The Federation of Malaysia celebrated its 45th anniversary on 16 September this year.
However, it was not occasion for its 27 million citizens to exercise peace of mind and contemplate the country's past.
Whatever festivities there were, were overshadowed by crowds glued to their Internet screens watching the exceedingly long match between premier Abdullah Badawi's Barisan Nasional (BN) team and former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim's Pakatan Rakyat (PR), as it went into extra time.
These spectators were highly agitated, and not because the moon was full, but because time was running out.
No definitive result seemed forthcoming.
The whistle that started this peculiar contest blew almost six months ago, on 1 April this year. That was the day PR was formed to compete in a premier league so far dominated by the BN.
After surviving relegation from the league on March 8, Abdullah put together a new Cabinet consisting of some new stars, the most important of which was Zaid Ibrahim, a successful lawyer from Kelantan known for his principled views on governance and the rule of law. This striker was Abdullah's answer to spectator cries for reforms in the judiciary. For a while, the team looked capable of retaining the lead on the league table.
One-Nil to BN.
The new PR state governments had their hands full during the first weeks of their term in office, with some infighting especially in the state of Perak where the three component parties could not decide whom to choose as Mentri Besar. Their final choice of Mohammad Nizar Jamaluddin from Parti Islam SeMalaysia (Pas) turned out to be the right one. He had since then been able to impress his allies in his corner of the field.
A star is born.
And then came a double-legged tackle on PR captain Anwar Ibrahim. On June 28, a young male aide accused him of sodomy rape.
He went down, and BN was hoping for a red card for him. He was merely shown a yellow card, however. After being allowed bail and after his court trial was postponed on 10 September for a fortnight, he was up on his feet again. And no stretcher was needed either.
But nevertheless, it was a goal: Two-Nil to BN.
Things looked bad for PR. There had been doubts about how professional Anwar's players actually were after members of Pas were caught discussing crossovers with BN players. After some chastising from the party top, these disgruntled celebrities agreed to return to their positions, at least for now.
PR was obviously shaken, but managed to maintain its position. They continued their assaults at the BN goal.
The fact that PR was no pushover was borne out when their captain, Anwar Ibrahim, succeeded in coming onto the field to direct the team after decisively winning the parliamentary seat of Permatang Pauh on 26 August.
Goal for PR. The score was now Two-One.
Anwar now cleverly chose Malaysia Day as the point in time when the final whistle would blow and PR would win the cup, as it were.
He was hoping to get the East Malaysians, for whom that date was highly meaningful, to discuss crossovers with him.
As BN weakened, it panicked, sending off its backbenchers to Taiwan to study agricultural techniques in order to keep them away from persuasive PR agents trying to recruit them. These agents tried to win a corner by flying after them, but were ruled off-side.
And then, just before full time, came the equaliser. This came as a godsend through an own goal by BN.
On 12 September, the government foolishly decided to lock up three of the country's citizens without trial under the Internal Security Act (ISA), and threaten the existence of three newspapers. Tan Hoon Cheng, a young female journalist from Sin Chew newspaper, had been taken in for her own protection, according to quarterback Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar.
However, the arrest of Tan, along with blogger Raja Petra Kamarudin and popular politician Teresa Kok of the Democratic Action Party caused BN's principled star, Zaid Ibrahim, to resign and leave the field voluntarily. No red card needed.
Two-Two just before full time.
A penalty was awarded to PR, and Anwar walked forward to take the shot. All eyes were glued on him. He shot wide just before the final whistle blew.
Although still claiming he had enough crossovers to topple the BN, he nevertheless meekly asked Abdullah for a meeting, with the excuse that he wished for a smooth transition of power.
As Malaysian politicking goes into extra time, we see Abdullah showing new confidence that he can beat PR. He immediately makes some changes in his team.
He hands over the influential Finance Ministry to Deputy Premier Najib Abdul Razak and makes him vice-chairman of the government's investment arm, Khazanah Nasional Berhad. This unexpected move places Najib in a stronger position to take over as team captain in the near future, and please his impatient supporters.
At the same time, Abdullah's son-in-law Khairy Jamaluddin announces his intention to become chief of UmnoYouth.
His main opponent will be former premier Mahathir Mohamed's son, Mukhriz, who is pushing his father's demand that Abdullah retire from the field.
PR is now under pressure to come up with some surprises.
This extra time promises more extraordinary cross-dribbling from both sides, and a goal quite soon.
A penalty shootout is not what spectators are looking forward to.
The writer is Fellow at the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. His latest book is Lost in Transition: Malaysia under Abdullah (SIRD & ISEAS 2008).
- TMI
No comments:
Post a Comment