Anwar, Shakespeare and ‘a tale told by an idiot’

 

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim quoted William Shakespeare during the debate on the motion of confidence in his leadership in the recent sitting of Parliament.

He chose his quote carefully and let it sail forth in the Dewan Rakyat on Dec 20 in a very calm manner. In doing so, he inflicted a deep wound on his adversary without that person even knowing that he had been struck a blow.

That was quite clever.

Anwar, in defending the tabling of the vote of confidence, said it was needed to prove his legitimacy because Bersatu president and Pagoh MP Muhyiddin Yassin had questioned it. The vote was to prove his moral legitimacy to lead the nation.

He went on to say: “I sat here and listened to the views and criticisms of MPs, whether friends on my side or the other side. The only thing is that sometimes, to quote Shakespeare, (some criticisms are) ‘a tale told by an idiot full of sound and fury signifying nothing’.

“So we have to be patient because not all statements were responsibly made. I’ll give an example: The opposition leader, the member for Larut, insulted and made a personal attack, via a very smooth method.”

I had expected Hamzah Zainudin to rise up in protest. He didn’t. And I wondered if he, or the others in the opposition, had understood what Anwar had just done.

It was a nice punch, coming just a day after Hamzah delivered a blow below the belt. The opposition leader had quoted an Italian news agency as saying that Anwar was Malaysia’s first “full-blown homosexual” prime minister.

It was a rather crafty way of putting this on record. Hamzah can claim that he didn’t say it, and that he was merely quoting the Italian news agency that said it.

But, of course, Anwar struck back, as I said, by quoting the bard in such a cool manner that the victim didn’t realise he had been punched right smack on the face.

At the very least, Hamzah could have protested that Anwar had taken the quotes out of context. But then, how many people read Shakespeare these days?

The full quote comes in the play Macbeth, after the eponymous character hears of the death of his wife.

In despair, Macbeth says:

“Life’s but a walking shadow, a poor player,

That struts and frets his hour upon the stage,

And then is heard no more. It is a tale

Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,

Signifying nothing.”

So, Shakespeare refers to life here, whereas Anwar, like a good politician, appropriated it for his purposes and made it refer to the remarks of Hamzah.

As someone who has covered Anwar over the years, especially during his Umno days, I know that he is fond of quoting certain personalities. This includes Ibn Khaldun, Syeikh Yusuf al Qaradawi, Nelson Mandela, MK Gandhi, Confucius and Shakespeare.

Certainly, Anwar is out to impress his audience with his learning and erudition; and certainly, he wants to create a favourable opinion about himself. But unlike some politicians who learn a few selected quotations and then repeat these in their speeches, he knows his quotes quite well.

I have heard him string different quotes at different functions, and almost always it comes with the flow; it does not sound deliberate or calculated. Except, of course, in a few instances – such as that on Dec 20 in Parliament.

In fact, in a couple of his general election ceramahs that I attended recently, I noted his use of quotes from people like Gandhi and Shakespeare.

Anwar probably knows the dramatist’s plays better than most Malaysian political leaders.

Most Malaysians may not know that he presented a paper at the 2006 World Shakespeare Congress in Australia.

Anwar, who was then a consultant to the World Bank on governance and accountability, spoke about how the Quran and Shakespeare’s plays had sustained him while he was in prison on “trumped-up” charges of sodomy.

Anwar took the opportunity not only to quote from the Quran and Shakespeare but also others such as Milton, Whitman, and Aristotle. I’m sure that would have made a great impression on his largely western audience.

He told the gathering: “I’m not an expert on Shakespeare, but I had to spend six years in solitude, and through the six years I continued this conversation with Shakespeare and the great characters in the plays. I consider Shakespeare as a world genius and a central figure in the universal literary canon.”

Talking about freedom, Anwar said: “Freedom was simply the day when my lawyer placed on my table my own copy of the Riverside edition of the complete works of Shakespeare. This came six months to the day of my incarceration. Before that (I was given) only one copy of the Quran, incidentally with the translation by Abdullah Yusoff Ali, probably the best translation of the Quran in English then.”

At another point in his speech, he said: “In my solitary confinement, I sought solace in prayer and reading the Quran. Subject to that I would agree with William Hazlitt that Shakespeare would indeed be enough for us. Apart from going back and forth to ‘One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich’, Nehru’s ‘Toward Freedom’ and Al Ghazali’s ‘Deliverance from Error’, Shakespeare remained my most intimate companion and chief source of comfort.

“In the stone silence of the night, when you have no one to talk to – where you have rats and cockroaches of course – Shakespeare’s characters become more than dramatis personae. They speak to you and allow you to speak to them. In Julius Caesar, you hear yourself telling Brutus why he should not have made that fatal error in allowing Mark Anthony to address those fickle minded Romans… and then it dawns on you that you yourself might have suffered the same overweening confidence in the goodness of your cause to resist injustice and tyranny.

“Hazlitt sums up the argument: Tyranny and servility are to be dealt with after their own fashion. Otherwise, they will triumph over those who spare them.”

In mentioning Macbeth at the congress, Anwar also made reference to the black eye he suffered while under police custody.

“You tell yourself,” he told those at the congress, “that the air-drawn dagger (in Macbeth) should be haunting your conspirators, assailing them with strings of remorse and preternatural solicitings.”

Well, I doubt anyone was assailed with strings of remorse.

However, I do know that we can not only expect more quotes from Anwar, we’ll see more drama in Malaysian political life. In fact, we may see plots that outdo those concocted by the bard in the next few years.

I just hope administrators, politicians and others will carry out their duties responsibly, keeping the nation’s best interest in mind.

Otherwise, I’m afraid, someone talking about the story of Malaysia may say it is “a tale told by an idiot”. - FMT

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.