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The Anwar Saga: His Master's Voices

The prime minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, wanted his deputy and finance minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, out of public office and political life. He got him out in a procedure that would have had the Earl of Halsbury turning in his grave. He is now singularly alone. His strongest defenders are no where to be seen. The best defence of the Anwar dismissal I have heard is that the prime minister knows what he is doing, and we should all support him. So, the prime minister continues on a rampage, making all sorts of allegations and accusations while those around him, his strongest supporters, show their support by their deafening silence. They are usually released in portentious official form, and departments of the government repeating the mantra of the absolute fairness with which Dato' Seri Anwar would be tried. The man is detained under the Internal Security Act, a draconian law that the prime minister had solemnly assured would not be used against political opponents. The prime minister's now familiar refrain that Dato' Seri Anwar is unfit for high office reminds one of another prime minister 30 years ago who decided that an Alor Star medical practitioner and MP -- I believe he was one Dr Mahathir Mohamed: I wonder where he is now? -- was unfit for high office in UMNO and expelled him.

While Dato' Seri Anwar's supporters run a tight hit-and-run reactive challenge, forcing officialdom to be more and more harsh at such events and make such mistakes as going into the National Mosque last Friday to pick up suspects. The prime minister's unproven allegations of Dato' Seri Anwar's homosexuality -- it should remain unproven until the court decides on it; the Anwarians seized the initiative, not without a little help from the government itself, to ensure that any such decision be taken with a pinch of salt -- is insisted upon as the Word of Truth; any response from the Anwarian camp is attacked as self-serving and irrelevant. Should the government persist in this approach, it could well expect to find itself painted into a corner.

UMNO wants to hold a public rally for 100,000. I am sure it would get it whereever it is held. But there is no further news on it. It would have been an excellent opportunity to explain its case to Malaysians, something it has not done at all. It must counteract the Anwarian campaign if it wants support from the ground, which at the moment is confused. The Anwar call for reform is a powerful drawing factor; if the government moves swiftly and determinedly, it could probably match it. But it must move away from the scratched-gramaphone record litany of unproven allegations to challenge the specific abuses of power Dato' Seri Anwar lobbed at Dr Mahathir and Tun Daim Zainuddin. The answer to that is not that Dato' Seri Anwar's supporters were also in it, but that the allegations are false; if they are not, then come clean. Encapsulated in splendid isolation, Dr Mahathir should not expect that what is allowed Zeus is not allowed the cow. Unfortunately, the cow now insists that Zeus be brought to account. That is Dr Mahathir's New Malay Dilemma.

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