Where will Mahathir be on Sept 16?

Between Merdeka Day and Malaysia Day on Sept 16, the lingering fever of patriotic fervour could well be a release valve for the pent-up uncertainty as to whether Anwar Ibrahim can topple the BN government.

Emblematic of patriotism is traditional symbolism like the flag and national anthem. Some Malaysians were deemed to have offended the ‘sensitive’ general public when utilising both symbols as a form of political protest, flying the flag upside down and rapping Negarakuku.

The national anthem begins ‘Negaraku, tanah tumpahnya darahku’… Dr Mahathir Mohamad recently remarked that he will leave the country should Anwar Ibrahim come to power. Either Dr M was indulging in his trademark sarcasm or it was a reflexive and revealing riposte. His statement is offensive when juxtaposed against the sentiment encapsulated in those first words of Negaraku. Dr M is self-referential to the point of tearing up his Umno party card not too long ago.

An educated guess as to why Dr M would tellingly prefer not to remain in Malaysia if Anwar were to ascend to power is clearly because of what he did to put his nemesis in prison. His former deputy has said he will forgive but not forget.

Some quarters make it a very serious business of not forgetting, like Germany which has laws to curb neo-Nazism to the point of over-compensating in wariness and strictly clamping down on any nascent expression of it. To redress the wrongs, one has to understand the nature of the sin or crime before one can formulate the remedy.

Without a more informed citizenry, freedom of information and critical public discourse, Malaysians will not be able to see both the quantifiable and immeasurable destruction that Dr M has wrought on the fabric of this country.

He is already a highly polarising love-hate figure; recrimination of Dr M will not afford us more clarity on the evils of Mahathirism. Transparency of official data and their accessibility to the public as well as insider revelations will.

Yes, no, maybe?

Even if there are not enough crossover MPs for Anwar to crumble the BN by Sept 16, we should not as a nation return to the status quo ante. Admittedly Anwar portends a Future Imperfect but the track record of Establishment Past as represented by Dr M is plain for all to see. The ineffectual Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is presiding over an interregnum, and plans to anoint as his successor Najib Razak – a hardly inspiring choice.

Currently I’m reading vehement writings that crucify Anwar but their venom is reserved for the Anwar which Malaysia knew 10 years ago and before. He’s being indicted for crimes he has not yet committed by those who anticipate that he will be an Umno-type PM, version 2.0.

Yet any attempts to read Anwar cannot be taken in isolation from comprehending Mahathir because their professional and personal histories have been so intertwined. The setback to this effort is that Dr M’s Big Brother regime had previously consigned many pivotal events and episodes to Orwell’s Memory Hole.

It is only poetic justice that the unravelling of Dr M was permitted to happen because Abdullah decided not to play ball by protecting his predecessor’s whitewashed legacy. Fallout between them put Dr M out in the cold.

For the 22 years of his term in office, the ex-Prime Minister made front page in the papers almost daily. Suddenly after his breach with Abdullah, Dr M n o longer had access to primacy in mainstream media and resorted – ironically – to blogging like the rest of Malaysia’s mere mortals denied airing in mainstream media. He has even been granting interviews in this news portal which he previously vilified.

The Economist once carried a caricature of Dr M as a tyrant of Gulliver-like proportions with downtrodden Lilliputian masses underfoot. However, for more than two decades, local publications indoctrinated Malaysians with the canard that Dr M could do no wrong. It was only a couple of years back that local media lackeys were given the go-ahead to deconstruct Dr M, something Malaysians never tasted in mainstream public space when the former dictator controlled propaganda flow with an iron fist.

What Abdullah green-lighted as necessary to knock Dr M off his pedestal was no more than what Dr M did to Anwar in 1998. How the public perceives our leaders influences how the public thinks, and this thinking directs how the public will act when it comes to the crunch.

Mahathirists vs Anwaristas

When Dr M instituted the travesty of justice against Anwar during the first round of sodomy charges in the late 1990s, public perception of his deputy was different from what it is of the Oppositio n Leader today. Presently Dr M still persists in his character assassination of Anwar with inimitable lines such as “[He] can convince even the devil to follow him.”

While Anwar is indeed garnering more followers in the aftermath of the tsunami, not everyone wishing to see BN relegated to the Opposition benches harbours illusions about the man as a political messiah. There is as much the anti-BN push factor as there is the pro-Pakatan pull factor.

It is more instructive to compare the two sets of followers, Dr M and Anwar’s, and look at the human capital constituting Mahathirists.

A People’s Parliament reader contributed a lampoon of the Pak Turut mindset that proliferates among the Tun’s supporters: “Ya Tun, apa-apa Tun cakap mesti betul punyak!”, “Ayahanda Tun, Tun bagaikan Tuhan bagi kami, zaman Tun, semuanya best, zaman sekarang, kenapa semua tak best ek?”, “Tunnnn!!! Saya cayyyyyyang Tun!”, “Tun, gua caya sama Tunnnn… Tun bilo nak naik jadi PM lagi ni?” and “Assalamualaikum Tun yang disegani dihormati dikasihi disanjungi, bila Tun cerita jer pasal isu-isu politik ni, baru saya faham … best nyerrr … sebelum ni, saya tak faham apa apa langsung pun pasai politik.”

The reader wrote that the above sampling is more or less the template to about 80% of the comments found in Dr M’s blog, adding, “There is no thinking, no constructive suggestions or any analysis of Mahathir’s opinions” and that to his admirers, it as if Dr M’s sayings were ‘wahyu dari langit’ (divine revelation).

On the contrary, segments of Malaysians do not believe that Anwar is heaven-sent but are pragmatic that he’s the a vailable antidote to BN poison. Unlike the brainwashed Mahathirists, the ones clamouring for reform are not pinning their hopes entirely on Anwar as saviour. If the country is indeed in distress as those the flag inverters would signal it, the SOS should read: Save Our Selves.

Nonetheless, it is Anwar who created the sea of change in popular imagination not only with his new political language and dialogue but allowing us the glimpse of a distinct possibility that BN could cease to be government.

And that BN removed from the driver’s seat does not presage a Doomsday scenario.

Naturally though, some are afraid if Anwar does succeed, instability will ensue. I have an anecdote to share. There was this Chinese Penang islander who thought it better to be out of town on Aug 26, the Permatang Pauh polling day … well, just in case riots broke out. So much of the fe ars that have been conditioned are exaggerated, and the uniquely truly Malaysian conception of ‘stability’ overrated.

There was a strained stability during Mahathir’s era. What did that stability bring us? Reflect on whether this country is corrupt, and if yes, to what extent does this affect our standard and cost of living?

The kangaroo court on Anwar’s sodomy charge during the last Reformasi effectively killed his political career. The million ringgit question now is what will Malaysia do if Anwar is carted off to jail again?

Note:

Dr Syed Husin Ali and Dr Toh Kin Woon will be speaking on ‘Freedom of Information and the Internet’ on Mon, Sep 8 at the Selangor Chinese Assembly Hall. Event begins 2.30pm and the public are welcome.