I think it was wonderful for Anwar to say that he doesn’t think Fahmi Reza should be charged.
On paper, Malaysia might look like a modern day democracy, but if you scratch the surface, what you will find is a feudal society that is ticking underneath.
Despite our presumptions, we have no concept of a “government of the people, by the people for the people” because to have that kind of government, we need to have the sort of ancestors that would rather accept death than servility or inequality.
If we have that sort of ancestors, and if we identified with that sort of ancestors, then we will truly have a ““government of the people, by the people for the people” form of governance, that is formed by a proud an free people that will only accept such a “first amongst equal” form of goverment, rather than abide by a goverment that is composed of people who identify themselves as masters who have an inherent destiny to be obeyed.
If not, we will just have master-servant relationship with everyone around us, including with our government , whereby if you are master, you will have a bunch of servants around you, and they will busy themselves doing whatever it is they think will please you, with the expectation that you will take care of their welfare and interest and save them when they are in trouble.
If you are the master in a master-servant relationship, you don’t even have to ask your servants to do as you bid. They themselves will learn about your likes and dislikes, and act on their own according to their understanding of your likes and dislikes, in order to win your favour.
Being the prime minister, I am more than sure that Anwar has an army of people around him who are forever studying his reactions to see what he likes and dislikes, before acting on their understanding of his likes and dislikes, in order to win his favour.
Because of that, I suppose we cannot always presume that Anwar is aware or approving of everything that his government does, like the action taken against Fahmi Reza.
For all you know, it might just be the action of someone around him, who acted on their own, because they presumed that their action would please Anwar.
That being the case, it was wonderful to see Anwar say that he doesn’t believe that action should be taken against graphic artist and activist Fahmi Reza over his controversial artwork.
“I don’t believe he should be charged or arrested," Anwar said at a press conference a couple of days ago.
“Not every criticism against the government needs to be investigated by the authorities,” he also said , to indicate the intoxication of power has still not fucompletely possessed his heart and soul.
I have said it many times before that the only sort of government that can stabilise a country like ours is probably an autocracy.
It is not only us – other countries in our region, be it Singapore, Thailand or Indonesia - have a track record of being turbulent and restless, unless it is stabilised by an autocratic leader.
Seeing that, I feel that it might be necessary or even inevitable that Anwar might have to resort to some form of autocracy in the future in order to stabilise the federation.
The only question is whether Anwar will apply autocracy in order to save the federation or indulge in the intoxication of power and delusion of grandeur.
A person in Anwar's position shouldn't assume too conveniently that they will not succumb to the temptation of power just because they resolve to not succumb to the temptation of power. That is actually how everybody who succumbed to the temptation of power succumbed to the temptation of power - they assumed too conveniently that their resolve alone will suffice to make them impervious to the allure of power.
It is well know that “power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Anybody who thinks they are an exception to this rule is a fool.
If Anwar is truly sincere to keep himself and his government in check, he should rein himself and his government from acting out against individuals who criticise his reign, when these individuals are merely acting in tune with their conscience, and not acting as operatives for his political opponents.
There is a saying. “In order to keep a true perspective of one’s importance, everyone should have a dog that will worship him and a cat that will ignore him.”
A person in Anwar's position surely has a lot of people around him who are exaggerating his sense of self-importance.
To keep a balanced perspective, Anwar should best abide someone like Fahmi Reza, who, like a cat, will ignore his importance and give him a much needed reality check.
Besides, what kind of greatness that he and his government can expect to achieve, if they can't even take the criticism from someone like Fahmi Reza. If even a lone individual like Fahmi Reza and his cartoons can hurt the unity government, nobody is going to believe that the unity government is destined for greatness.
In fact, all that this sort of pettiness will do is expose the unity government's weakness, and subject the unity government to more attacks, even from its political opponents, who are otherwise close to throwing in the towel.
That Anwar is signalling to his people to lay off Fahmi Reza is thus a propitious sign, that Anwar and the unity government is not only secure enough withs its grip on power to abide criticism, if and when Anwar becomes an autocratic leader, we can expect that he will be an autocratic leader in the mold of Lee Kuan Yew rather than a third world dictator like Robert Mugabe.
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