The return of Anwar Ibrahim
From the December issue of Chrome
Can the former Deputy Prime Minister resurrect his political career?
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim rarely makes the headlines of local papers these days but he’s quietly been amassing a string of significant victories that’s making him politically viable again.
It all started in September last year, when he was acquitted of sodomy, the stated reason why he was sacked in 1998 by then-Prime Minister Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Upon his release, Anwar played it smart and went overseas, where he hobnobbed with Western leaders and taught at several leading universities including John Hopkins and Oxford.
This served two purposes. Firstly, it sent a message to PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that he’s not going to be a nuisance (for the time being anyway) and secondly, it allowed him to build strong support abroad, useful should he become PM one day.
In August this year, he amassed two other critical victories. Firstly, former police chief Rahim Noor publicly apologised for giving Anwar the infamous black eye while in police custody in 1998. The apology was part of an out-of-court settlement whereby Anwar agreed to withdraw a suit against Rahim, the home minister (Mahathir at the time) and the government, in return for the open apology and an unspecified sum in compensation.
That month, the KL High Court also ordered author Khalid Jafri (now deceased) to pay Anwar RM4.5 million for conspiracy and the allegations made in his book 50 Dalil Mengapa Anwar Tak Boleh Jadi PM. “The defendants’ main purpose in publishing the book was to destroy the plaintiff’s reputation and political career,” said High Court judge Hishamudin Mohd Yunus in a strongly-worded decision.
Combined, these victories mean that Anwar’s political rehabilitation is almost complete.
Not totally though. He’s still barred from contesting in an election until 2008 under laws governing convicted criminals (he served time for abuse of power). A royal pardon would speed up the rehabilitation. But he’s not holding his breath for that and has already begun his comeback tour, holding talks all over the country and saying the right things to the right crowds.
For example, after UMNO Youth leaders Datuk Hishammuddin Hussein and Khairy Jamaluddin called for a reinstatement of the New Economic Policy, Anwar came out to speak against it. Calling the government’s bumiputera policy “obsolete”, Anwar pushed for a new policy that transcended race.
Such progressive statements are sure to win plaudits from non-bumis, but to ensure Malay support, Anwar qualified his statements by saying, “Malay privileges have been enshrined in the Federal Constitution; I am not touching on that. Which means the protection of some people is not to be questioned. But it cannot be to the exclusion of competent qualified non-Malays.”
This is classic Anwar, being all things to all people. But it works, at least for him. He’s still immensely popular and draws huge multi-racial crowds at his talks. So, what’s his strategy for becoming PM someday? There are two versions, the official line and the more-likely scenario.
The official version sees him leading an opposition coalition to victory. In an interview with AFP in August, he said that even if the government brings forward the election to ensure that he can’t contest, a win by a Keadilan-led coalition would ensure he gets the top job. “If the public, the Malaysian electorate, endorses you, what does it matter whether I contest or not,” he said. “It is a decision of the party in power. So if they want my role, then the party has to decide and the people have to back the party.”
In other words, if Keadilan establishes a majority, it could appoint an interim prime minister until Anwar’s ban expired and he contested in a by-election, which he would, of course, win. Nice theory, but the reality is that an opposition coalition is unlikely to even deny the Barisan Nasional a two-thirds majority let alone win.
If Anwar is to ever become the PM, he’ll have to rejoin UMNO. Right now, he’s persona non grata there but as they say in politics, there are no permanent enemies —just permanent interests. If a power struggle emerges in UMNO, one leader could very well find that it’s in his interest to have Anwar on his side to disrupt the other leader. The agreement would be that Anwar would support that particular leader and wait his turn to be the next PM.
Of course if Anwar becomes PM through UMNO, he would have to make compromises with the various power groups within the party, each with its own permanent interests. How much change can he then make? It seems the more things change, the more they stay the same. — OON YEOH
Oon Yeoh
3 Comments
Reader Comments (3)
he is certainly a force to be reckoned with if he wants to make a come back in politics.
and i think he is serious about it.
but many have questioned about the possibility of anwar returning to umno.some do it to discourage the supporters of opposition parties and others catually say it out of no faith.
to me, the question of rejoining umno is zero at the moment. the umno youth even made a resolution in 2004 that all umno leaders who have left umno and fought with umno will not be accepted to rejoin the party.ppl like najib and hisham would never want anwar to return to umno.
let say pak lah wants him to rejoin to disrupt najib and company. but would he dare to do it? i doubt it very much.he even faced great difficulty just to remove isa samad.
so, it's much more than whether anwar wishes to rejoin umno or otherwise.
i think anwar would not be so naive to think that he is still wanted by umno.
he has said it many times but no amount of talk would convince his distractors and other political bystanders. these ppl want to see more actions from anwar before they could be convinced. only those who support him all these years have faith in him.
to me, anwar's future is with the opposition. it's a tough road to go but i don't think he has a choice.
As much as I'd like to believe that he will be the one to institute change in the Malaysia, I don't think that he is the man because essentially from what I have observed he is still playing to popular crowd. Not surprising given the huge international outcry over his imprisonment and criminal charges. Maybe I am not particularly keen on trusting a man who came from a system which has serious corruption issues and in that past, did not take action (he claims that he was working from within; shackled by the constraints of what he has to work with), subsequently returning to attack the system which has unceremoniously dumped him by the sidewalks.
Furthermore, Anwar's or Keadilan's roadmap for equality in the our society is murky at best. What is their stand on the special rights of the Bumis? How does this affect positive discrimination? And more importantly, do they have what it takes to carry their plan out? I believe that there are no simple cookie cutter solutions to the multicultural melting pot where we live in. Contradictory promises and claims to the public depending on who's in the audience and where it is held are not the signs of concrete political resolutions. Transient politicians like Anwar although immensely popular with people at home or abroad will eventually succumbed to the prevailing culture of unclean politics in Malaysia.
In the article, Oon Yeoh mentioned that Anwar taught at several universities including Oxford. From what I know, he is only a research fellow attached to St. Antony's College, Oxford working on the South East Asian economic crisis in 1997 particularly in Malaysia at the chancellor's privilege. I am not aware that he actually teaches.
but only when the time is right.