Walk in the wilderness is what Anwar
needs By Ioannis Gatsiounis
KUALA LUMPUR - Former Malaysian deputy premier
Anwar Ibrahim, flying high after a federal court this
month overturned his sodomy conviction and freed him
from at least four more years in prison, was kicked back
down to Earth by two rapid-fire blows this week.
On Tuesday Anwar's former party and the most
powerful political arm in Malaysia for the past 50
years, the ruling United Malays National Organization
(UMNO), announced it would not allow Anwar back into the
party fold - "for now", anyway, said Prime Minister
Abdullah Badawi. Then on Thursday the courts upheld a
prior corruption conviction, thus barring Anwar from
entering politics for the next five years.
Anwar's supporters have maintained an outward
glow, but get them talking and the threads of despair
soon appear on their protective quilt of optimism.
"We're not terribly upset," said Tian Chua, vice
president of the National Justice Party (Keadilan), the
political party formed in the wake of Anwar's ouster
from UMNO in 1998 and now headed by his wife Wan Azizah
Wan Ismail.
Before this week, the plan in
Anwar's camp was to hit the ground running, regardless
of whether he linked back up with the UMNO or the
opposition. "I'm starting [the reform movement] right
away," Anwar himself said upon his release from prison.
But potholes have appeared, and more are likely
to surface, leaving some in his camp to speculate
whether Anwar's best political days are behind him. He's
now 57, they say; he's hobbled by a back injury
aggravated in prison; and UMNO, clearly his nemesis "for
now", is stronger than it has been in many years,
bolstered by Abdullah's repeated promises of reform.
Yet for these same reasons - and the lessons to
be learned from the trajectory of other leaders'
political careers - the ostensible setbacks of the past
week may be the magic bullet Anwar has long needed.
David Gergen, a senior adviser to Bill Clinton
and other former US presidents, opines in his book
Eyewitness to Power that Clinton would have been
a more effective leader had he been elected to the
presidency four years later than he was. "By 1996, he
would have had four more years to mature. He would have
become more grounded, more self-disciplined, and lost
some of his need to walk on the edge."
In his
chapter on Richard Nixon, who lost his bid for the
presidency to John Kennedy in 1960 only to win his turn
in 1968, Gergen notes that Nixon during those eight
years "in the political wilderness ... finally had a
chance to deepen and broaden himself intellectually,
something that few politicians on today's fast track
ever take the time to do".
Indeed, Anwar
underwent a meteoric rise in Malaysian politics. He
entered UMNO in 1982, was finance minister by 1991 and
deputy premier by 1993, until his sacking from the party
five years later, led by his boss, then-prime minister
Mahathir Mohamad.
Some cite Anwar's "fast track"
and the unrestrained ambition it rewarded as the
catalyst for his demise. And while it might be argued
that Anwar has already roamed the political wilderness,
having spent nearly the past six years in prison, as he
said upon his release, his re-entry into the free world
has been disorienting. After all, much in the world, and
between civilizations no less, has changed dramatically
since he was last a free man.
More time in the
wilderness might prove a boon to his political career,
said Azizuddin Ahmad, secretary general of the Muslim
Youth Group of Malaysia (ABIM), which Anwar founded and
remained president of until his entry into UMNO. "Coming
back now directly into politics could be damaging to
him," said Azizuddin. "This [barrier to political
office] gives him time to adjust and feel things out."
If the corruption appeal had fallen his way and
UMNO hadn't offered its cold shoulder, Anwar would have
been expected to move decisively toward political
office; dithering would have appeared insincere and
opportunistic. Now, in Ahmad's view, he has the luxury
of "becoming bigger than a politician - [to] become an
international statesman".
Anwar may be among the
most suited mediators in the world to ease tensions
between Islam and the West, as he has important friends
in both Washington and the Muslim world. US leaders
applauded his release from prison, while the Saudi
government offered to rush him off to Germany for back
surgery in one of its private jets. He helped inspire an
Islamic revival in Malaysia. He later championed human
rights and democracy.
In the short time since
his release, Anwar has already shown a willingness to
bridge the gap.
"My interest is national unity,
peace, and we have to grapple with the complex issue of
terrorism and the way Islam is being demonized," he was
quoted as saying. He also said Malaysia "should shoulder
more responsibility" in the fight against Islamist
terrorism and said he wanted to beat back the spread of
Islamic fanaticism and extremism, according to one news
report.
Building an international portfolio, so
to speak, may well make it harder to deny Anwar a
prominent seat in Malaysian politics in the future. It
could also help him temper perceptions of any
relationship he forms with the leading opposition party,
the hardline Parti Islam SeMalaysia, or PAS. (Most
observers predict Anwar will warm to the opposition in
some form or another now that UMNO's doors are closed to
him.)
In the meantime, the Anwar issue has given
UMNO officials something to rally around. "UMNO is
thriving right now on the Anwar issue - it's creating
cohesion," said Mohamad Abu Bakar, head of the
Department of International and Strategic Studies at the
University of Malaya.
The concern for Anwar's
supporters, then, is that despite his acquittal, Anwar's
political aspirations remain just out of reach. This
while UMNO appears to be steaming ahead, revived by its
unfulfilled promises of reform, and Keadilan and the
reformation movement struggle to scrape off the moss.
But author and lecturer Said Zahari doesn't
foresee the situation remaining that way. "Abdullah has
been helped by a good economic situation," Zahari said.
"That may temporarily satisfy the rakyat, but it
does not address their deep underlying satisfaction with
the government over issues like corruption and poverty,
which [Abdullah] has had little success in dealing with
so far.
"The very fact that Anwar is out of jail
is going to have a great impact on [Malaysian]
politics," he added. "Keep in mind, the reformation
movement is very young to begin with. Anwar hasn't
really been able to show what he can do."
Sooner, or later, he'll have his chance.
Ioannis Gatsiounis is a New York
native who became a freelance foreign correspondent for
various US dailies after moving to Indonesia in 2000. He
has since co-hosted a weekly political/cultural radio
call-in show in New York and resettled in Malaysia.
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