereof) long before Anwar did.
The 'super liberals' stood by Anwar in the early days of Reformasi. What happened to Mr Reformasi? It looks like he has all but transformed into Mr 3Rs. This is what scares so many of us.
Malaysian Malaysian: "Anwar the reformer, who championed other people's causes has gone." Agree wholeheartedly with above statement. Even his daughter, Permatang Pauh MP Nurul Izzah Anwar is showing signs of it; his wife, Deputy Prime Minister Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail has always been a seat-warmer anyway.
I have begun to have reservations about Rafizi too, who in my opinion was previously something of a standard bearer of a politician with integrity.
Abasir: "God's gift to PD" is a polarising figure. He has his fawning followers just as he has managed – quite effortlessly within the last four months – to sow serious doubts and concerns among his one-time sympathisers.
Mariam is no mindless critic with an agenda, either overt or hidden. She calls it like she sees it, and that raises the heckles of the flock surrounding him. The man is his own worst enemy – his customised posturing before select crowds, something honed to near perfection during his pre-internet days, now gets WhastApp-ed to the rest of the world even before he slides on to his next gathering.
So he proves himself, time and again, to be a different man for different audiences. He can be anything you want him to be. That ability, which used to be a strength, is now a problem.
And at 70+, he is unable to change. He is vintage Anwar, and he simply cannot be consistent with a clear message for all Malaysians in ‘new Malaysia’, just as he is unable to spell out his reform agenda or whatever his parliamentary reforms are.
That and his thinly disguised overtures to the holdouts from his Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia/ Umno days remind us of Cassius from Julius Caesar who, with his lean and hungry look, "thinks too much (of himself mostly).” As Caesar warns, “Such men are dangerous."
Where gratitude is concerned, Anwar is no different from exiled blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin. Both can be anything you want them to be, chameleon-like. Both have highly developed conmen skills, like playing to the gallery.
Where the word ‘liberal’ is concerned, the man who liberally peppers his speeches with references to Mahatma Gandhi and Arthur Schopenhauer to hint at his erudition seems to have left his dictionary behind, and defaults to the PAS-like definition of the term – free thinkers who engage in debauchery and wanton fornication.
Already saddled with a reputation for dirty beaches and seedy motels, Port Dickson will now have to contend with also being remembered for the emergence of shady politicians.
Quigonbond: We need to examine the context of Anwar’s comment on ‘super liberals’. I believe it is referring to people like Suaram adviser Kua Kia Soong, who is pushing Harapan for 100 percent compliance with the election manifesto and a specific method of institutional reform, even though there is more than one way to skin the cat.
Anwar is talking about those who can't see the difference between enforcing fundamental human rights for the LGBT community, versus giving them right to parade their culture – even when this is already one big step up from BN government who minced no words in seeing the community as a blight.
He was referring to supporters who probably think that Harapan is a solid coalition with very good mutual understanding between its components, and hence Anwar should not rock the boat, and show apparent impatience to be back in Parliament, because in two years everything will be surrendered to him peacefully, without any need to stay visible or doing any self-promotion in the meantime.
I'm not saying what he's doing is perfect, but isn't it obvious he has to maintain a certain balancing act as the future leader of Malaysia? After all, he is not in power yet, a fact of which he must be painfully aware. In his shoes, what would you do differently?
Apparently Port Dickson folks have expressed consternation about kicking out the elected representative Danyal Balagopal Abdullah. We will find out soon enough.
But my question to folks like Mariam is when Anwar wins, what else would you say? I think there is a current affliction affecting many commentators and critics these days. Before Harapan came into power, the enemy was clear – BN was blamed for all bad things happening to this nation. Now, the line has blurred. There is infighting within Harapan, of which this article is a symptom.
Readers beware. We may get a new reformist government, but the politics have just been ramped up in terms of greyness and complexity. Learn to read between the lines and understand the motivation of those who criticise.
Anonymous_cdb4fb5d: This article accuses Anwar of many wrongs. The writer seems to have a personal vendetta against him. Dr Mahathir Mohamad didn’t handpick Anwar to be his successor this time – it was what PKR, DAP, Amanah and Bersatu agreed to when Harapan was formed.
When the people overwhelmingly voted for Harapan, it was with full knowledge that Anwar would take over as prime minister after two years. So what’s the problem?
Danyal was hardly a well-known politician in Port Dickson, being chosen by PKR for the seat at the last minute. Besides, in the last general election, the tsunami swept through almost every seat – meaning that people largely voted for change, not for individual candidates. The 22-year-old student P Prabakaran winning the Batu seat with just two days of campaigning is proof of this.
CKL: The new Anwar is totally different from the one who fought for freedom and liberty and against Umno. Many, like you, are disappointed. Now they have second thoughts about him becoming prime minister.
Since he has come out of prison, there is nothing that he has said that is relevant to the future of this country. It is all about him and his ascension, simply because Mahathir had promised to do that – not because the vast majority of Malaysians want him to be their leader.
Anwar would know where he stands if this question is put to the Malaysian people: who would you rather have a your prime minister, Mahathir or Anwar?
Anonymous_1419577444: Anwar supporters keep ranting that it is his ‘right’ to be prime minister. They say he has gone to jail and his family has suffered for 20 years, and that Harapan parties have agreed that he will take over from Mahathir.
But so far, absolutely nothing has been said about his capability for the prime minister's job. Anwar cannot even give clear details of reforms he has promised. My answers to these blind stooges of Anwar is that we, Malaysians and our families have also suffered for over 20 years. No individual can claim any right to become prime minister; the rakyat decides.
Harapan can say Anwar should be next become prime minister, but the rakyat voted them in and can easily vote them out in the 15th general election. Anwar has to prove himself to be worthy of the position, and he has been found wanting since May. He may yet surpass Hussein Onn as the shortest-serving prime minister if the people are unhappy come GE15.
Vgeorgemy: S Thayaparan, we don't think former Umno Youth chief is politically dumb enough to answer any of the questions. Whatever may be, Khairy still needs the Malay polity to become next prime minister after the old maverick Mahathir.
Ultimately: Khairy talks sense, but only when it is expedient. We have seen over the past 10 years the political chameleon whose only motivation is political advancement and survival.
He has shown little real conviction to anything, at one moment a liberal, and the next, a fist-waving ketuanan type. If he's the best Umno can produce, then there is little hope for the party.
Remember his defence of ‘Cowgate’ as an “investment,” and his lame utterance on 1MDB, “'I should have spoken up?” Spoken up on what, exactly? Didn’t hear anything further, not even at this annual general assembly, the theme of which was only “How do we get back on the gravy train?”
Jose Moaninho: Politicians are, by and large, chameleon-like; politics after all, is the art of compromise. The only difference between someone like Lim Kit Siang and someone like Khairy is the manner and frequency of wavering.
But might this not work to the rakyat’s advantage? If politicians like Khairy and Anwar can slither into any nook that the polity expects them to, then they can reflect the values of the majority of Malaysians.
Some might say the majority view would be ultra-conservative, with the LGBTs sent to the gulags. But I would disagree. Maybe it’s coloured by my optimism – increasingly necessary as we hurtle towards some manner of apocalypse – but I truly do believe that most Malaysians would rather not see minority groups treated like crap.
I believe that the only reason they seem to think this way is because a siege mentality has been created around them by ideologues, telling them that their they are perpetually under threat, and that (mythical) ‘glory days’ are but a vote around the corner.
It stands to reason that if weathervane politicians like Khairy see no need for this, and can ally a doctrine of tolerance with relatively sound economic management – all people really want anyway – then the flock need not be shepherded into increasingly smaller and more isolated holes? - Mkini
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