Do you trust this guy?

Is Anwar trustworthy?



Do you trust Anwar?


“Has it ever occur to you that if Anwar was never incarcerated, he would have just assumed the PM’s post and quietly be as corrupted as the current administration?”, I was asked yesterday.

Yes! That question is totally pertinent and my answer is one hundred percent affirmative.


I don’t remember things being any different or significantly better when we had Anwar Ibrahim as the Deputy Prime Minister, Education Minister or Finance Minister. Ok, maybe the fuel price was RM 1.10 per litre then but the crude oil price then was also significantly lower than the current UDS 100 per barrel.

Malaysia was just as corrupted. The cops were just as brazen soliciting duit kopi while the bureaucrats were just as lazy. Healthcare was just as pathetic and the doctors were just as rude and uncaring. The education system was just as polarized with the national schools getting more Islamic and the missionary schools getting more nationalized. Chinese education was just as underfunded while Tamil education was just as endangered. The leatherback turtle was just as elusive and the Indonesians just as ubiquitous. Crime was equally rampant, in both numbers and the degree of severity. Sammy Vellu was just as bald and his words just as crappy. Ling Liong Sik was just as fat and hypocritical and TAR College was just as mediocre. UM products were just as lousy as today, with or without the quota system. The brain drain was just as bad with our drains were just as clogged. Dengue was just as lethal and HIV was just as undiagnosed as today. The media was just as biased with the same shit but different smell. Whistle blowers were just as persecuted and the ACA just as toothless. The judiciary was just as phony with a similar backlog of pending cases.

Malaysia was not significantly any better. If it was, it’s a figment of our imagination. There’s always a certain tendency to hold on to the past with reminiscence that the past was better. There’s a psychological explanation for this but I’m not a psychologist so I’d give it a past.

Regardless, that was then and this is now. Loathe him or hate him, Anwar Ibrahim is back and he will not be going away unless he dies or is convicted for sodomy again. The choices before us is really simple, to trust or not to trust this ex-UMNO warlord.

The question in effect is really artefactual because we don’t really have a choice. With Malaysia sliding faster than the mental state of Britney Spears coupled with the fact that only a Malay can change the country, we have no Malay leader to look up to now but Anwar Ibrahim.

I’d forgive him for making non-Muslim students study Jawi in early primary school. I’d forgive him for making me read “Bahasa Melayu” in that weird, stupid intonation called bahasa baku. I’d forgive him for his strict imposition of the quota system for the annual university intake. I’d forgive him for being a bloody hypocrite proclaiming we were one big Malaysian family when we were clearly not. I’d forgive him for all those years he kept silent as a Cabinet Minister allowing Malaysia to be gang-raped and sodomised by the BN morons. More recently, I forgive him for his PKR’s arrogance in seat negotiations in Sabah-Sarawak. By track record, PKR has nothing to endorse their demand for more seats anywhere. It only has two seats to show – one is the former constituency of Anwar and the other was won by a candidate more known for his previous DAP affiliation.

I’m assuming six years of jail time and curry rice would have opened Anwar’s eyes to the harsh realities of Malaysia. I’m assuming he saw Malaysia for what Malaysia really is when he was in jail. I’m assuming he now knows what it was like for the DAP politicians all those years he was Cabinet minister controlling how the media should shut the DAP up. I’m assuming he now knows what it is like being detained under the ISA and separated from one’s wife and children for merely standing up for one’s beliefs. I’m assuming he would have read Mandela’s A Long Walk to Freedom while rotting in jail staring at an uncertain future.

In short, I assume he has repented and is now sincere to make a change for a better Malaysia.

He’s allowed to be bitter and vengeful of course.
He’s no Nelson Mandela, but he’s still the only Malay guy capable enough to lead Malaysia.

I only hope my assumptions are correct….