Anwar Ibrahim is a Nightclub Entertainer – Financial Times

Financial Times has just released an article on Anwar that I thought should be given a serious attention by all Malaysians, especially at this critical hour, before the election.  This article could help us understand who and what are we voting tomorrow.
In the article entitled, ‘Anwar Ibrahim:  Malaysia’s Complex Politician’, the journalist, David Pilling who had met Anwar after his ‘ceramah’ in Sungai Buaya a couple of nights ago, has concluded two crucial issues on Anwar’s direction of leadership.
Firstly, Anwar guarantees that he would never allow Syariah Law (hudud) to be implemented.
Secondly, Anwar promises to abolish the Affirmative Action that spells the Malays’ Privilleges.
One may ask for his excuse and explanation for taking the stance but of course, the ‘why’ will no longer be important when things are being executed.
Anwar’s guarantees and commitment must have pleased DAP but would surely tears PAS’s heart out.  UMNO, on the other hand, is not at all surprised should the fate of the Malays has never been part of Anwar’s agenda, which is why we oppose him.  Anwar is just fighting for himself, and himself alone.
The truth is, the minorities in this country is never oppressed by the Malay Privilleges.  In fact, they, particularly, the Chinese, who is very vocal in criticizing the matter, is the one who conquers and is at the position to oppress others.
The minorities’ rights have never been denied through Affirmative Action.  Instead, the Affirmative Action is only drawn in order to protect the Malay rights from being taken away by the minorities.  In other words, the plans to abolish Malay rights would only mean giving others the rights to oppress them.
The minorities are already enjoying the rights that no other minorities in any other countries enjoy.  They have the rights to their own separate school using their own mother-tongue, they have the rights to practice their religion and the government even declared their religious festivals as public holidays.  Where else in the world would the minority be given such rights?
In order to support his points, Anwar claimed that the Affirmative Action is obsolete and harmful to the country’s competitiveness.  Now, what does he mean by that?
It means, Anwar accuses that the Malay Rights serves as barriers for the rich to ‘fully utilized’ their wealth, which he claims as unfair.  For Anwar, the rich should be given the rights to buy as many assets and own anything they can afford without ‘limitation’ of any kind.
For example, the land in Kampung Baru that has so long been controversial for it is deemed as the gold mine for the rich developers should not be protected under Malay Rights.  Anwar sees that these rich developers should be allowed to have access to the land and develop it to its maximum potential.  But that can only be done if the Malays who can’t afford to develop it dropped their rights to the most strategic location in the heart of the cosmopolitan of Kuala Lumpur.
This isn’t a made-up story, but it is concluded from Anwar’s own clear statement.
And therefore, the Malaysians who are going to cast their votes tomorrow is hereby called to first understand this matter.  Even though in his ceramahs at Malay areas, Anwar did promise to protect the Malay rights, but please be informed that behind them, he said just the opposite.
Anwar dares to contradict his own statements because he is confident that his supporters that are really in need of protection under the Affirmative Action, will never read Financial Times.
It looks like the journalist himself, David Pilling, can sense Anwar’s ‘multiple faces’.  In the beginning of his article, Pilling described Anwar on stage as ‘a nightclub entertainer’ with all the perfect timing and gestures to fit the punchlines.
Towards the end, Pilling posted a question of who is this Anwar, exactly? Islamist or liberal? Malay nationalist or ethnically colour blind politician?
When Anwar joined UMNO, it was because he was attracted to UMNO’s race-based nationalism but now he is hammering UMNO for the same reason.  He was once a part of Mahathirisme but now he is the one attacking it.
Not only that his fights aren’t consistent, his personality too, is split.  No wonder Pilling concluded Anwar as ‘a candidate of contradiction’.
Lastly, when asked ‘how could he miraculously overturn the weight of incumbency that has prevailed for more than half a century, in only his first 100 days of ruling’.  Anwar didn’t answer, but jokingly told Pilling to ‘get some sleep’ as it was already 2 in the morning.
And that is Anwar.  Everything is just a stage-show for him, where he plays the part of  the hero, who leads the people out of some ‘mysterious’ oppression.