I don’t know why, but Anwar keeps calling Vijay.
I understand why Anwar called Vijay after Vijay won the Tamil Nadu election earlier this month. To cut a long story short, what Vijay achieved in Tamil Nadu is legendary. What he pulled off was the sort of thing people only believed could happen in movies — until Vijay did it in real life.
Considering that Anwar is a lifelong politician, and what Vijay achieved in less than two years as a politician is something Anwar himself may have dreamed of accomplishing his entire life, you can understand why Anwar might have felt compelled to call and congratulate him.
Anwar is also clearly on a losing streak , so perhaps he thought that by connecting himself to Vijay, some of Vijay’s winning shine might rub off on him and help turn things around.
The fact that Vijay is Tamil and that a significant portion of Malaysian voters are Tamils may also have persuaded Anwar to believe that building rapport with Vijay could somehow translate into votes from the Tamil and Indian voters here.
But the fact that Anwar has apparently called Vijay again yesterday or today to tell him that he plans to visit him this September is starting to become a little alarming.
It is alarming because Anwar keeps referring to Vijay as his “friend.”
Anwar is 78 years old. Just a year or two ago he referred to Tamils using the derogatory K-word before later claiming it was merely a slip of the tongue rooted in old literature and should not be interpreted as an insult.
I am also quite sure Vijay is not Anwar’s “friend.”
Calling Vijay a “friend” once is understandable — after all, when you win, everybody is your friend, isn't it — but to repeatedly refer to Vijay as his “friend” is making me worry that Anwar might have another unfortunate slip-of-the-tongue moment when he meets Vijay and refer to Vijay using terms he absolutely should not be using.
Calling Malaysian Indians by the K-word was bad enough, but the last thing that Malaysia needs today is for Anwar to trigger an international controversy by referring to perhaps the most famous Tamil in the world today the same way he once referred to Malaysian Tamils.
Also, Anwar’s actual closest “friend” in Tamil Nadu today is probably 75 year old Rajinikanth, who reportedly is having a difficult time processing Vijay’s extraordinary success.
Rajinikanth once harboured ambitions of becoming Chief Minister himself, but he let the opportunity slip away — and now Vijay has gone on to create exactly the kind of political history Rajini once could have made.
Everybody believes Rajini is a good man, and I do too. But no matter how good a person you are, it cannot be easy watching another man achieve the very dream you yourself spent decades imagining.
Considering how painful that must feel for Rajini right now, should his “friend” Anwar really rub salt into his wound by making a massive detour and travell nearly 2,000 kilometres from Delhi to Chennai after the BRICS meeting just to meet Vijay?
Also, instead of Anwar personally meeting Vijay, why not send his daughter Nurul Izzah Anwar who is also PKR’s number two and his heir apparent to meet Vijay instead?
Vijay is 51. Nurul Izzah is 45.
They belong to roughly the same generation and might actually be able to build genuine rapport.
And frankly, if there is anybody in PKR who needs to borrow some of Vijay’s “winning shine,” it is Nurul Izzah — who despite being the number two in the ruling party for almost a year, is still struggling to project the image winner and a leader.
But one thing I genuinely admire about Anwar is this:
He still believes he will be attending the BRICS meeting in Delhi this September as Prime Minister of Malaysia.
September is only four months away.
At the rate his party, coalition, and government appear to be fraying, parliament could easily be dissolved before then — and after GE16, Anwar may very well not return as Prime Minister.
Yet despite all that, he is already confidently making plans for September.
I admire the confidence.
Dalam hidup kena konfiden la, kan.
TheRealNehruism (nehru.sathiamoorthy@gmail.com) is a content creator under the Newswav Creator programme, where you get to express yourself, be a citizen journalist, and at the same time monetize your content & reach millions of users on Newswav. Log in to creator.newswav.com and become a Newswav Creator now!
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