Do you know what Anwar just told the Negeri Sembilan Menteri Besar Aminuddin Harun to do to handle the unprecedented political crisis in Negeri Sembilan.
He told Aminuddin to carry on as usual as if there is nothing to see here.
"For now I have told the MB it’s work as usual and there shouldn’t be any obstruction to legal processes,” Anwar told reporters after
speaking at the launch of UCSI’s new building.
I have no idea how anyone can expect Aminuddin to continue working as the Menteri Besar as usual, when he might not even be the Menteri Besar anymore.
Asking Aminuddin to work as the Menteri Besar as usual is like asking you or me to waltz into the Prime Minister's office and just chair a cabinet meeting, under the expectation that if we just fake being the PM convincingly enough, everybody will just accept us as the Prime Minister, and then we will indeed be the PM for real.
I don't know if this "fake it till you make it" technique will work in this case however, because if you needed a signature from the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan today, I doubt you are going to get it from Aminuddin.
Why not?
Well, because nobody knows whether Aminuddin is even the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan at all today. His signature might carry no legal value. If you do anything on the strength of his signature, you might as well just dig a hole for yourself, because a hole is indeed where you might find yourself in the future.
The political crisis in Negeri Sembilan is occurring precisely because we don't know who the King or Menteri Besar is.
Some, including Anwar, seems to think it is Tuanku Muhriz and Aminuddin while others, like the Undangs of Negeri Sembilan, are saying that it is Tunku Nadzaruddin and the Umno-PN candidate that is the rightful King and MB of Negeri Sembilan.
We don't know who the Menteri Besar and King of Negeri Sembilan are, because none of the people who are claiming the position have fulfilled the condition to become the Menteri Besar and King.
Tuanku Muhriz does not have the support of the Undangs while Tunku Nadzaruddin has not been installed as the King.
Aminuddin does not command the confidence of the state assembly but the the person who commands the support of the assembly, the yet unnamed Umno-PN candidate, has not been sworn in to office, partly because no one is sure who the real king of Negeri Sembilan is.
Everybody is now looking at Anwar to settle the quandary, and you know what Anwar is doing ?
Anwar is just asking Aminuddin to play a game of "catch me if you can" with his opponents and apply the "fake it till you make" technique with the public, by continuing acting as if he is still the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan, until everyone is convinced that he is indeed the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan, which in turn will actually cause him to become the Menteri Besar of Negeri Sembilan for real.
Anyway, if you were to ask me whether Anwar asking Aminuddin to channel being the Menteri Besar until the Universe actually makes him the Menteri Besar idea will work, I don't know - but considering that no one has come out with any other feasible way to solve the crisis, who knows, maybe this "fake it until the entire universe conspires to make what you want happen" theory might just work.
Afterall, as they say, extraordinary problems do require extraordinary solutions - maybe Anwar is thinking out of the box - maybe. 🤷
But one thing for sure, this episode has given me an insight into the inner working of Anwar's mind and I don't like what I see.
From the way Anwar seeks to deal with this issue, I believe that in Anwar's view, institutional structure and concept might be of little to no importance at all.
To him, positions such as that of the Menteri Besar or King or Prime Minister might not be institutional positions, that requires institutional conditions to be fulfilled in order to be exercised.
Instead, these positions might just be tied to ones identity - you can become the Menteri Besar or King or Prime Minister, in other words, if you just believe you are it and convince everybody else that you are one.
Whether Anwar will solve the crisis in Negeri Sembilan is one matter, but if I am right, I think all of us must be dumber than a loaf of bread to expect any significant institutional or structural reform from Anwar.
Anwar clearly doesn't value or understand what an institutional structure even is.
How in the world is he going to push for institutional or structural reform, when he doesn't even understand or value institutional value or structure .
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