Sajakkini

MGG Pillai

It is politics as usual. The animosity, even hatred, Dr Mahathir Mohamad and his protege-turned nemesis, Anwar Ibrahim, is unalloyed.

They punch in different directions, often viciously, but however hard they try, they end up punching each other. Each display an arrogance and overconfidence in what they consider their hour of triumph. One fell victim to it, the other about to. They hold Malaysian politics to ransom.

It is, in one sense, an unequal fight. Mahathir had the power and authority to sack, humiliate and jail Anwar in circumstances that precluded a fair trial. Anwar had only public support in Malaysia and overseas.

MGG PILLAI is a veteran journalist who pioneered Internet journalism in Malaysia. He runs the Sangkancil discussion group and has his own website.

No one won. Mahathir suffered as much as Anwar: one as his power and control dissipated from within, the other in jail. But it turned public opinion against Mahathir and towards Anwar. It put Malaysian politics in a tailspin.

The Barisan Nasional (BN) government could not, and still does not, function. It is makebelief, with Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi unable to chart his own course while the larger problem is unresolved. It does not help when he and his predecessor, Mahathir, are not on good terms.

For six years, it was Anwar who commanded attention. Mahathir had his wings broken. He resigned as prime minister after 22 years in October 2003 not with a bang but with a whimper. When Anwar was released, unexpectedly from prison in September 2004, he barged into the political arena with a vengeance, picking up from where he was stopped in 1998. But like Mahathir in 1998, Anwar in 2005 display an arrogance and overconfidence. It was, he thought, his hour of triumph.

He had Pak Lah eating out of his hand. He was, and is, feted overseas. And attracts a large enough crowd to worry the BN leaders no end. All they could do is to accuse of him of omissions and commissions in office, that he is not the saint he is made out to be but as corrupt a politician as they are. They could not challenge him head on, for they turn defensive when corruption is raised. They punch impotently into the air, in the hope the Malaysian public would not listen to Anwar.

Attack justified

But Anwar stumbled, and badly. When he had the opportunity to let bygones be bygones, and forgive Mahathir for his travails, he would not. When he appeared on BBC’s Hard Talk programme, he saw it as a chance to even scores, and project himself as a statesman of standing.

He allowed himself to be defensive, and overeager to project himself above the political battle in Malaysia. He missed his cue. Which the Old Fox took. Mahathir responded to threaten Anwar to sue for slander for remarks against him on the programme. No one in BN, least of all Mahathir, wants to tangle with Anwar in the courts now. It was an opening gambit, and Anwar bit it. He responded in kind, first with a press statement which malaysiakini reported, then on Voice of America.

He justified the attack on Mahathir by insisting that what he said were all contained in the statutory declaration he made in connexion with his numerous trials for corruption and sodomy, that it was then he should have sued not now. That is not the issue. Mahathir brilliantly waylaid him and had him tangled in knots so tight that he lost whatever advantage he could have gained from the interview. He brought Anwar down to earth as deliberately and conclusively as Anwar brought Mahathir to earth in 1998. Nothing Anwar does now overseas matters for he has now to fight his battles in Malaysia. Especially since this episode has caused him to lose ground here.

His overseas connexions matters little if he cannot secure his home turf. It was Mahathir who saw to that. It was Anwar who blinked. The Hard Talk interview revealed to many Malaysians to what it was: an overconfident Anwar who did not address the interview for what it should be.

The Hard Talk programme had a global reach but the only audience that mattered is in Malaysia. He realised it too late and only after Mahathir waylaid him. No one in Malaysia talks of his BBC appearance now, though what he said needed to be said. His mistake was to harp on old issues. It is no excuse to say answers were demanded of him. He was too intent at presenting himself as a Malaysian leader of standing that he forgot that role comes only after he has secured his home ground.

Arrogant over-confidence

The home ground is not as secure as he believes. Parti Keadialan Rakyat, whose eminence grise he is, is in danger of being his lap dog. But a lap dog cannot organise and convince people; only his master can. It does not keep its members and supporters informed. It gives an aura that it exists only for Anwar Ibrahim. It is not true. But does it matter? Perceptions are more important than truth, as Mahathir brilliantly showed. The support it should have is but marginal. Which is a pity. Fatuous discussions take place, and I have been involved in a few, about how if the opposition parties do not re-order itself, and does not take power in 2009, it is a lost cause. That such discussion take place in all seriousness already makes it one.

The problems in BN is as severe because it insisted on not only winner takes all but the loser must be excoriated. It is all or nothing. When its leader, Mahathir, faltered over Anwar, it put that rule in question. A parliamentary democracy cannot function if its principle role is as a debating society for the ruling party.

That is how it has been for nearly four decades. This belief that it alone had the answers led to a belief that its leader, from Umno, has all the answers to any question asked or to be asked. The arrogant overconfidence is evident in all political parties bar none. This puts them at the mercy of BN.

But Malaysia needs a credible opposition. The BN is on the skids, however one looks at it. Once it was held hostage by Anwar. Now it is the irrelevant sideshow of the public spat between Mahathir and Anwar. The opposition, too, is on the skids. It cannot unite under a common leader. It had a chance when Anwar, on his release, firmly decided he would not return to Umno. But the ideological (for what it is) differences could not be bridged. Anwar could have and still could. He is the most acceptable leader of an opposition coalition but only when the opposition parties find common ground. But he must secure once again his political credentials. That is what Mahathir now forces him to.

Why are Mahathir and Anwar so antagonistic? They are cut from the same cloth. One is a clone of the other. But they are as diverse in their political outlook as could be; all they know of the other is their similar approach to politics, not in how to get what they want.

This has cost both dear. But it is Anwar that would pay a higher price if he stumbles. He has hard decisions to take. It is a mistake to underestimate Umno. It has the advantage of incumbency. He must untangle from the knots he is tied up in. He returns this month, and he has important decisions to make. He should look upon the Mahathir attack as a wake-up call. Otherwise, he would be the perennial hare, not the tortoise, in Malaysian politics. He is too good for that. But first, he should make peace with Mahathir. Even if he has to eat crow. Would he? Besides, he ought to be the tortoise Mahathir is, not the impetuous hare he is seen as.

The tortoise and the hare