You Can Tell That Anwar is Really Isolated...When Even Malaysiakini Readers Are Against a Boycott

Only Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim will be surprised by the backlash he has provoked with his selfish threat to boycott the opening of Parliament at the end of next month. That's because he is alone in his belief that more than a month after GE13, his quest to reverse the results of the ballot box somehow resonates with the rakyat.

It doesn't – and just 24 hours after it is reported that Anwar was "mulling" whether to petulantly refuse to take his seat in the Dewan Rakyat, the online backlash was in full swing.
The normally pro-Pakatan Malaysiakini was alive on Saturday with reader comments urging Anwar to drop this "nonsense" and get on with it – something the rest of Malaysian politics is doing with the stark exception of Anwar.

"Enough of this boycotting nonsense," wrote KB Menon. "You were elected as MPs by the rakyat to represent them in Parliament. Get sworn in and fight in Parliament."

Quigonbond was just as blunt writing: "Don't be stupid. Boycotting means you're not sworn in. What if BN holds an emergency session and pass amendments to the constitution before you are next sworn in? They will command 100 percent of the votes, more than the two-third majority required."

It is worth repeating here: These are comments from Malaysiakini readers, directed at Anwar.
"You were elected by the rakyat, so it is your duty to attend Parliament, more so the opening of the new parliament session by the Agong," wrote a more measured Mark Anthony.

All this remind us just how out of touch with popular opinion (inside his own Pakatan coalition!) Anwar has become. If he had even a little self-awareness he would have been able to see the signs weeks ago. There is the fact that other Pakatan Rakyat figures are not echoing his complaints about GE13 anymore. No one else is calling for a Malaysian Spring.

And of course, he has totally ignored the fact that the Government is getting on with the job of running the nation – something Anwar once professed to be interested in.
It begs the question: Why have readers of Malaysiakini turned on Anwar in this way? The answer was buried in a comment by Grraaawwwnnn.

"The comments in Malaysiakini are not to teach Pakatan what to do but to remind them of our concerns and why we have voted - it is not to play in Parliament but to stand up and fight," he wrote.
"A wrong move will be very costly and irreversible, and all that we talked about of wanting change will go to waste. Anwar might be standing for the betterment of Malaysia but he, too, has to remember the concerns of the rakyat who voted for Pakatan."

Anwar is making the wrong move in slow motion. It's uncomfortable to watch a man who once professed such lofty concern for the state of the nation now reduced to attention-seeking stunts such as threatening to boycott his own voters.
But that, as they say, is the measure of the man.