Avatar is back on the screen. The new movie is called “Fire and Ash” as if you didn’t know already.
I haven’t seen it yet but can assume the visuals, drama , and action will glue you to your seat. Hope it is not too long like the last one. Getting older, I can’t hold going to the toilet like when I was younger.
According to Collins Dictionary , an avatar is an image that represents you on the screen in an online game or chatroom, or in a virtual reality environment.
Here in Malaysia , there is an avatar movie that has been running since the last election when both Anwar Ibrahim and Akmal Saleh won and attained the positions of Prime Minister and UMNO Youth Chief respectively.
However, this avatar here is unlike the original avatar movie or Collins Dictionary definition. Our avatar is a real-life human in real daily life in Malaysia. It is not an image or in a virtual reality environment. We are talking about a flesh and blood person representing another flesh and blood person in politics.
Akmal is the avatar for Anwar. Akmal speaks out for Anwar to the Malays and Muslims who did not vote for him last GE.
Akmal is the mouthpiece for Anwar on the ego, fears, and retaining Bumiputera privileges for Malays and Muslims.
As Prime Minister for all Malaysians , as Anwar often tells us , he cannot be seen to be batting prodigiously only for his own race and religion. He needs someone else who is dead set on being a champion and advocate for all things Malay and Muslim.
Anwar needs Akmal as his avatar to keep the extremists, especially those who didn’t vote for him happy and satisfied thinking someone who represents their opinions and leanings has their back.
Anwar is mainly silent when Akmal throws a tantrum and rants about race and religion on socks, flags, fund raising, etc.
Akmal is the outlet for those who harbor extreme , divisive, and provocative tendencies and views and he has carte blanche on this. A perfect avatar for Anwar, who needs to keep the extremists and those who did not vote for him.
Anwar needs them to believe their views are vital and relevant to him that he too can be accommodative and acceptable to their views as he seldom condones or rebuts against such views. He has been counting some could be turned round to vote for him in the next GE.
Anwar has just announced that the government will take firmer and more decisive steps from 2026 in addressing issues deemed sensitive and controversial, including those related to enforcement, language, and race.
Will Anwar allow the authorities to take down Akmal and prosecute him for racial and religious baiting and provocations?
Or has Anwar just realize and is woke to the fact that he has been losing support from those who supported and voted him to power from the debacle in the Sabah elections
The new avatar movie is called “Fire and Ash”. Will we here in Malaysia too have fire and ash in our political theatre in that Anwar still need Akmal as an avatar to breathe fire or will Anwar curb and mute Akmal and turn him into ash?
Let’s go and enjoy the movie “Fire and Ash” and hope the Akmal avatar will be fired upon by Anwar and turn into ash.
Get your popcorn as both will rivet you to your seat . Toilet breaks are allowed but don’t take a political break or you will miss the exciting parts.
Koo Wee Hon (kooweehon@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
The User Content (as defined on Newswav Terms of Use) above including the views expressed and media (pictures, videos, citations etc) were submitted & posted by the author. Newswav is solely an aggregation platform that hosts the User Content. If you have any questions about the content, copyright or other issues of the work, please contact creator@newswav.com.
