No more honour in men

I was at a grand wedding dinner function in Seberang Jaya with the wife. I had the fortune or misfortune, whichever way we want to put it, to be in the esteem company of UMNO bigwigs at our table. It occurred to me that the person sitting right in front was none other than the former YB for Permatang Pasir. We had met once before on a solemn occasion at Masjid Cherok Tokun way back in 1998 on the eve of Anwar Ibrahim’s inglorious sacking. This person was the sole UMNO dignitary accompanying Anwar officiating the mosque newly installed ICT facilities except for the many stern looking standard issue bodyguards who were all about the place. It looked to be that Anwar was being deserted. It was then indeed a foreboding sign of things to come.

Well, let us go back to the wedding and our dinner table. As the former YB sat down, he spewed forth expletives condemning Anwar Ibrahim as a traitor to the Malay race and implied that in Anwar’s greed and eagerness to become prime minister he had even sold Penang to the Chinese by handing over the Chief Ministership to DAP.

Now we have all heard this fanatical mantra before, and we shall continue to hear them and UMNO is repeating it in unison this time, over and over again. Even the DPM is leading the same regurgitated tune unbecomingly. It is the usual Anwar bashing but in an orchestrated and fever pitched manner spouted profusely and spun in a frenzy by the media as if there is some frenetic mass political trance going on in the party. It is now made out in incendiary terms, extreme and as racial as one can get.

Yes, the stakes are being raised up to dangerous levels built upon fallacies, desperation and the malicious invectives are simply plucked from figments of delusional rage and agitation. The former YB and the DPM as well as others were friends, supporters and comrades of Anwar in the hey days of the party. Suddenly they became declared enemies and now they have emphatically sworn to remain enemies. Fortunately for them they did not need to suffer the tribulations that their reviled and denounced colleague had to go through because their loyalty was frail and they did not want anything to do with it. Actually, if they are just honest with themselves, it was they who let him down. He was not only put down but he was made to crawl in the gutter and many thought that Anwar would never be able to come out of this horrible black hole. As one blogger puts it aptly: - Anwar is by far the most talented of Malay leaders in his generation by keeping the PR coalition together and by marching forward in the face of overwhelming odds and a terminator-like enemy.

Anyway, back to the dining table, just after the former YB expressed such unsavoury words, I looked to my wife and she smiled and gave me the smirky look. A live band was playing by so the noise and din was just too loud. I thought of a terse reply but the atmosphere was just not right so I kept it to myself. Providence had it then that the host came by and upon recognizing the dignified guest, he was ushered away to the main table to gather with a gallery of party officials.

I am certain now that there is no more honour in such men.