Vindictive "Toads"

My daughter overheard an interesting conversation while on a lift in First Avenue, a shopping mall in Penang. Three Malaysian Indians - 2 girls and a guy - were saying out loud, " What's this with all these sex videos". The guy said, " Pity the poor guy, Anwar Ibrahim". "They have been trying to get him all the time". One of the girls quipped, "Don't they know how his family feels? Don't they know how hurtful it is for them even though the whole thing is not true. All the Westerners are laughing at us now". The guy said, "We can't even do anything about it. There's one word for it - vindictive."

Malaysian mainstream news media are having a field day this time taunting Dr Wan Azizah. Even the questions fielded by reporters are getting rude and provocative but politely contained by Wan Azizah with calm but sharp ripostes. Editorials, opinion pieces and newspaper punchlines are trying to vilify and taint her reputation. Journalists have become lackeys and tools of a wicked and barmy political agenda. Cruel intentions and mala fide are obviously and lucidly portrayed in every title block, news item and even the choice of pictures used. Anything and everything is being unleashed to put down a truly good lady and a wonderful person for those who bother and care to know about the family.

Dr Wan Azizah was just a quiet doctor turned housewife to be with a husband who was once deputy prime minister. That was until her husband got sacked, dramatically arrested, beaten and pummelled in custody and then charged and harshly persecuted, imprisoned on dubious, slanderous and humiliating accusations. She had to stand in for her husband as the torch bearer of reform and that she did with excellence and beyond comprehension. At one of her earliest events in Kedah, she appeared meek and modest unable to speak impromptu even to a large and sympathetic public gathering. She has certainly improved much since then. She held the fledgling reformist political party in the worst of its moments. She stood tall although she was alone representing her party in Parliament after 2004 patiently parrying such abrasive behaviour from merciless fellow ruling party parliamentarians.

Whatever has Wan Azizah done to them?

The journalists may feel nothing wrong with all their persistent lying and deceit, twisting their tales, sensationalising circumstantial material and conjuring up any nook or cradle. Mainstream media has become heartless while seemingly forgetting that many Malaysians are not so. Their tactless and spineless editors have lost their habits of the heart. They are not listening and are not addressing to the conscience of the majority. They are not reporting real news and they are abdicating their moral responsibilities. They indulge in promoting mass ignorance and sheer foolishness. They shall leave their dirty marks on society, their writings are indelible, their TV shows are recorded and many shall curse them, in the end all of their work will be their bane.

They fit in like the toads in Parliament. First there are the political toads who jump party to party, clinging on to life and material support from the ruling party, of course. Then there the toads which are intellectuals with a grudge. These academicians sell themselves off as political hatchet men. All of them are held by a common trait as mentioned by the person in the First Avenue mall lift, "vindictiveness".

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.

The Man behind Penanti

The Man behind Penanti

All the king’s men and all the king’s horses couldn’t save Humpty Dumpty from falling down. Kak Min got massive media coverage and precious national air time like no other political personality but Penanti trounced her good. She got a mere over 300 votes from a nationwide campaign and TV losing her deposit as expected.

As Saifudin Nasution predicted and stated sarcastically, that at the moment things are not going well at all for BN because whatever good they do, the rakyat is suspicious and doubtful, whereas anything negative about BN is accepted without qualms.

The bye elections were boring and tiresome for some officials to easily doze off while unprecedentedly BN itself shied away knowing they stood no chance.

Any way she lost to a better opponent who had struggled through thick and thin with Anwar Ibrahim, sharing his ideals of reform even when he was still in government.

Dr Mansor Othman contested and lost 3 times with the last on 8^th of April 2008 being defeated by a mere 300 vote margin. Ustaz Makhtar Shafie, the ADUN for Sg Bakap was luckier by winning at his third try by defeating the incumbent Deputy Chief Minister. Ustaz Makhtar is also respected for being consistent and loyal in clinging to PKR’s uphill struggle after the heavy losses suffered in 2004. Not many could endure the pain of defeat, the sense of hopelessness and being in a never ending political wilderness.

Dr Mansor left a comfortable job as an associate professor and head of department in USM to join ADIL, the fledgling PKN and the emerging PKR. It was a sacrifice not many would undertake considering the economic difficulties, hardship and sure harassment he endured. He would be seen taking a bus from Penang to attend meetings in KL. He was met with al marhum Sheikh Azmi who also took an ordinary passenger bus to attend a high level Parti KeAdilan event. Once Saifudin Nasution was picked up by friends alighting the bus at a toll plaza beside the North South Highway on his way to a ceramah.

Dr Mansor, it is said that he even had to delve into direct selling using car boot sales to make ends meet. An unfortunate defector from Negeri Sembilan was reported as selling lingzhis herbs from the boot of his car to make a living. On stage, these KeAdilan activists growled and expounded the ideals like glorious tigers. In life however, reality bites. Others simply had to fold up and lick their own spittle to become humiliated BN lackeys like many young PKR defectors. These harsh times and the persistent pressure and harassment from the authorities would make anyone crawl back to grovel at BN’s feet.

But not Dr Mansor. His persistence and fortitude paid off, he has finally won his day, and inshallah it is hoped that he shall make a good DCM and deliver to the rakyat.

(below is Dr Mansor’s brief biodata, source: Malaysiakini)

Mansor, a former professor from Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), was Anwar's political secretary from 1996 to 1998when the parliamentary Opposition Leader was the deputy prime minister in the Barisan Nasional government. He earned a Masters degree in social science from USM, and a Masters in Arts and a Masters in Philosophy from Yale University. Mansor, the PKR Balik Pulau division chief, is married to a housewife and has three sons.He has served in PKR's supreme council for 10 years and is currently the party national election machinery deputy director. Mansor is a highly-respected figure within PKR circle and seen as a politically strong and untainted character who could not be bullied by rivals.