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Anwar Ibrahim, Reformasi And the UMNO Dilemma

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When the Federal Court last week dismissed the former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim's appeal against his conviction for corruption and misuse of office, many wondered if his Reformasi movement had lost steam. It has. Does it matter? No! Is it still relevant? Yes! The Reformasi movement is kept alive by a small band of Anwar acolytes and backers who saw in his predicament how drastically political rights were reduced. It was Quixotic, to say the least, but it unnerved the government more than it had dared hope.

When it cracked down hard on the movement, its potential provided the grist for the Anwar campaign. For what now looks to be the right reasons, it is kept small, shedding off the large groups that once surrounded it. The African National Congress in apartheid South Africa could not be broken because it was run by a small committed group of activists, with silent sympathisers all over the country. When its leaders were arrested or detained, it looked as if its backbone was broken. All it did was the get more silent sympathisers on board.

Like the ANC activists then, many Reformasi activists are behind bars, harrassed, threatened, detained. Its public backers are subject to more direct threats, like the withdrawal of bank loans or bodily harm to their families. With time, the pressure becomes too great, and many fall out one by one, though many continue their support silently. The government mistakes this as proof Reformasi is dead. But when it repeatedly insists it is, as happens when an UMNO general assembly or byelections beckons, it is in self-delusion as in fright.

If Reformasi is dead, as it insists, why this need for a regular litany of its death? That it has to is proof it is not. What Reformasi does out of the public eye has its impact on the affairs of government, UMNO and its National Front (BN) partners.

The government is frightened of it. Four years on, Dato' Seri Anwar and Reformasi is mentioned in the same breath. Like it or not, UMNO must come to terms with both. Reformasi has lost its werve, as it must, as it changes its focus to a guerilla force. Its vicious sting and bite it delivers in secret when it must, and its message has the government running for cover. UMNO cannot rest as Reformasi goes underground, sniping and sapping away its underpinnings that it cannot be ignored.

As President George Bush and the United States cannot ignore Mr Osama bin Laden and Al-Qaida, even if its leading light is dead. The government can declare Reformasi dead, editorial writers can dismiss it as irrelevant, as they once did of the Communist Party of Malaya. But it remains a threat. The Government insisted then the CPM was impotent, as now of Reformasi, but the thorn it was could only be plucked out with an agreement. So Reformasi.

For, make no mistake, it is Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim and Reformasi that puts the most potent pressure on the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, UMNO, the BN and the government he runs. It has been like this since 1998, when he decided to make an example of his deputy prime minister. That backfired, and he and they pay the price. The recent UMNO general assembly affirmed it. UMNO re-orients itself as a Malay political party which could survive without Malay support. As Malay political parties in the opposition know only too well, this is not possible.

UMNO had to change its cultural stance to opt for an Islamic state, hoping this could make it challenge PAS's Islamic agenda. It has not worked. UMNO itself is uncertain about its wisdom. Dr Mahathir believes in it, but few of his lieutenants, including those who would succeed him, do not. All this does is to give PAS another issue to hit UMNO with. Especially after Dr Mahathir leaves the scene.

Dato' Seri Anwar and Reformasi finds favour with the young, the downtrodden, the unwashed, the excluded, the ignored of Malaysian, not just Malay, society. The government is forced to have all who has to deal with it sign an irrevocable "akujanji" (pledge) with it. It did this not in confidence but in fright. Many who had to sign it had no choice but to. A signature is easy, but did it bring obedience? For that is what the akujanji is for: obedience. With a heavy penalty if it is not given. This is a view not confined to UMNO. Every political party in the BN insists upon it, the more so now when its leaders are challenged by its members demanding its reformasi.

This is the importance of Dato' Seri Anwar and Reformasi. It has forced a change in the mindset of young Malaysians, long comfortable in being led by the BN in a climate of fear more assumed than real. Until 1998, anyone who had something critical to say would look all around him, drop one's voice conspiratorially to say something insipid. Today, one hears criticism of the government, loudly and clearly, in many a coffee shop of teh tarik stall. Malaysia is caught in a bind of its own, with a government refusing to take conflicting views so its views could be that much the better, and make policy on the basis of total unanimity. It messed up its bilateral negotiations with Singapore because of it.

It does not take Parliament into its confidence, regarding it as an enemy because the opposition has a different point of view. It believes it is right all the time, especially when it is wrong. It does not believe in airing of issues in public for it sees that as evidence of its own impotence. It is this worldview Dato' Seri Anwar and Reformasi so dramatically challenges. Because it is unused to being challenged, it is forced to confront Reformasi views headon. But it does that not by brain but by brawn. It lost when its treats Dato' Seri Anwar with kid gloves. Whenever he appears in court, special rules apply. He is heavily guarded, his Reformasi backers not allowed in, and the court room filled with intelligence officers so the public gallery is filled even before he appears.

So it does not matter if Dato' Seri Anwar remains in gaol and Reformasi is on the run. The mere mention of either of both is enough to send many an UMNO and BN leader into near rigor mortis. Dato' Seri Anwar and Reformasi has much to thank UMNO and Dr Mahathir for this. Even if he has to spend another seven years in gaol. When an idea takes root in the public mind, no force can uproot it.

It matters not if Dato' Seri Anwar made mistakes -- he made far too many to recount -- or that he is as guilty as many an UMNO leader of misuse and abuse of power -- he made far too many to recount -- but he turned his predicament into a political movement at the right time and in such high dudgeon that UMNO reacts, four years on, in fright and haste. He and his Reformasi steps up the momentum so if UMNO wants to survive as a political party it must come to terms with him. And this from one we are told is a spent force leading a movement that is a spent force!

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my