Two years ago, right after Anwar won, at a time when I started my writing career by being critical of Anwar, a buddy of mine, who happened to be a working-class Indian lorry driver, would argue with me about what a great job Anwar is doing, while at the same time express his disapproval of my incessant need to pick on Anwar’s fault, without ever being able to see his plus points.
That was two years ago.
Fast forward to the present time, and I haven’t heard this friend of mine having anything good to say about Anwar in a long time. The last we spoke, I pointed out to him that he used to be quite critical of me being critical of Anwar, and in response, all he had was just radio silence.
My friend, by the way, is not an anomaly. These days, I can scarcely find any Indian or Chinese who has anything good to say about Anwar. Two years ago, if I said anything negative about Anwar, the Indians and Chinese I knew would immediately counter me by saying that I am being too harsh, or Anwar needs more time or that 60 plus years of abuse cannot be fixed in a short time, or just leave early when I start to break down the reason as to why I don’t think Anwar is the person that they think he is, but today, all I have to do is just say a few words to hint of my disapproval of Anwar, and the Chinese and the Indians I know, who used to be such big fans of Anwar, will take over the conversation and start telling me all that is wrong with Anwar.
Even the comment sections at the articles where I am critical of Anwar is not so loud or vociferous in their disagreement to my article. As a matter of fact, I distinctly sense that more and more people seem to be agreeing with me, whenever I say remark that Anwar has been disappointing or not been up to mark.
I am not the only one that has noticed the noticeable dip in support for Anwar amongst the non-Malays.
Professor Tajuddin Rasdi, in his sarcastic article titled “4 reasons why PN should rule Malaysia” has also picked on this development. Seeing the widespread dissatisfaction against the unity government being displayed by both the Malays and non-Malays alike, Tajuddin has given four tongue-in-cheek reasons as to what we can expect if we ditch Anwar and the unity government, in support of the opposition.
On my part however, although I feel that the support for Anwar from the non-Malays has indeed waned from the high enthusiasm that they displayed for him in the early days of his reign, if election was held today, I don’t think that Anwar has anything to worry about – like him or not, he is the only leader that the non-Malays identify with – as much as the non-Malays are disappointed and frustrated with him, when they are standing in front of the ballot box, I am more than sure that it will be him and his side that they will be voting for.
People might root for the underdog, but they will follow the winner.
Anwar is not only a winner, he is also the only leader in the country that the non-Malays believe is more or less on their side.
Issues such as the Era FM DJ fiasco or the KK Mart Ham sandwich controversy o the Jalan Masjid india temple relocation issue might have caused some consternation amongst the non-Malays about whose side that Anwar is on, but considering that the only other option that they have is PAS, it is extremely unlikely that Anwar is in any risk of losing the support of the non-Malays, at least at the national level.
At the local level, there is a chance that the non-Malays might choose to show their disapproval of him during by elections, but come the time for general election, I am more than sure that they will persuade themselves to renew their allegiance to Anwar.
No democratic government in the world has ever been able to retain the approval of its voters after it wins the general election anyway.
Before you win an election, when you only have potential, people have the luxury to pin their hopes on you.
After you win however, when your potential turns into actuality in lieu of the power you accrue, you will almost certainly lose the hope that people pin on you, as reality forces you to inevitably fail to meet their expectations.
This is especially so in Malaysia, when every identity group – be it racial, religious or regional – have a tendency to believe that they have been short-changed and subjected to all sorts of unfairness and inequities, because they have been too good or giving to others.
Considering that almost every identity group in Malaysia have a tendency to exaggerate their virtues and contributions, while downplaying, or being downright blind to their shortcomings as well as the contribution that they have received from the nation and the other identity groups, regardless of whether it is Anwar or Muhyiddin, Hadi or Zahid, whoever it is that form the government today, will likely be to met with disapproval by the majority of Malaysians, simply because if they try to meet the approval of any segment of Malaysians, the other segments will almost certainly disapprove of them.
Considering this, the winning approach in the mood that Malaysians are in right now, is to make everybody disapprove of you equally, but not so much that they don't think that you are one of them anymore.
That non-Malays are increasingly disapproving of his rule, might not even be a negative development for Anwar.
Previously, it was the Malays who disliked Anwar while the non-Malays were in turn, very appreciative of him.
Now that the non-Malays are starting to dislike him more, it will likely follow that the Malays will start to like him more.
If Anwar balances it just right, I am quite sure that he will arrive at a sweet spot where the Malays might just approve of him enough to think that he is not against them, which will then add to the percentage of Malay support that PH has, without making the non-Malays disapprove of him so much that they no longer think that he is one of them, and cause cost PH to lose their support.
Add the net support that he will get from this balancing act, with the advantage of power and position that the incumbent government has, while subtracting the losses that the opposition is accruing by not balancing their appeal, as well as subtracting the loss of strength the opposition is experiencing on account of the success that the government is having in hammering the opposition, I imagine that if election is held today, Anwar is still bound to win it, despite no one liking him, simply because no one dislikes him enough to not think that he is against them or not one of them.
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