Happy Birthday AnwarBy Rafizi Ramli
Dear Dato’ Seri
I don’t know how exactly a person behind bars celebrates his birthday; something that I have to think about too ha3 (more of that later). Whatever it is, I pray to Allah without miss that you will be as fit as you can possibly be (given the circumstances) so that you will eventually witness the change you had dedicated your life for. Happy birthday and if you are around I know you will be humming some songs. I can’t remember your age because it doesn’t matter much (though I know we are 30 years apart *wink wink*).
Every year, 10th of August has become significant in my life not just because it is your birthday but it was the date that finally intertwined my life to yours. I don’t think you remember but it was at a ceramah on 10th August 2009 in Kemaman that I bumped onto you and you discovered I had left PETRONAS and was no longer bonded to them. Within weeks we met again at Parliament and a few months later I put my corporate career on cold storage to join your office.
Much has happened since then and what an adventure it was. I did not regret a single moment of it and I learnt a lot about humility, sincerity, honesty, integrity and loyalty in the last seven years. I feel I am now at an end of one chapter and as I made preparation for the eventuality of a paid long vacation courtesy of His Majesty’s government, I want to tell you that you had made an impact so great to the society that the change you yearn so much is unstoppable. It will come in one way or another.
“Funny When You Are Dead People Will Start Listening”
Obviously my optimism is not shared by 99.9999% of the population given the unending political drama with twists and turns that can match even the most dramatic Latino soap opera. However underneath the frustration and deadlock, eventually the public will accept a few realities that previously they chose to ignore.
One of the most important outcome of the turmoil is the realization that you are central to any plan for reform. Without you any design for a change of government or system in this country is not realistic. When you were around you had to absorb all the blames because it was easy to blame you. When you were around people look for other leaders because they find fault with you. Since the day you were unjustly taken away, the people began to miss you (and your charisma that galvanized and glued the opposition forces for 18 years since 1998) because they know it is unlikely that anyone else can bring everyone to the negotiating table the way you had done.
As more and more Malaysians search their soul for what had gone wrong that we are unable to remove a Prime Minister that is as good as crippled politically, they will quietly agree that what is missing is no longer the reason and justification to remove Dato’ Seri Najib. What is missing is that one person who can unite everyone and command the respect of the people with moral authority to face up to the task of removing Dato’ Seri Najib.
And they will think of you and hopefully realize it was a folly to sit down idly when you were put behind bars again. I hope many of us look back and wonder how it would have been different if we had recognized that an assault on you then using the state institutions was an assault to the whole society because the system that had failed you would have failed everyone else too.
Every now and then I listen to a country song about dying young (not that I am so melodramatic about life). It ends with a very apt observation: funny when you are dead then people will start listening.
Free Anwar Ibrahim
If the above hypothesis is correct, then the immediate remedy to the current political stalemate is actually quite straight forward: if your removal (as part of a grand design to destabilize the opposition) had created the leadership vacuum that rendered Pakatan Harapan (previously Pakatan Rakyat) less effective to corner Najib, your presence will rectify that.
This is where I remain skeptical that we will see an end to the political impasse in the next few months. Unless and until the opposition forces and the public at large understand that securing your release is not your personal agenda but a necessity to give reform a chance; the anti-Najib forces will continue to be rudderless for a while.
Tonight’s gathering at Sungai Buloh Prison may provide a glimpse of clue whether or not the public understand the importance of your release. If they do, they will turn out more than usual and the momentum to pressure Najib to release you will pick up again. Given how weak Najib is, a strong momentum that translates into a public pressure on him will force him to consider a compromise.
Unfortunately I remain skeptical. However whatever the outcome is tonight, we should re-calibrate our strategy and tactics to re-position your release as a key national agenda in order to fill up the leadership vacuum in the opposition camp because that vacuum has become a life-support machine for Najib.
Bring Back National Discourse On Policy
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