a classis chanra-wara!

well, anwarista (learn this word from kaytee) would be happy to read this article by me friend, martin jalleh. (and no, martin is not an anwarista).

—————————–

A CLASSIC CHANDRA-WARA ! 
by Martin Jalleh

It is simply amazing how someone who was deemed “irrelevant” by the caretaker PM and of whom the  mainstream media (MSM) chose to send into oblivion has now become the cover story of the MSM – for  very obvious reasons of course!

“Who is Anwar? ” the PM had asked sarcastically. He is finished. His political career has folded up. But  now, almost every other day Pak Lah answers his own question! Anwar’s “spirit” haunts, hounds and  heckles him – even though Anwar is not eligible to stand!

Very evidently the script and sandiwara for the General Elections by the boys on the Fourth Floor have  spun out of control. The sycophants surrounding the PM have been caught with their pants down.

In comes an eminent human rights advocate who would spew out an “intellectual” diatribe – Chandra  Muzaffar – a man whom in elections of recent times (except when he was in the Opposition) the BN would  unleash before the final curtain.

“If Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim becomes Prime Minister, it will be an ‘unmitigated disaster’ for Malaysia. . .  he is not the sort of leader the country needs as he is now singing a different tune from when he was in the  Government, ” charged Chandra, the former deputy president of PKR.

Chandra changed?

A member of the public named “Amar” who wrote to the editor of Malaysiakini pointed out that the  “examples he (Chandra) quotes in the report were events that happened way before Anwar lost Dr  Mahathir Mohamad’s patronage and interestingly, these were events that took place before Anwar’s  reformasi movement commenced. ”

“On what basis did Chandra join PKR as deputy president given that he had reservations over Anwar’s  past decisions? ” he quite appropriately asked.

In a similar vein respected journalist and former MP James Wong Wing On quotes a retired  academician who attended the forum during which “Chandra Muzaffar had ‘really succeeded’ in  damaging or even destroying his own credibility by re-launching ‘a very bitter and vindictive’ attack on  Anwar Ibrahim’s ‘past records’ in the BN government”:

“If Chandra Muzaffar had always known Anwar’s "past records" in BN…why did he continue to support  Anwar in the period from 1998 to 1999 and also became Parti Keadilan Nasional’s deputy president and  its parliamentary candidate in the 1999 general election? ”

A “Aril Mikhail” wrote to Malaysiakini highlighting the irony that “Chandra is ‘coming clean’ and saying all  this of Anwar now, when he himself appears to be doing the exact opposite of what he was doing when in  Aliran and PKR. Before, he consistently argued against the BN having a two-thirds majority and the need  for a strong opposition. ”

“Now, on the eve of the elections, he seemingly dismisses the opposition and asserts that, despite its  flaws, there is no other viable coalition beyond the BN. How fortuitous. I guess when you’ve been offered  a cushy position in a state university for two years, you tend to ‘change’ somewhat.

“Dear Chandra, selling out is fine. But becoming a willing tool of a corrupt, arrogant and racist regime at  this critical juncture devalues, indeed destroys, whatever good work you may have done thus far. May  God guide you, ” was Mikhail’s parting blessing!

In other words, it appears Chandra is also singing a different tune?

Chandra Confused?

In their response to Chandra’s cutting criticism of Anwar, the Malaysian Media Monitors’ Diary, a joint  project of Charter 2000-Aliran, the Centre for Independent Journalism and the Writers Alliance for Media  Independence, along with independent volunteers, showed how confused Chandra was:

“Chandra also expressed his fear of serious polarisation in the country: ‘My fear is that this coming  election will reinforce and aggravate the ethnic polarisation if a large number of non-Malays vote for the  Opposition, and worse if a large percentage of Malays vote for the Opposition. This will cause Umno to  be very cautious in making any changes to the ethnic question and addressing issues related to religion.  ’

“Such an argument only raises further questions: in the first place, isn’t the increase in polarisation due to  ethnic-based policies and practices of the past Umno-led administrations, as alluded to by Chandra  himself? If so, how on earth could Umno be relied upon to make meaningful changes that could redress  problems related to ethnicity and religion?

“And why was there an emergence of amorphous groups such as Hindraf that articulate legitimate  grievances (to a large extent) from a particular ethnic community?

“Secondly, how can ethnic polarisation worsen if both the non-Malays and the Malays vote for the  Opposition? If anything, a multi-ethnic ruling coalition and a multi-ethnic opposition would lessen  polarisation and ensure that issues raised are debated in the interests of all Malaysians. Is it the only the  Barisan Nasional that can resolve ethnic issues and polarisation. The record indicates otherwise. ”

Chandra Consistent?

Chandra also said “the most important quality of a leader in a multi-ethnic country was honesty and when  a leader spoke on sensitive ethnic issues, he must say the same thing to non-Malays as to the  Malays…You cannot play games because it is very dangerous. "

There could be no better response to this than that provided by the Malaysian Media Monitors’ Diary: ”If,  as rightly pointed out by Chandra, the issue of trust and honesty is vital, then shouldn’t we, or rather forum  moderator Wong Chun Wai, also ask whether leaders such as keris-wielding Hishamuddin can be  trusted to be one of the country’s leaders.

