UNITED BY COMMON WOES, MALAYS & NON-MALAYS TURN ON 'DESPOTIC' ANWAR & PAKATAN - TO 'SAVE' MALAYSIA FROM RISING PRICES, MISGOVERNANCE & INCREASING AUTHORITARIANISM
Written by Wong Choon Mei, PoliticsNow!
Nationwide, multiple and multiracial doors are being slammed in his face - leaving his ruling Pakatan Rakyat coalition with hardly a leg to stand on. Rabid anger at his fumbling and refusal to maintain election promises is palpable - with Malay voters not bothering to mince their words and hurling insults at his regime, while Chinese and Indian voters on whose support he rose to power are equally angry. Doors are not only being slammed in his face, but pro-government pamphlets are crumpled and flung back at his campaign workers. Protest rallies, demonstrations, hunger strikes, boycotts and perhaps even a hartal in the future are now the order-in-the-making of the day.
“The Chinese are very angry. One crumpled a Cikgu Joohari Ariffin’s flyer and hurled it back at us, asking us to leave," a campaign worker for Anwar's PKR party was reported as saying by FMT, alluding to Joohari, the government candidate who lost big-time at a recent by-election seen as a key referendum on Anwar's performance and leadership.
The 76-year-old Anwar's 5-year term expires only in 2027 when the next general election must be held - but already given the groundswell of public dissatisfaction at his regime's inability to curb rising prices and control shooting costs of living, most in the country believe he may be ousted way before then.
"The Anwar administration is now hated because they are seen as directly making life even tougher than ever before for the ordinary people. So don't talk about bringing inflation under control, many voters hold him directly responsible for prodding and provoking prices to rise even higher with poorly thought-out policies. The things he should do, he doesn't do. The things he should not do, he does. That's the sentiment now," a political analyst told PoliticsNow!, referring to a slew of ill-timed steps to remove long-standing government subsidies on essentials such as diesel, electricity tariffs and even rice.
The Malay ground, which has been seething but generally patient, is no longer so docile. An anti-government rally “Save Malaysia 2.0” is being organized by those in the Malay-centric opposition parties - and if they play their cards right, chances are high the rally will draw in non-Malay support as well as the sources of discontent are common.
Felt by all, regardless of ethnicity, are a withering economy, sky-high prices, a sharp squeeze in income, blundering policies and a return to authoritarian rule with freedom of speech, a free media and social media being whisked away by Anwar, his ministers and the entire body of the government's sycophantic enforcement agencies all seemingly wishful to catch the eye of the bosses for the sake of career advancements!
“The economy is the real barometer for Anwar’s support because it would make both Malays and non-Malays happy. It is understood that in Malaysian politics, you cannot survive without Malay votes. Maybe Anwar thinks that pandering to the right wing using Islamic and identity politics is the way to go," James Chin, an analyst attached to the University of Tasmania, was also quoted as saying.
"But that is not the way to go, because you cannot out-Islam Pas. The only way to win the Malay vote is to deal with the economy, and the bonus is you will get the Chinese and Indian votes too," Chin added, referring to Pas which is now the largest and most influential Malay-Muslim party in Malaysia.
THE DESPOT AND HIS LITTLE NAPOLEONS?
Yet perhaps like all despots, as Anwar has unfortunately become linked to due to his administration's ham-fisted actions against those who criticize their policies, a return to good old-fashioned common sense and the principles of honesty, humility, service, integrity and good governance look impossible.
Already, the 'little Napoleons' in the PM's office are plotting to suspend for six months an opposition youth leader, Wan Ahmad Fayhsal who is the Machang member of Parliament for the Bersatu party led by ex-premier Muhyiddin Yassin.
And Fayhsal's 'crime'? Apart from vehement opposition as well as blowing the whistle on team Anwar's controversial RM18 billion deal to sell crucial air infrastructure to America's sinister asset manager BlackRock, in a transaction that has been criticized as pro-US, pro-Israel but anti-Palestine, perhaps Fayhsal is also becoming too big a thorn in the flesh of the minions, no pun intended, who run the PM's office.
