Former KeADILan deputy president Prof Dr Chandra Muzaffar decided to betray his own principles and broke his silence on his years as Anwar's trusted lieutenant by proclaiming:
"It is something for which I am prepared to go on record now so that people will not be deceived."
Chandra's revelation:
Anwar was an engaging orator. Anwar now speaks differently from when he was in government.Today, Anwar is taking a totally different image and it is said that quite a lot of non-Malays believe in this man. He is saying today that he wants to abolish the NEP and that is music in their ears.When Anwar was education minister he had forced a change in the nomenclature from Bahasa Malaysia to Bahasa Melayu, which set back national integration.Anwar was also responsible for appointing nin-Chinese administrators in Chinese schools, which led to a political crisis in 1987.Many people did not remember the role Anwar played in resolving the Kampung Jawa clash between the Hindus and Indian Muslims in Penang. He said he would make sure the temple bells would not ring in the country anymore if his dictum was not accepted.Chandra said the most important quality of a leader in a multi-racial country was honesty and consistency. "When a leader speaks on sensitive ethnic issues he must say the same thing to the non-Malays as he does to Malay audiences. You cannot play games because it is very dangerous."
Chandra also said that although BN is flawed there was no other viable coalition in the country.
Analysis:
Chandra is right on one point: Political leaders must be honest and consistent in their ideology and political philosophy. They must not be double-tongue and practice double standards.
But what Chandra revealed about Anwar were things and acts that Anwar had committed before 1999, that is, when Anwar is Education Minister and Deputy Prime Minister. But in 1999, Anwar was sacked and jailed.
So why is he saying and singing something which was his own as well as Anwars?
If Anwar's ideology and philosophy are things that runs contrary to Chandra's belief and the philosophy of multi-ethnicity, the most puzzling thing is that Chandra elected himself to form KeADILan together with Anwar and got himself appointed and elected as it's deputy president until December 2001 when he was disgusted with certain matters and in-fightings within KeADILan, and decided to quit.
So, hypothetically, Chandra must have acknowledged Anwar's acts and belief and had endorsed Anwar's political philosophy. Otherwise he wouldn't have stayed as deputy president of PKR for 6 years. He must have concurred with the education system, concurred with Kampung Jawa's dictum of Anwar, and agreed on all these discriminatory system of Anwar.
Most puzzling is that he is saying he do not want the non-Malays in this country to be deceived by Anwar's new political philosophy of multi-ethnic stand.
There are two paradoxes:
Firstly, if we accept the explanation and revelation of Chandra and his claim of altruism to prevent the non-Malays from being deceived by a Malay and to protect the multi-ethnic society, we must also accept that Chandra is a "Malay" (by constitutional definition) and to highlight something like "a ploy of a Malay" to deceive the non-Malays is by itself a betrayal of his own community. He should have openly called on Anwar and seek clarification as to why Anwar had decided to changed his political philosophy and dumped his bigotry. By being close friends and political allies and brotherhood, Chandra did not attempt to find out the new Anwar. If he had done a research on Anwar and discovered that Anwar had intended to deceive the non-Malays, then his statement of hypothesis is acceptable and credible. This he did not do.
Secondly, if we hold Anwar to his past philosophies and deny that he could adopt and adapt another philosophies which is part of human passage in life, that itself is flawed. For example, in 1987 Najib who was then the UMNO Youth president had said that he would bath the keris with Chinese blood; but today Najib is singing a new song of multi-racialism and equality and fairness of all races.
UMNO Youth information chief Datuk Azimi Daim said at the UMNO General Assembly: "When certain issues come up, it is natural for the warrior blood in the veins of the Malays to become heated."
Razali Idris (Terengganu)at the UMNO General Assembly said: "This wide disparity will create unrest and an incident like May 13 might repeat but this time, the parang will not fly. An ants' nest should not be disturbed."
Hasnoor Sidang Hussein, (Malacca)Umno said: "UMNO is willing to risk lives and bathe in blood in defence of race and religion. Don't play with fire. If they mess with our rights, we will mess with theirs."
Tan Sri Mohamad Rahmat said: "Don't test the Malays, they know 'amok."
Perlis UMNO Hashim Suboh said: “Datuk Hisham has unsheathed his keris, waved his keris, kissed his keris. We want to ask Datuk Hisham: when is he going to use it?
There are many others which will not be cited here, but it is clear that we only hear of these racial threats from UMNO; we have not heard of even one racial threats from PAS or KeADILan or DAP. PAS ruled Kelantan and Terengganu but they had never at their general assemblies threatened the other races. And Chandra was against PAS ultraconservative Islam which in itself did not discriminate against the non-Muslims.
The rational conclusion is to accept that people and politicians do change their political philosophy and adapt to the surrounding circumstances as and when they are in power; it's about political reality within a multi-racial society. UMNO had being seditious throughout and this we can observed at every of their general assemblies. To conclude, we can say safely that PAS has proven to be the most consistent and honest and had never threatened the non-Malays. DAP is consistent too but the party is managed by the minority race and thus could not be defined in this aspect.
I would give Anwar the benefit of doubt for reason that he had gone to jail, suffered enough and had over these period learnt much about social integration and harmony. He has matured and grown wiser.
On another aspect, I do accept that BN is truly multi-racial but the majority within the coalition adopt a big-boy bullies attitude, ensuring equal amongst the unequal. And the worst of all is, corruption absolutism of the highest order. Thus we have the oligarchy empire and ruler within a democratic system of government.
UPDATE:I just read
E Contrario and a statement strikes me hard in this article entitled:
Chandra which I would like to cite a few passage of what Tian Chua said:
[quote]
"I wonder Chandra was always conscious of Anwar’s ‘misdeed’ during his government days? Or this knowledge was an “after-thought” of his post-KeADILan days? If so, who could have imparted such privileged information onto him?"
"Initially I was reluctant, my reason was that I preferred to stay as an NGO activist.
If Chandra had already known Anwar’s wrongdoings, he shouldn’t have recruited me into the party. He should have told me and warned me of the “danger” of associating with Anwar.
The logic of this is simple, either Chandra was dishonest to me at the time of the party foundation, or he is being dishonest now." [unquote]
