Anwar Ibrahim's folly

“You can fail many times, but you're not a failure until you begin to blame somebody else.”

- John Burroughs

COMMENT | The difference between Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad and prime minister-in-waiting Anwar Ibrahim when it comes to dealing with the Malays is not ideological but rhetorical.

While the old maverick is wont to lecture and bemoan specific traits of his “people” – while blowing the dog whistle when it comes to the non-Malays – Anwar Ibrahim likes to find scapegoats in his quest to project some sort of leadership quality.

Despite the differences in rhetoric, both carry out racial policies which are detrimental to the Malay community.

Anwar’s latest tirade when it comes to the plight of the “rural Malays” is to blame the “urban elites” for distracting from the economic woes of the rural Malay communities.

There is an element in the Malay political elite of PKR who seem to think that their perceived lack of “Malayness” is brought upon by egalitarian ideas that emanate from the urban and semi-urban centres, which is dominated by non-Malay concerns.

Anwar’s “don’t spook the Malays” narrative is a projection about the perceived lack of (rural) Malay support of the progressive Malay faction of PKR, which ironically is the panacea for the lopsided policies that have been detrimental to the Malay polity...