LETTER | Beware the Achilles heel, Anwar

LETTER | Our current prime minister Anwar Ibrahim is under a glaring spotlight.

For good or for worse PMX needs to be reminded about the 'Achilles heel'.

His becoming the 10th PM was not an accident. It was the persevering will of the people.

From that fateful day, when tens of thousands gathered at the compound of the National Mosque, marching down to Umno's headquarters. Only to melt away with his arrest is a monumental episode etched in the history of this nation's struggles for greater nationhood.

The hundreds if not thousands of candles burnt keeping vigil outside the prison gates by all those who remained committed to the “reformasi” of a repressed nation should remind Anwar of the people's hope and faith in him.

The unrelenting hope against hopelessness and the love for the nation made history for the first time when Anwar's party, Keadilan (PKR), in collaboration with like-minded parties dethroned the Machiavellian grip of decades.

Even though Anwar's hope and dream of becoming the coveted supreme leader was shipwrecked, the people's trust strengthened further.

That sums up how or why he became the 10th prime minister of a beleaguered nation that desperately wanted a future where all Malaysians can fulfil their democratic, fair, just, equal, responsible, caring and peaceful stake in a prosperous land.

However, as the months rolled by, people began sharing reasons for disappointment and grave concerns.

Anyone reading this write-up knows the many hopeful promises, the adulations from world leaders, the foreign investments said to be sprouting, the mounting court cases closing in on big names, etc. attributed to Anwar's premiership.

Beneath these praises, a swirling storm is shaping up and that precisely is not good for anyone be it a politician, an a-political professional, the poor and the well-lined super-rich.

There is a growing uneasiness along race and religious paradigms and these cannot be silenced or buried with the power of police investigations because it will only snowball into the very Achilles heels of Anwar.

Will the PMX be the ultimate salvation for Malaysia?

This nation is trapped in its own political carvings or will he be ousted prematurely by a force that will be no better is the most talked about concern in the country.

Indeed Malaysians - irrespective of where they belong on the rightist to leftist bandwidth, are in no mood to feel jubilant. This reality must dawn upon the current leadership if we are to see a favourable trajectory shift.

Politicians in the past have proven time and time again that giving out aid and freebies, milking the religious fervour, and appeasing racial segments - all of these do not sustain a population's long-haul desire.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.