End of Anwar's suspension.

15.4.2008.

So the end of Anwar's five-year suspension has been boisterously celebrated at the historic Kelab Sultan Sulaiman in Kampong Baru yesterday. It was said to have a crowd of 10,000, or 20,000, or 40,000 ,depending on who your source is. Well, you must remember, this is KL. Any artiste worth his, or her salt can gather 10,000, or 20,000, or 40,000, depending on who your fans are. Mawi could have gotten 50,000, given that the show is f.o.c. I'm not really a fan of any of the young artistes because my musical taste is more like keroncong and the golden oldies, but if I were anywhere in the locality and it's free, out of curiousity I'd probably go, too.

We shouldn't forget what Anwar was convicted of - corruption. We shouldn't forget who he was before being sacked from UMNO - the Deputy Prime Minister.And we shouldn't ever forget of what he has said and done in the past - many things to many people and not always meaning the same thing to different people on the same subject. 

Anwar is nothing if not completely opportunistic. That is his great gift. He has been lucky, up to now, that circumstances not of his own doing have often benefitted him in his all-consuming quest to promote himself. When  Mahathir wanted to nip in the bud his potential as a pain-in-the-ass by bringing him into UMNO, it was an opportunity. When the Deputy President of UMNO post was available and he was the finance minister, it was an opportunity. When the Thai bhat collapsed and  Mahathir was going against the IMF and World Bank, opting very bravely to go alone on a home-grown concoction, it was an opportunity. He was in Hong Kong to sidle up to the other side and hiss at the corner of his mouth "you guys don't worry, I'll take care of him". And by the way  Mahathir pulled Malaysia out of the financial crisis, unlike Indonesia and the Phillipines who listened to IMF and the World Bank. Now, when there is a weak  PM, there is definitely an opportunity. 

Mahathir was also a pain-in-the-ass to the western leaders, mainly the US, Britain and  Australia. So the sacking of Anwar was a golden opportunity for them, to find a new  champion to mount a sustained attack on  Mahathir in  all his "recalcitrance".This is why Anwar is their darling, just like Saddam Hussein was the US's darling when they were fighting the Iranians.

I would like to know, as the no.2 man then, what was Anwar doing when  Mahathir was supposed to have been wrecking the country, or was he just one of the apple polishers that always hung around the PM of the day. The UMNO policies and practices were known to Anwar before he was sacked. Why is he saying they are all suddenly bad after the sacking. 

Anwar is a different man at different times. He can stand on the mimbar and deliver the khutbah during Friday prayers. He can, according to judicial records, commit homosexual acts. He can go to the Hindus and say you're right. He can go to the Malays and say I don't support the Hindus. He can say while incarcerated that he has a "life threatening neck problem", that only a particular German specialist can treat, and on tv within hours of being loaded on board in a neck brace, walk briskly out of the plane without the braces and without assistance.He is making so much of the "Lingam" tapes. What about all the tapes showing him dancing, his voice on the phone talking to someone's wife ?

I say let us welcome Anwar back.  Let's hear him out on all the issues. If he has learned from all his wrongdoing in the past, maybe, just maybe, he might make a better PM than the existing poor excuse of one. Surely Anwar would be sane enough not to let the ship sink under him, the way this poor guy is. 

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