Anwar’s supporters, like Lim Kit Siang, simply do not understand.
They keep thinking that people are criticising Anwar and the unity government because we are impatient with results, but that is not the case. We know that results take time. Heck, we even know that the results are not fully in Anwar’s or the unity government’s control. Take the economy for example. If the economy does badly, we know that it might not necessarily be Anwar’s or the unity government’s fault. Results depend on many things, amongst which is fortune and luck. If Anwar and the unity government truly did their best, even if they couldn’t get the desired result, we can understand and accept that fortune was just not on our side.
The problem is that we don’t believe that Anwar has tried his best, or is even trying at all.
We don’t see Anwar trying to re-establish the doctrine of separation of power, institute the independence of the judiciary, fight against corruption, practise good governance, make educational reforms or uphold human rights or freedom of speech and religion.
As a matter of fact, a number of things that Anwar has done since he assumed power is just making us believe that he either doesn’t understand what he is supposed to do or is moving in the opposite direction of his promise.
For Anwar to say that hiring his daughter to a high government position, although his daughter clearly does not possess the relevant qualification and experience required for the post, is not an act of nepotism, is not a slip of tongue. This is the utterance of someone that doesn’t understand what nepotism is. That is alarming coming from a person who has spent decades fighting for a clean government.
I don’t know what Lim Kit Siang sees in Anwar’s fight against corruption, but all I know is that when Anwar first came to power, he declared that he was going to bust Bernas’s rice monopoly, but as soon as Syed Mokhtar, the boss of Bernas, kissed Anwar’s hand and called him elder brother, all the talk about breaking Bernas’s monopoly has disappeared into thin air, even when the price of imported rice in the country skyrocketed.
Does Lim Kit Siang even know what people are saying about Zahid’s DNAA and Syed Saddiq’s whipping? Anwar says that he is not involved in it, but other than listening to Anwar, maybe Lim Kit Siang should put his ears to the ground, to see what people think about Anwar’s effort to institute the independence of the judiciary.
As of yesterday, there are 5 opposition MPs who have debased the parliament and made a mockery of the anti-hopping law by switching their support for Anwar while remaining within the opposition fold. Not only has Anwar not spoken against it, a lot of people see him as the prime mover of the entire event. He is the prime beneficiary of the move after all. How are we supposed to believe that Anwar runs a government that honours the concept of separation of power, when not one – or two or three- but 5 parliamentarians are debasing themselves for the sake of the Prime Minister.
There is no dearth of examples to show why it is difficult to count on Anwar to keep his words but there is a preponderance of evidence to suggest that Anwar will likely do many things that are contrary to the things he has promised to do.
That he is more than capable of going against his promises is also something that is beyond doubt.
This is a man who promised that the Prime Minister will not hold the Finance Minister post before breaking his word without an iota of shame. If he had any sense of shame, even if he had to break his word and hold the Finance Minister post, he would have been ashamed to hold it even if had to and he would have done his level best to make it so that he wouldn’t have to hold 1 second more than he has to.
That Anwar has happily held on to the Finance Minister post for a year tells us that not only is he not pained by the fact that he had to break his word and hold on to the Finance Minister post, he probably intended to hold it from the get go. From his behaviour, I don’t think he is ever going to let go of the Finance Minister position. Not only does he not behave like he finds it shameful to hold on to the position, he is acting as if he sees it as a sign of achievement. I bet he probably thinks he is clever for being to fool us to hold on to the position despite promising us that he will not hold it.
I am not going to blame Lim Kit Siang for putting his trust in Anwar. Maybe Lim Kit Siang thinks that Anwar is just cleaning the house. When you clean the house, the house will become messier before it is clean after all.
Lim Kit Siang and Anwar are also probably friends, and it is indeed hard to see the faults of one’s own friends and family. I will not be throwing stones on this count – or at least, be throwing too many stones – when I am aware that I also possess the very same sin.
All I have to say to Lim Kit Siang is I hope you are right. I hope that Anwar is indeed just making everything messier because he is cleaning the house. I hope that in 3 or 4 years, if Anwar is still around, like you said, everything will be clean and I will regret thinking so poorly of Anwar today.
But saying that, I also hope that as an elderly politician, you will also not insult the intelligence of the people when you speak to us. Don’t just ask us to trust you or Anwar as if it is very obvious to us that all of you are such pure and genuine people.
Convince us. Make sense to us. Persuade us.
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is the author of “While Waiting for the World to end”. He was a columnist at FMT and a frequent contributor to the South China Morning Post, Malaysia-Today, MalaysiaNow, MalaysiaKini and Focus Malaysia.
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