In October 1998, then-Foreign Minister Ali Alatas of Indonesia made a quick, unpublicized trip to Kuala Lumpur. His mission: to convey to Malaysia’s leaders the deep personal concern of then-Indonesian President Habibie at the beating that former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim had suffered in police custody. According to Alatas, Habibie was extremely worried because he knew of the frailty of Anwar’s health.
A longtime and close friend of Alatas, then Deputy Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, gave him firm assurance that no more physical harm would be inflicted on Anwar. Today, Anwar’s health is presumably much improved and his political fortunes are once more on the rise.
Before his fall from grace in 1998, he was a heartbeat away from becoming Prime Minister as 
Mahathir Mohammad’s undisputed heir apparent. But in the face of the Asian financial crisis, as concurrent minister of finance, Anwar moved to dismantle what he considered to be Mahathir’s crony capitalism and extravagant showcase projects. Mahathir promptly fired him.
Mahathir Mohammad’s undisputed heir apparent. But in the face of the Asian financial crisis, as concurrent minister of finance, Anwar moved to dismantle what he considered to be Mahathir’s crony capitalism and extravagant showcase projects. Mahathir promptly fired him.The Prime Minister’s sympathizers charged Anwar with corruption and sodomy and secured a court verdict that would put him away for 15 years.
Yet even as he served time behind bars, he was a force in Malaysian politics, his name a battle cry for the political opposition nominally led by his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail.
The Malaysian High Court overturned the sodomy verdict in 2004, and because he had served the sentence for corruption, he was released from prison. In 2008, though still disqualified from running for office, he led the opposition to an election victory that for the first time deprived the United Malays National Organization-led ruling coalition of its two-thirds majority. Taking responsibility for the rout, Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi stepped down in favor of Najib Razak. Several times Anwar tried but failed to cobble together a new majority in Parliament.
About a month ago, to the surprise of Anwar himself, he was acquitted of a second sodomy charge that could have put him in jail for 20 years and banished him from politics forever. That opened the way for him to contest the national leadership with Najib in elections likely to be held in a few months instead of next year, when they are actually due.
Najib is worried about the party polls of the UMNO later this year. He could lose party leadership as many of its leaders see his moderation as political weakness. Moreover, by next year the global economic crisis will have inflicted its contagion on the Malaysian economy. Bad for any ruling party. Hence the call for early elections.
It will be a contest between two reformists with contrasting styles. Using a gradualist approach, Najib has increased transparency and accountability in government and liberalization in the economy. Anwar stands for sweeping reforms that would do away with Malay privileges denied Chinese and Indian Malaysians. He seeks immediate repeal of the hated Internal Security Act and a more robust fight against corruption.
Anwar’s reform agenda is revealed in his lectures. Last week he gave a lecture before the Islamic Students Association (HMI) in Bandung, but no text of that lecture is available. I managed to get the text of his lecture in August last year at the University of the Philippines in Manila — on Jose Rizal, the martyred Philippine national hero, and Ninoy Aquino, whose murder on the tarmac of Manila International Airport in August 1983 began the end of the Marcos regime. Anwar is much admired in the Philippines as an authority on Rizal and his impact on Asian history.This lecture compared his imprisonment to that of Rizal and Ninoy and praised their willingness to sacrifice their lives for the good of their people. I had the impression that Anwar was bracing himself for his own supreme sacrifice. He was anticipating a guilty verdict in his sodomy trial.
Had that happened, the events that followed could have paralleled Philippine events after Ninoy Aquino’s murder. With Anwar martyred by a long jail sentence, the opposition would unite behind his wife, who would then become Prime Minister — just as Ninoy’s widow, Cory Aquino, was elected president a couple of years after Ninoy’s martyrdom.
But the Malaysian court was not aware of the script: it acquitted Anwar. Bereft of a unifying martyr, the Malaysian opposition, an assortment of mostly small parties, will find it difficult to campaign in concert.
Anwar still has the political momentum but Najib has vast resources at his command. Which reformist will prevail? Soon enough, Malaysian voters will make their choice.
As others have noted, conservatives who’d like bash the president on the economy are having an awfully hard time right now, as the recovery proceeds apace. Too slowly apace, for sure, but no objective observer can miss that the trend is our friend and that even the job market, while still far too weak and with conspicuous downsides (intractable long-term unemployment), is improving.
Indeed one begins to wonder why is it that our Malaysian politicians are getting involved in businesses when they should be in the business of caring for the welfare and well being of the rakyat on a full time basis. Are they not paid a salary with perks to govern?
Almost everyone of the BN politicians are into some kind of business, with many of them involved in multi-million Ringgit schemes. Any wise and seasoned business man or woman — big or small– will not hesitate to tell you that to earn your bucks you have to eat, sleep and walk business. It is a 24/7 job.
More interested in mega-business
Now how on earth do our politicians have the time to be involved in healthy and wise politics serving in the best interest of the rakyat and the nation if they are also into mega-buck businesses?Besides, one also wonders how on earth can they place rakyat first before self if they have their own profits to worry about, day and night. Should the government of the day not ban all politicians from indulging in business deals and leave business to the business world?
Not in Malaysia. Tun Dr Mahathir has already not only sowed the seeds through his grand plan of privatization, but has successfully nurtured it into a must-do political culture today. Name one politician in the BN fold who has not made money – not from his frugal savings from the wages but from all kinds of business deals, including wheeler-deals.
This is why the politics of Malaysia is inter-woven so intricately with corruption ranging from patronizing to compromising, from abuse of power to all kinds of coveted and secret approvals. And to provide enough insurance we have the Official Secrets Act to give blanket to all the unknown deals.
Indeed it is sad. It is heart breaking. It is devastating to the very soul of nation-building. When politicians place business as theit right and blank-cheque mandate, we compromise governance. And in that process the rakyat become poorer through lost and abused opportunities.
In Malaysia, you go into politics for business
In many forward looking nations elsewhere, successful businessmen surrender their business wealth in order to champion citizens’ interests and nation building. They bring to the field of governance their enriched knowledge of transforming economies for the people.
In our case, we get into politics to enrich our own families at the expense of the rakyat and the nation. Perhaps the learned and untainted minds of Malaysia should do a through study and publish the truth of how our civil servant-turned-politicians and street smart talkers turned political kingpins have amassed their own and their families wealth through their seeming political leadership.
No small wonder than that there is so much fear in making public the wealth and assets of politicians and so much of feet dragging till this date.
Poor Malaysians. They can only court the self-consolation in the face of that hopelessness of “apa boleh buat; jangi kita dapat sedikit cukup lah itu”.
So, they’re stuck with “yeah, things are getting better, but if we were in charge, they’d be even better!”
This year began with a series of reports providing tantalising evidence that economic recovery in the United States is strengthening. The pace of job creation has increased, indicators for manufacturing and services have improved, and consumption spending has been stronger than anticipated. But it is too early to celebrate.
Output growth in the US remains anaemic, and the economy continues to face three significant deficits: a jobs deficit, an investment deficit and a long-run fiscal deficit, none of which is likely to be addressed in an election year.
Although output is now higher than it was in the fourth quarter of 2007, it remains far below what could be produced if labour and capacity were fully utilised. That gap – between actual and potential output – is estimated at more than 7 per cent of GDP (more than $1 trillion).
No comments:
Post a Comment