So, for issuing a "statement and allegation that is serious and stirs anti-government sentiments... Therefore, it is agreed that the Machang MP should be suspended from the meeting and select committees for six months from the date this motion is approved,” said the PM's Department.
And to show Fayhsal has about the chance of a snowball in fire to escape punishment, the motion is listed as the government’s first order of business tomorrow.
There goes the sanctity of Parliament, critics rush to protect Fayhsal. True or not, those not in love with Anwar insist the immunity of lawmakers to raise issues in the most august house of the country is now reduced to rubble - as Anwar's inner circle keep stretching ever wider and digging ever deeper deadly claws poisoned by power until the very nerve of the nation is ultimately hit - in the high-stakes and take-no-prisoners bid to help him cling to power.
WHO IS NOW MAKING MALAYSIA A "ROGUE AND FAILED STATE"?
Hence it is unsurprising albeit extremely ironic and surreal that the Save Malaysia slogan frequently used by the opposition that was once led by Anwar is now used by those whom he and his Pakatan coalition had then bravely and bitterly challenged for decades before he finally became PM and they the government in 2022.
In 2016, Lim Kit Siang, an Anwar stalwart and whose DAP party is a core component in Anwar's Pakatan coalition, had famously said:
"I have said enough since last year about a Save Malaysia campaign which transcends race, religion, region, political parties, and individuals and our efforts to see this goal come to fruition.
"We do not want Malaysia to become a rogue and a failed state.
"We must involve all Malaysians in Save Malaysia effort so that Malaysia can get back our lost national bearings," the once legendary Kit Siang but now increasingly seen as being more of just another political fraud, had said way back then - before his DAP had finally hit pay dirt in 2018, lost it in 2020 and found it again in 2022.
Zoom forward to the present in 2024 and now 're-made' as Save Malaysia 2.0 - but still used by the opposition against the government, only that the opposition is now the government and the government is now the opposition - the platform and its latest rally is spearheaded by former Umno member Tun Faisal, currently attached to the Bersatu opposition party.
The anti-government demonstration will be held in three stages, starting at Anwar's own parliamentary constituency of Tambun in Perak state on July 27. It will then continue on August 31, which is Malaysia's Independence Day, at Anwar's former political stronghold of Permatang Pauh in Penang - before a grand finale is held in Kuala Lumpur on September 16, which is Malaysia Day.
“Since the first Save Malaysia rally on September 16 last year, the people’s wellbeing has not improved, in fact, it’s getting worse. The people are burdened by the extreme rise in the prices of goods and high cost of living,” Faisal told a press conference today.
FROM BOLEH-LAND TO BODEK-LAND
How will Faisal's rally turn out remains to be seen but what's clear is that an unstoppable movement has erupted from beneath the ground and cannot be calmed until Anwar looks into the mirror and acknowledges that like the proverbial Emperor, he is not wearing any clothes so to speak.
According to analysts, if Anwar is to save the day for himself and his government, action must be taken to quell the rot. Heads must also roll and justice seen to be done by those who have already felt the cold and clammy hands of the political midgets appointed by him and are now puffing and parading themselves with ill-conceived notions of their own personal political grandeur. And that includes Anwar.
Fate need not be kind to these guys, for they are just the flotsam and jetsam found everywhere in politics. But fate needs to be kind to Malaysia - a land of over 33 million people whose traces of beauty and goodness can still be glimpsed, although only barely.
So when can Malaysia be saved? Can it even be saved? Who will do it? These are the favorite questions bouncing around the nation as team Anwar disappoints more and more deeply with each passing day.
Unfortunately, the answers appear to be elusive still. Some say perhaps when the qualities of sincerity, humility, honesty and integrity return to the nation's hyperactive political scene. When that happens - if that ever happens - the question of who can save Malaysia will become moot, they argue. There will then be no shortage of those with the most basic yet key prerequisite needed to save the nation - and that is good old-fashioned good character! So simple and fundamental a criteria, they say, and yet sadly nowhere in sight from Mahathir's 'Boleh-land' to Anwar's 'Bodek-land'.
Written by Wong Choon Mei, PoliticsNow!
https://politicsnowmy.blogspot.com/
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