Has he got the stamina for the long haul?
Terence NettoPublished: Aug 7, 2008 7:53 AM | Updated: Aug 7, 2008 7:56 AM
The history of by-elections in Malaysia is unremarkable save in two instances: for the state seat of Tambunan in Sabah in December 1984, and the parliamentary seat of Johor Bharu in August 1988.
comment The history of by-elections in Malaysia is unremarkable save in two instances: for the state seat of Tambunan in Sabah in December 1984, and the parliamentary seat of Johor Bharu in August 1988.
In most by-elections in Malaysian electoral history, the Alliance and its successor, Barisan Nasional, won with ease. But in Tambunan '84 and in Johor Bharu '88, BN dissidents, Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Shahrir Samad, respectively upset the coalitions they temporarily left with thumping victories that made history.
Pairin's success was remarkable: it paved the way to a change of government at the state level. Shahrir's win was no less notable as achievement, having secured it in the teeth of the enormous advantages accruing the BN by dint of incumbency.
Unlike Pairin's win, however, Shahrir's had a dubious sequel: there followed a hardening of the cleavages in Umno, leading to Semangat 46's formation. The fact that Shahrir did not join the splinter party reinforced the ambivalence in the electoral patterns that emerged.
It's a matter of some irony that both ex-dissidents now are not only back in the BN fold, they are apologists for the BN administration led by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. This is either a sign of the BN's formidable ability to eventually co-opt dissident elements, or it is a reflection of the paucity of stamina on the part of reform-minded dissidents for the long haul.
For insight into the latter point, witness the new round of court cases, not only against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim but also against the ones ranged with him, like blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin. Undeniably, it takes a lot, in personal fortitude, for a leader who is minded on reform to stick to his guns and gain his goals.
"Fair is foul and foul is fair" the refrain of the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth would find an echo in the powers-that-be in Malaysia as they target an increasingly popular leader opposed them.
The virulence of the executive towards Anwar for the possibility of a change of government propelled by him is not lessened even when it is camouflaged by the pious platitudes that trip from the lips of Prime Minister Abdullah, a benign seeming dervish whose deportment in this saga puts one in mind of that luminous phrase "the banality of evil".
It was coined by the philosopher Hannah Arendt in her 1963 book ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’, a meditation on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Nazi mastermind of the Holocaust. Arendt used the phrase to convey the seeming - the quotidian - ordinariness of upper echelon functionaries as they became cogs in the elaborate wheels that brought death on assembly-line scale in Nazi-subjugated Europe during the Second World War.
The point of Arendt's discourse: evil is as likely to result from the workings of bland bureaucrats in the normal course of duty as from the designs of the willfully malign. Hence the banal face of evil.
Why by-election is significant
Now that Anwar Ibrahim has been charged with sodomy but is out on personal bond, he can campaign - untrammeled hopefully - for election to his former seat of Permatang Pauh in the poll set for Aug 26.
Given the drama of the past month over looming charges of sexual misconduct, the question of whether the 61-year-old Anwar, the Pied Piper of reformasi, has the stamina for the long haul - which is nothing less than the makeover of Malaysia - has become a pressing concern.
Only an ostrich-like mindset will deny that the national estate is in deep decay and that the reforms needed for its overhaul would take many minds, hearts and wills.
It is not that Anwar does not have a capable enough cohort to help him with the task; it's that the entire challenge of Projek Reformasi Malaysia will require a symmetry of aims and consonance of effort between PKR, the party he heads, and its allies, DAP and PAP.
No doubt, the mechanics of this concordat is a task that will require all his skill, and not a little sorcery, to pull off. But this journey of a thousand daunting miles must begin with the single momentous step of his return to Parliament from Permatang Pauh.
It's the reason this by-election is of stratospheric significance in Malaysian electoral history.
In most by-elections in Malaysian electoral history, the Alliance and its successor, Barisan Nasional, won with ease. But in Tambunan '84 and in Johor Bharu '88, BN dissidents, Joseph Pairin Kitingan and Shahrir Samad, respectively upset the coalitions they temporarily left with thumping victories that made history.
Pairin's success was remarkable: it paved the way to a change of government at the state level. Shahrir's win was no less notable as achievement, having secured it in the teeth of the enormous advantages accruing the BN by dint of incumbency.
Unlike Pairin's win, however, Shahrir's had a dubious sequel: there followed a hardening of the cleavages in Umno, leading to Semangat 46's formation. The fact that Shahrir did not join the splinter party reinforced the ambivalence in the electoral patterns that emerged.
It's a matter of some irony that both ex-dissidents now are not only back in the BN fold, they are apologists for the BN administration led by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. This is either a sign of the BN's formidable ability to eventually co-opt dissident elements, or it is a reflection of the paucity of stamina on the part of reform-minded dissidents for the long haul.
For insight into the latter point, witness the new round of court cases, not only against opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim but also against the ones ranged with him, like blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin. Undeniably, it takes a lot, in personal fortitude, for a leader who is minded on reform to stick to his guns and gain his goals.
"Fair is foul and foul is fair" the refrain of the witches in Shakespeare's Macbeth would find an echo in the powers-that-be in Malaysia as they target an increasingly popular leader opposed them.
The virulence of the executive towards Anwar for the possibility of a change of government propelled by him is not lessened even when it is camouflaged by the pious platitudes that trip from the lips of Prime Minister Abdullah, a benign seeming dervish whose deportment in this saga puts one in mind of that luminous phrase "the banality of evil".
It was coined by the philosopher Hannah Arendt in her 1963 book ‘Eichmann in Jerusalem’, a meditation on the trial of Adolf Eichmann, Nazi mastermind of the Holocaust. Arendt used the phrase to convey the seeming - the quotidian - ordinariness of upper echelon functionaries as they became cogs in the elaborate wheels that brought death on assembly-line scale in Nazi-subjugated Europe during the Second World War.
The point of Arendt's discourse: evil is as likely to result from the workings of bland bureaucrats in the normal course of duty as from the designs of the willfully malign. Hence the banal face of evil.
Why by-election is significant
Now that Anwar Ibrahim has been charged with sodomy but is out on personal bond, he can campaign - untrammeled hopefully - for election to his former seat of Permatang Pauh in the poll set for Aug 26.
Given the drama of the past month over looming charges of sexual misconduct, the question of whether the 61-year-old Anwar, the Pied Piper of reformasi, has the stamina for the long haul - which is nothing less than the makeover of Malaysia - has become a pressing concern.
Only an ostrich-like mindset will deny that the national estate is in deep decay and that the reforms needed for its overhaul would take many minds, hearts and wills.
It is not that Anwar does not have a capable enough cohort to help him with the task; it's that the entire challenge of Projek Reformasi Malaysia will require a symmetry of aims and consonance of effort between PKR, the party he heads, and its allies, DAP and PAP.
No doubt, the mechanics of this concordat is a task that will require all his skill, and not a little sorcery, to pull off. But this journey of a thousand daunting miles must begin with the single momentous step of his return to Parliament from Permatang Pauh.
It's the reason this by-election is of stratospheric significance in Malaysian electoral history.
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