Cakap cakap....Anwar & Kamarulbahrin.

To be Prime Minister, Anwar Ibrahim needs to tread a fine line between idealism and the pragmatism of political reality. Nobody can get that exactly right. Anwar can only try.

He will struggle to contain PAS and DAP within the confines of Pakatan Rakyat and amidst the close quarters of religion and dogma. With the timing of the general election still to be decided there are already soothsayers who pronounced Sabah already lost. There are those who are certain that Zaid is going for the number Two post, which by inference indicates he is actually aiming for the number one post! There are already question asked if the Malays will accept Lim Guan Eng as Prime Minister, Lim Kit Siang and Karpal as Governor of Penang and Malacca? And was one being mischievous when Jui Meng was suggested as Mentri Besar of Johor?  

All this before the year when a general election year is to be called was set – not day or month but the year! Do you wonder sometimes how our Pakatan Rakyat leaders cope?

Yes we know that they need to be prepared for all eventualities....but steadylah!  Be confident that within Pakatan Rakyat there is enough wisdom and common sense to meet our aspirations. Our hope, our expectations and our dreams of living a good life in a good country.      

So for now hold your tongue. We are family. Discuss our differences, and our misgivings as a family should – within our self and within the four walls that is our home. Do not let others who are not with us interfere in our dealings and with how we run our life. Not all can be trusted to understand our fight. Not all can be depended upon to help us up when we fall. Trust only those who through their actions and deeds understand our cause. Reject those that seek to engage us in discussions where the food we eat, the clothes we wear, the language we talk, the color of our skin and the religion we practice is reason enough for them to call us a friends or an enemy.

Think in depth about the issues that matters to you. Understand your limitations and accentuate your strengths. Commit yourself by your deeds to making a decent future for our children and above all be true to yourself. It will take courage to live the life of our conviction. There will be enough courage and wisdom in the leaders of Pakatan Rakyat to lead us if we falter.     

For Anwar and those Pakatan Rakyat leaders in the front lines I take heart from these lines by Robert Jarvik “Leaders are visionaries with a poorly developed sense of fear and no concept of the odds against them.”

What courage does it take for Anwar, Lim Kit Siang, Karpal, Tok Guru, Zaid, Jui Meng and all those Pakatan Rakyat front liners to go against UMNO and Barisan Nasional? I remember meeting Bahrain – you all know him as Dato’ Kamarul Bahrain Abbas: MP Telok Kemang – many years ago when Mahathir was God, UMNO his disciples and Malaysia his Kingdom – and I remembered asking within myself why was Bahrain with Anwar then when Anwar was within the four walls of Sungai Buloh?

You can call it loyalty, you can call it anything you like. But now I know this. Bahrain knew then what we know only now. He knew that there will be a Pakatan Rakyat to do battle with UMNO and Barisan Nasional and that Anwar will lead Pakatan Rakyat into the 13^th General Election with a real possibility of forming Government after the elections were over. I now call that hindsight. I knew some people, including me, that called Bahrain a lunatic back then! Sorry brother, forgive me.