“After all, didn’t Hishamuddin change his political stance pertaining to the issue of Chinese and Tamil  schools in the country in the run-up to the general election? Isn’t that political expedience of the highest  degree?

“Hasn’t his tune changed? Wasn’t it in Umno that you had a few politicians talking of unsheathing the  keris and threatening to bathe it with Chinese blood? Did this escape Wong’s (or Chandra’s) memory? ”

Yes, what about the “honesty” of caretaker deputy prime minister Najib Tun Razak who in 1987, as  UMNO Youth Chief, vowed to bathe the keris with Chinese blood, and who now never fails to spew out a  verbal diarrhea of multi-racial mutterings?

As for consistency, did the caretaker PM not preach to the gathering of Christians at the Plenary  Commission on Faith and Order of the World Council of Churches at the beginning of his premiership on  “Dialogue The Key To Unity Of Multireligious, Multiethnic And Multicultural Societies” and yet, four years  later ban the Building Bridges Conference, a inter-religious seminar meant to bring together Christian and  Muslim scholars of international repute?

Alas, Chandra seems so out of tune! Even the Aliran Executive Committee feels so. In a statement today  they provide two examples: “It is odd, (therefore, ) that Chandra should be so concerned about the  problem of money politics in PKR per se. At the same time, he has not said much of late about the money  politics which has always been associated with the BN. ”

”Chandra also has highlighted the supposedly racial scare tactics used by PKR during the Lunas  by-election. For us, such dirty tricks have been resorted to by all parties especially the BN. Again, all  forms of racial baiting by all parties should be condemned. ”

Chandra’s chicanery?

In recent years, Anwar has in fact addressed what Chandra has accused him off. As Aril Mikhail has put it  quite succinctly: “The gist of Chandra’s personal attack is that Anwar is saying things now that are the  opposite of what he said and did when he was high up in Umno. This, of course, is nothing new and  Anwar himself has addressed these criticisms often enough. ”

Indeed quite recently Anwar has met head-on criticisms and the portrayal of him as a political  chameleon (especially by the MCA). When asked to respond to a 4-page leaflet by the MCA entitled  “Disclosing the true face of Anwar”, Anwar said:

“The notion that I’m a political chameleon misses things by a mile…Nothing I did and said in the language  and cultural spheres were not standard BN-Umno policy and nowhere did I take my championing of any  issue to the extent that I waved a keris and called for bloodletting, stirring crowds to emotive outbursts”
(Malaysiakini).

Anwar was referring to the October 1987 Umno Youth-led demonstration in Kuala Lumpur where a band  of Malay leaders, including present Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak, harangued the crowd with  inflammatory rhetoric.

At that time, the posting of non-Mandarin speaking administrators to government-aided Chinese schools  ratcheted up racial tension in the country: “Those were fraught times and I hold that the distinction one  ought to make between a responsible and a chauvinistic leader in that context lay in how you argued  your point without inflaming public sentiment.

“I stood on the sane side of that divide while there were others in power today who breached that line with  impunity, ” he said.

In early February this year, Anwar subjected himself to a rigorous examination of his stances on religious  issues in the presence of about 200 Christian clerics and lay activists and appeared to have emerged  intact (Malaysiakini).

There was no variance between his public pronouncements and his private assurances to his  inquisitors, said an observer at the closed-door dialogue held in Petaling Jaya, organised by the  Christian Federation of Malaysia.

Chandra’s Condemnation

There also remains the hopeful reality that politicians do and can change for the better through time and  circumstance. James Wong quotes a good Christian friend who also attended the forum wherein  Chandra spoke:

“…whatever his "past records" in the BN government, Anwar has ‘cleansed’ himself by his willingness to  suffer grave injustices and tortures from 1998 to 2004, and also by working hard now to oppose BN’s  unjust policies. Seen in this light, Anwar is definitely a better person than those in the BN who still refuse to  make amends for the better. ”

“Has Dr. Chandra Muzaafar himself changed for the better or worse? ” asked James Wong

By portraying Anwar as untrustworthy and unprincipled Chandra is pronouncing the “death sentence” on  the man who has already paid a very costly price for challenging the head of a hegemony who was  capable of the most heinous!

Chandra also confounded the whole country when he said that although BN was “flawed”, there was no  other coalition in the country. In its statement Aliran stated that it “does not share Chandra’s recent  remarks vis-à-vis Anwar Ibrahim and PKR. Neither do we share his views that the BN despite its flaws is  a better choice. Indeed, we are rather perturbed by his apparently emotional outburst. ”

Asked why he was breaking his silence now, Chandra said it appeared that people were being  deceived by Anwar and (i)t is something for which I am prepared to go on record now so that people will  not be deceived".

Chandra should keep in mind what he had once declared: “Malaysians are not idiots or imbeciles. ”

Apparently Aliran was not satisfied with the answer given by its former president and so it stated and  asked: “The most disturbing aspect of this episode is how Dr Chandra Muzaffar has wittingly or  unwittingly lent himself to be a part of the BN propaganda machine. It is sad that a prominent intellectual  and long-time activist of his standing has such a blinkered view of the issue at hand. We wonder why he  did not make these alleged goings-on public earlier and follow up on them conclusively given his public  stance on integrity and accountability. Why only now? "

Alas, Chandra should not allow himself to be a hydra of the BN!

Martin Jalleh
5 March 2008