People were more anxious and excited about the news that a crooked lawyer, Shafee Abdullah, the same counsel defending world’s biggest crook, Najib Razak, had been arrested and charged than the news Anwar Ibrahim is making a grand return to Parliament. Like The Lord of the Rings – The Return of the King – Mr. Anwar, was expecting a grand welcome and applause.

 

Instead, the plan by his party PKR (People’s Justice Party) forcing a by-election where the incumbent in Port Dickson made way for him, has invited huge criticism even within the party. Anwar is forced to repeat himself again like a broken record – that he is neither impatient nor in rush to be the 8th Prime Minister of Malaysia. Not everyone is convinced though.

 

He said – “My aim is to make an inroad into Parliament and help my junior peers in drafting policies and legal frameworks for the benefit of the people.” Did he just mock and insult the ministers as a bunch of fools who had just graduated from primary school? Or was he frustrated that the junior ministers are surviving just fine without needing his leadership or advice?

Today, Anwar said he encourages freedom of speech but there should be a certain degree of discipline when commenting on the party leadership. That’s quite funny. When his boy Rafizi Ramli expressed his displeasure over Mahathir’s cabinet members in May, especially after the appointment of Lim Guan Eng as finance minister, Anwar laughed it off as just “freedom of speech.”

 

So, it’s no holds barred when his camp attacks other component parties but a line must be drawn when his own party’s leaders criticise him? It appears that he may have been infected by a Turkish virus called Erdogan. And judging by how the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gained his near-absolute power, it is feared that another dictatorship could be on the horizon.

 

Anwar, when released on a royal pardon in May, said he would take some time off to be with his family and to give lectures at several universities overseas. He said – “I don’t think I would want to be seen as being hasty to demand or insist for any immediate time frame and I have told him (PM Mahathir) that I got invitations from renowned universities around the world to give a series of lectures.”

What happens to those lectures adventure he has been trumpeting? You don’t have to worry about a jobless Anwar Ibrahim going hungry. Clearly, he’s a great salesman who can easily sell a fridge to an Eskimo. Sure, as PKR president, he can engineer a by-election exclusively for himself although it’s debatable whether it was a betrayal to voters.

 

However, people are asking why can’t his wife, Wan Azizah, or his daughter, Nurul Izzah, makes way for him. Just because he had been imprisoned – twice – for sodomy, the first-family-in-waiting deserves a special privilege that grants them the elite of the elites status amongst the PKR members? The reason is obvious – the internal power struggle has gone haywire.

 

As a splinter group of the highly corrupted UMNO party, PKR inherited tons of its DNA. Once in power, the stampede for power within the party begins. The coming party election could see the PKR breaking up, weakening the strongest component party of the Pakatan Harapan coalition government. Like it or not, Anwar has nobody to blame but himself, if that happens.

Learning from his former boss Mahathir, the highly effective divide-and-rule policy has been used by Anwar to ensure no one within his party would challenge his supremacy. In fact, he encourages internal fighting between deputy president Azmin Ali and vice president Rafizi Ramli. However, with a stroke of a pen, Mahathir cleverly makes Azmin his errand boy, rewarding him with prestige ministership.

 

So far, the naughty rumours being spread by opposition is that if Azmin were to lose his post in PKR, he would pack his bag and defect to Mahathir’s camp together with a number of his loyal supporters, weakening Anwar’s bargaining power. That probably explains why Anwar needs his wife and daughter to remain as MPs, in case of a major power shift.

 

In reality, none of the component parties within the government wants to rock the boat. The fact that Anwar is so impatient to return to the Parliament using a childish justification goes to show his judgement has been clouded by his own insecurity and uncertainty. At his advanced age of 93, the probability of Mahathir making a move on Anwar is very low – unless the old man is provoked.

Like Najib Razak, Anwar Ibrahim is another narcissist. He has been self-praising in front of his supporters, telling what a humble and great leader he is, and how he has forgiven all his enemies – including Mahathir and Najib. He also bragged about his close relationship with the royal houses and explained repetitively how the Agong (King) had pardoned his sodomy charges.

 

But Anwar’s biggest challenge is to show his statemanship. His biggest headache is Mahathir Mohamad, whose popularity is still extraordinary high. Based on our poll (you can scroll down to vote or see the results), a whopping 46% actually wants Mahathir to complete his full term of 5 years, not 2 years as agreed among the component parties.

 

A staggering 21% voted for Mahathir to remain as the prime minister “for as long as the people want him to”. Even if Mahathir quit in 2 years as promised, close to 16% people want him to be around as Minister Mentor. Only 15% thinks Anwar should take over within 2 years as promised. Sure, our poll isn’t accurate but that’s the closest we can get from the netizens.

The poll clearly speaks volumes how popular Mahathir is, and Anwar surely isn’t happy that an old man has stolen the limelight from him after his “Reformasi” movement started the ballrolling to bring down the mighty Barisan Nasional government since 1998. And he’s quite upset that everyone seems to be idolizing Mahathir as the nation’s saviour who had defeated the evil Najib.

 

Mr. Anwar is terrified that people increasingly starting to forget his sacrifice and struggle during the “Reformasi Age”. The gap between Mahathir and Anwar’s popularity is widening. A very popular Mahathir would mean a possibility that the old man could be forced to extend his premiership beyond the agreeable 2 years, hence throwing Anwar’s ambition to become the next prime minister in disarray.

 

He also realizes that it’s not carved in stone that he will become the eighth prime minister. There’s still a tiny possibility that his own protégé Azmin Ali could snatch his crown right under his nose. Still, there’s a good justification why Anwar should return to Parliament soonest possible. If Mahathir suddenly passed away, Anwar Ibrahim cannot be sworn in as the prime minister.

 

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September 14th, 2018 by financetwitter

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