It is Anwar’s duty to ensure that this is what will happen. Anwar must now put into place Plan B. The second liners must now be mobilised. Anwar must strategise on the basis that he is certainly going to jail and that he cannot prevent this from happening.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
I do not know whether you are into Reggae music. If not then maybe today I can convert you to ‘real’ music from the crap you normally listen to on the Malaysian radio stations.
Today, I want to talk about the anxiety many have expressed about the future of the opposition alliance, Pakatan Rakyat, in the event Anwar Ibrahim, yet again, gets sent to jail. Well, trust me, there is every possibility Anwar will be sent to jail. There may be no avoiding that.
At 5.00pm last Friday, a meeting was held in the Bangsar home of a certain Umno veteran whom I am not at liberty to mention by name. Let us just say that he knows I know who he is because I had dinner with him less than a month ago and we both ‘fought’ to pay the bill.
Nevertheless, I told him, since he was visiting ‘my kampong’, then it is my duty to pay for dinner. In the event I visit him in his kampong, then I will allow him to pay -- although if I do that I would probably be packed off to Kamunting before we could even meet for dinner.
Anyway, the meeting that was held in this Umno veteran’s house last Friday at 5.00pm and attended by many other Umno leaders was to discuss two very crucial issues. One was on how to bring down Pakatan Rakyat and the other on how to ensure that Anwar Ibrahim gets sent to jail for a very long time where he would probably never see freedom again and end up dying in jail.
That is how determined Umno is in seeing both the destruction of Pakatan Rakyat as well as the incarceration of Anwar Ibrahim. And that is why I said Anwar might be hard-pressed in his efforts to escape incarceration. It is not about the law. It is not about the trial. It is not about whether Anwar is guilt or innocent. It is about Umno wanting to ensure that Anwar ends up in jail whereby that would see the destruction of Pakatan Rakyat.
While one may happen, this does not mean the other will happen as well. Anwar may most likely end up in jail. But this does not guarantee the destruction of Pakatan Rakyat as well.
And this was made very clear by Lim Kit Siang in his statement yesterday.
Pakatan Rakyat or even Parti Keadilan Rakyat is not about Anwar. It must not be about Anwar. If the fate and fortune of the opposition rests on just one man, then Anwar and the opposition leaders have done a great injustice to all Malaysians.
Was the ANC about Nelson Mandela? Mandela was incarcerated for 27 years but did this see the death of the ANC? In fact, the ANC actually grew in strength in spite of and because of the incarceration of Mandela.
They tried to kill the ANC by cutting Mandela off from the outside world. They even denied Mandela family visits for a very long period. Even his wife was not allowed to visit him. They thought that this would sever all links between Mandela and the ANC and this therefore would mean the ANC would be leaderless and would drift aimlessly.
But this did not cripple the ANC. Life went on as usual. In fact, the ANC moved forward and gained more ground. Mandela may have been the icon of South Africa’s opposition to Apartheid. But with or without Mandela’s presence it did not matter one bit. The ANC did not die because Mandela was not around.
And this will be what happens to Pakatan Rakyat. Anwar can come or he can go. But Pakatan Rakyat will continue, with or without him. So what Kit Siang said yesterday is absolutely true. It would be nice to have Anwar around. But it is not crucial that he is.
It is Anwar’s duty to ensure that this is what will happen. Anwar must now put into place Plan B. The second liners must now be mobilised. Anwar must strategise on the basis that he is certainly going to jail and that he cannot prevent this from happening.
We are talking about The Cause. We are talking about The Struggle. We are talking about The Peoples’ Movement. We are talking about The Revolution. And this must not be about Anwar.
And with that I will leave you with this second music video about The Revolution.
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