Cakap cakap DSAI...as i see it.

Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim is a product of the Malay College Kuala Kangsar – Eton of the East - the premier residential school in Malaysia. An all-boy and all-Malay school located in the royal town of Kuala Kangsar. The four houses under which its students are grouped are named in honour of the four Sultans who founded the College: Idris, Sulaiman, Mohd Shah and Ahmad. The school motto is Fiat Sapientia Virtus–Manliness Through Wisdom.

An extract from the Home Page of the MCKK site here will give credence to its claim to greatness:

Amongst the more notable alumni of the Malay College are: Dato' Onn Jaafar, the father of Malay nationalism and former Prime Minister Tun Abdul Razak Hussein, the former Deputy Prime Minister Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysian ministers Hishammuddin Hussein, Effendi Norwawi, Fauzi Abdul Rahman and Nazri Aziz, politician and former chairman of the Barisan Nasional Backbenchers Club Shahrir Samad, the Sultans of Pahang and Perak, late Omar Ali Saifuddin III of Brunei from 1932 to 1936 and the Yang di-Pertuan Besar of Negeri Sembilan. Pak Sako or Ishak Haji Muhammad , Tan Sri Yahya Ahmad and Dr. Azahari Husin were alumni as well.

But what of DSAI? How has his time in MCKK moulded him to be what he is today? He is no longer Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia. He has spent time in Sungai Buloh convicted of corruption and is currently under trial for alleged sodomy with Saiful Bukhari – an ex-aide. In between his time in Sungai Buloh and this Sodomy Two trial he has found time to do a few things.

There is PKR – a party he founded but yet is reluctant to take the mantle of being its President at the recent party elections for reasons best known to DSAI himself. He is the leader of the Opposition grouped under Pakatan Rakyat which now controls four states in Malaysia. DSAI is the rallying point of forces against the Barisan Nasional. DSAI has travelled far since his release from jail. Why then is his empire crumbling around him now?

Foremost amongst his present troubles is the ongoing Sodomy 2 Trial. Here are the salient points. Saiful went to work for DSAI as his Personal Aide. This effeminate Saiful then claims that DSAI buggered him during working hours….well at least he says he was working at the time of the incident delivering paper to DSAI who was working in a Desa Damansara condominium when Saiful arrived to deliver the said papers. What we are all wondering is why DSAI is working in an apartment by himself when Saiful delivered the papers to him? Did not DSAI learned from the sodomy one case that he would be an easy mark for entrapment by any party bent on besmirching his name? No use crying over spill milk…. but when you are leader of the opposition with a 50/50 chance of forming the next government after the 13^th general election, you try and wipe up the spill milk!

Something has to give…and what is giving way, especially after the recent abysmal PKR party elections is the rapid crumbling away of the Rakyat support for yourself and PKR that you lead….and you must not discount the collateral damage on Pakatan Rakyat itself.

It is not yet Armageddon within the camp of  Paktan Rakyat – but if you are talking cancer – it is Level Four! The cancer has spread to other regions of the body and there is also secondary cancer. Lim Kit Siang knows this. Tok Guru knows this. All the first tier leadership within Pakatan Rakyat knows this. For DSAI this Level Four is self-inflicted.

DSAI gave a self-imposed dateline of September the 16th 2008 as the day that he will take over the reins of the Malaysian Government from Barisan Nasional. Nothing came out of this.

He held centre stage when Balasubramaniam a/l Perumal issued a statutory declaration on 1^st July 2008 which was embarrassingly retracted by Bala on the 4^th of July 2008.

In July 2008 DSAI asked to be admitted into the Turkish Embassy on a Sunday morning citing personal security concerns. He issued a statement which among other things said:

“I was transported to the embassy earlier this morning fearing that my personal safety was in danger. I thank all those who offered to assist me in this time of need and am grateful to the Turkish ambassador for extending an invitation to seek refuge within the embassy.

I have been told that my assassination has not been ruled out as means to subvert the people’s will and bring an end to the transformational changes taking place in Malaysia”.

The Turkish embassy in turn issued a statement on Monday that said Anwar went to the Turkish Embassy on Sunday morning and asked to be admitted for a temporary period citing personal security concerns. The Turkish Embassy said it never invited former Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim to take refuge at the embassy.

He left the embassy on his own accord on Monday at 6.45pm. We are all still wondering what that was all about!   

All the crossover by MPs from the Pakatan Rakyat camp into the Barsian Nasional camp were hand picked by DSAI. There had been too many defections that has hurt PR politically and has resulted in the Rakyat questioning DSAI ability to choose credible people to be their elected representatives.

DSAI welcomed Zaid Ibrahim into PKR and appointed him to the political bureau of the party. We all know what happened when Zaid threw a tantrum at not being given a “level playing field” in his march towards being Prime Minister of Malaysia. He was adamant that being Deputy President of PKR was his first tottering step towards the end game and DSAI did not give him that chance.

I think we are mostly in agreement that the manner in which the recent party elections of PKR was conducted made us very aware that DSAI did not walk his talk about open and free elections. There was talk about what is important was DSAI intentions to implement the “one man one vote” concept. Like his 16^th September dateline of 2008 that he will take over the government, this too was just talk!

We will not take away from Anwar his contributions towards the formation of a credible opposition coalition that has forever changed the political scenario of our country, we hope for the better. While UMNO is leading Barisan Nasional into another era of open government and its own rejuvenation into a political entity that the Rakyat has indicated it wants, Pakatan Rakyat under DSAI has languish where it was after the 2008 General Election. If truth be told I would not be remiss to say that Pakatan Rakyat is no longer the force it use to be. Where Barisan Nasional has moved decisively towards good governance, Pakatan Rakyat is desperately trying to reinvent DSAI into what he is not – the glue that will hold the coalition together. There is just too many dissent and voices of protest within PR with regards to the need to have DSAI lead the opposition into the 13^th General Election.   

For Anwar it has come full circle with sodomy two – back to his school days at MCKK. When you are in an all-boy boarding school full of hormone-driven adolescent boys, you have to be careful whom you make friends with. I trust that from now DSAI will be more careful whom he makes friends with.