The Inspector-General of Police (IGP) Tan Sri Razarudin Husain has come out to say that he believes that the threats against Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim for his support of the Palestinian cause are real.
From the sound of it, the IGP believes that the threat issued against Anwar is of a physical nature because he cited the assassination of a 35-year-old Palestinian professor and Hamas member Fadi Mohamed al-Batsh who was killed in a drive-by shooting in Kuala Lumpur in 2018, and last year's arrest of a Malaysian woman for allegedly kidnapping a Palestinian believed to be a computer programming expert.
“If a software scientist for Hamas can be a target, our prime minister is more of a risk,” the IGP went on to justify his belief.
With all due respect, however, I will have to disagree with the IGP.
To me, there are three ways that Anwar claiming that he was threatened by European lawmakers can be seen.
From the order of least likely to most likely, the first is that it is true and the threat is a threat of a physical harm to our prime minister or our nation, the second is that the threat is either not true or merely an exaggeration and the third is that the threat is true but it is directed primarily against the image of the prime minister, not his person.
I think that it is least likely that the Europeans are threatening our prime minister or country in physical terms, because our country and prime minister is just doing what half the world is doing. Half or more than half of the world is supporting Palestine today. Our prime minister and our country is also not the most prominent supporter of the Palestinian cause. There is no reason to threaten our prime minister because even if he is physically harmed to the point that he is removed from office, his successor, whoever it is, is still going to support the Palestinian cause. Malaysia also has a track record of supporting the Palestinian for generations, so our stance is not new. If the Europeans are displeased about Malaysia’s or our prime minister’s stance towards Israel or Palestine, to the point that they desire to act against us, they will have to act against more than half the countries in the world as well, because more than half the countries in the world and their leaders are projecting the exact same stance that our country and prime minister is projecting, and many of them are projecting it in an even more intense and passionate manner.
I think it is more likely that our prime minister has simply made a mountain of a molehill of the matter when he claimed that he has been threatened Western lawmakers over his stance in regards to Palestine.
That yesterday, Anwar doubled down on his claim of being threatened by saying that the American Department of State has called up the country's ambassador in Washington and its embassy here has been calling our Ministry of Foreign Affairs over the matter is further proof that our prime minister’s claim that he was threatened by western lawmakers is probably just a storm in a teacup.
It is, as Shakespeare says, likely nothing more than a tale that is “ full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.”
The matter which our Prime Minister considers a threat is likely just a diplomatic protest. There is nothing abnormal about the West calling our ambassador in Washington or asking their ambassador here to register a note of protest with our government when they disagree with us on an issue. It is precisely for this sort of function that we have a diplomatic service in the first place.
I think the most likely scenario to explain what happened however, is that there was a threat issued by Western lawmakers, but the threat was not issued against the person of our prime minister, but his image.
I think that Western lawmakers have most likely threatened to ruin Anwar’s image either by “cancelling” him or “deplatforming” him.
It is no secret that Anwar’s image has been greatly propped by the West.
Prestigious universities in the West have given him a lecturing position to make him look like an intellectual and an intelligent person. Western organizations and committees have also bestowed him with awards like the World's best Finance Minister, although Anwar’s knowledge and skills in regards to finances or the economy is likely scant. Not infrequently, Anwar is also invited to prestigious events where he will be interviewed by famous interviewers and his interviews will be broadcasted all over the world via the mainstream media, to make our prime minister look like an important person in the world. Celebrated publications and newspapers in the West have also feted him as a great hero or reformer who has a mission to save something important like democracy in Malaysia.
I personally believe that Anwar’s rapport with the West is so good, that there is a good chance that he will be the first Malaysian to win the Nobel Prize in the near future.
Anwar’s stance in regards to Palestine might have jeopardized his relationship with the West, to the point that he might not only no longer receive any such propping from Western media outlets, agencies and organizations in the future, and he might find himself being targeted by the very same organizations, outlets and agencies that used to raise his profile, with smear campaigns.
An example of what happens to world leaders that refuse to conform to Western demands can be seen from the experiences of such leaders as President Putin of Russia or President Xi of China.
World leaders that do not toe the line to western interest are almost always painted as evil, corrupt, dictatorial, degenerate and oppressive, by the Western outlet, agencies and organizations.
If this be the case, then I hope that Prime Minister Anwar can take a leaf out of the example of President Putin and Xi, put his faith in his fellow citizens and ignore the threats of the West.
At the end of the day, he is the prime minister of Malaysia, not an employee of the West.
If the West does run a smear campaign against him because he chose not to toe their line, then he should be rest assured that just like how the citizens of China and Russia could see through the Western intention in smearing their leaders, Malaysians will likely see through it too.
Only a shallow person is overprotective of their image.
If we are a person of substance, our image should not be too important. Even if there are people or organizations in the world that feel that they are so powerful that they can strip us off our image and reduce us in the eyes of the world, we should be able to deal with it, as long as we know who we are and remain true to ourselves.
Prime Minister Anwar has said that he is not cowed by the threats he has received from the Western politicians.
I fervently hope that this is true, and Anwar is indeed a man of substance, who knows himself so well that he can shrug off whatever effort that other people make to ruin his image, because he knows without a doubt that he is more than just an image.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy was a columnist at FMT, a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, MalaysiaNow and Malaysia-Today. By day he is a mathematics teacher in the Klang Valley, and by night he writes.
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