In response to the news that he will be charged on Monday, Daim bravely replied: “Well, I’m looking forward to my days in Court.”
Echoing his brave words, his wife, Toh Puan Na’imah Khalid, also bravely chimed in, by saying: “Let me state unequivocally that Daim is prepared to face any charge, anywhere, and will vigorously defend himself in accordance with the law.”
Personally, I am not really convinced by the brave words that is coming from a man who conveniently had to be admitted to the hospital right around the time when he was supposed to be charged.
Despite not believing that he is actually as brave as he sounds, I don’t blame Daim for putting such a brave front. If you were in his position, you would probably put a brave front too. What other choice does he have other than put up a brave front, even if his knees are trembling? As Chanakya said, “even if a snake is not poisonous, it should pretend to be venomous.” The last thing that Daim should do now is appear weak, even if he is actually weak.
In Daim’s position, I honestly think that he only has two options.
The first option he has is that he should humiliate himself before Anwar.
Buddha is quoted as saying that there are 4 things that you shouldn’t disparage when they are small. They are a fire, a serpent, a prince and a monk.
A prince is someone who aspires to be the top leader, and the Buddha advises one to not disparage a prince, because someday, if they succeed in becoming the top leader, they will not forget the slight you had offered them when they were just a prince, and cause you great harm.
Anwar is a prince, because he likely has aspired to be a top leader, from the time he was a child.
Mahathir and Daim had offered Anwar not only a slight, but a great humiliation, at the time that he was already a prince of high status ( In 1997, Anwar was the deputy prime minister, who was just a step away from becoming the paramount leader of Malaysia).
Today, Anwar has become the top leader of the country, and according to Buddha at least, he is almost certainly going to “come down harshly ”, against those who had disparaged and humiliated him when he was but a prince, and cause them harm.
Since the prince that he had slighted had become the top leader, one thing Daim can do today is follow the example of Adriaan Vlok, the ruthless minister of law and order during the latter years of South Africa’s Apartheid rule, who went around washing the feet of all the people that he had wronged after the Apartheid era ended. If Daim admits that he was wrong for humiliating Anwar in the past and is willing to humiliate himself in penitence, by doing something like washing Anwar’s feet in public, I daresay that it might persuade Anwar to not harm him.
Honestly however, I don’t see people like Daim or Mahathir admitting their mistake or doing something like washing Anwar’s feet. When you have been in their high positions for as long as they have, you get accustomed to people toeing the line to your wishes, not the other way around. For people like Daim and Mahathir, toeing the line to other people’s wishes is likely an experience that is worse than death. At least, when they die, they can still hope that they will be brought back to life in the afterlife or next life as themselves. If they toe the line to the wishes of others however, they will not be able to be themselves even in this life itself.
Considering that, their only realistic option today is the second option, which is that they should tell themselves that defeat being certain, it is better to go out in a blaze of glory than it is to fade to black.
By making this choice, they might even secure victory, although I personally believe the chances of them securing victory are slim. You have to be an exceptionally brave and principled officer of the law to know what the prime minister of the country wants and go against his wishes, just because you feel that the processes and procedures of the law doesn’t allow for the prime minister to get what he wants. I wouldn’t bet a single cent that we have such a brave and principled officer in the position of standing in our institutions.
But even if their chances of victory are next to nil, I still think that they should put up a brave face and make their last stand anyway, because if they do it well, even if they fall, they might live in the minds of people as legends.
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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