By Niza Shimi
Nobody is bigger than the party, it would seem. The man once hailed as a "Reformasi Hero" was sacked by the party he dedicated his life to. Former Member of Parliament for the Batu constituency Chua Tian Chang (better known as Tian Chua) got the boot from Parti Keadilan Rakyat (PKR).
It was because Tian Chua stood as an independent candidate in the Batu parliamentary seat in 15th General Election after PKR selected P. Prabakaran as its candidate. It might have been different if Tian Chua had won, I guess.
An MP for Batu since 2008 until 2018 when he was disqualified from contesting in GE14 due to legal issues which were later proved invalid. Tian Chua was able to contest in GE15 but wasn't chosen. In 2018, he magnanimously threw support behind Prabakaran who won as the youngest candidate in GE14.
I suppose nobody wants a loser, despite the man having spent most of his life fighting for the ideals of Reformasi. Perhaps Tian Chua’s time is over. He has to make way for new blood like Prabakaran. Does this mean Reformasi is now Refor-basi (stale)?
The term Reforbasi is used among netizens to imply that the original struggle for Reformasi was only to make Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim the Prime Minister (PM) of Malaysia. Time and again, since 1998 when he was sacked as Deputy Prime Minister, he had failed to attain his goal. Until GE15, that is.
For years, Anwar claimed he had the numbers to be PM. Malaysians, like Cilisos, even began to record the many times he failed to claim the "crown", so to speak. They joked that Anwar’s personal memorable catchphrase is “…I have the numbers”.
But then again, Anwar spent considerable time in and out of prison, and being hauled in and out of courtrooms. When the Pakatan Harapan coalition won GE14 in 2018, Anwar was in Sungai Buloh prison. He was released and received a full Royal pardon soon after.
When Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was again made the PM after GE14, it was allegedly agreed that Anwar would take over as PM. This earned him the moniker of PM-in-waiting or PM-tepi. Well, he is PM10 now, or PMX.
Does him being PMX mean Reformasi remains only a chant regularly shouted by the crowd wherever he turns up? Since Anwar launched Reformasi in 1998, how many of the original comrades are now left?
I can remember that Reformasi movement began initially at the mosque after Friday congregational prayers. Anwar was joined by members of Parti Islam SeMalaysia (PAS) and other Muslim non-governmental organisations.
He was a respected student activist and a charismatic Muslim youth leader before he joined United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) in 1982, some say as an antidote to counter PAS in a political move by Tun Dr Mahathir. It worked.
Anwar was the voice of moderate Islam in UMNO, until he was sacked on September 2, 1998. Then he became the voice of Reformasi. It wasn’t even original. It was a copycat version of the Indonesian Reformasi movement that victoriously unseated President Suharto.
According to Dr Riduan Mohamad Nor writing in Harakah Daily on September 3, 2020; “Namun sejujurnya, tiada lagi sorak sorai memperingati tragedi 2 September , ulang tahun ke-22 peristiwa bersejarah politik negara. Mengapa makin suram dan hambar?”
(Loosely translated: “However, to be honest, there is no longer any shouts to commemorate the tragedy of September 2, the 22nd anniversary of that historic moment. Why has it become gloomy and meaningless?”)
Along the journey to being PMX, Anwar has lost friends and allies such as (Datuk) Mohamad Ezam Mohd Noor, (Dato’ Seri) Mohamed Azmin Ali and (Dato’ Sri) Saifuddin Abdullah, among others. Has Tian Chua just joined the list?
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