Drop What You’re Doing

I liked NST’s headline on Wednesday (27th August), because it sums up my attitude towards the Permatang Pauh by-election nicely:

It’s Anwar, as expected.

When the by-election was announced it was obvious why Permatang Pauh was picked – it is the safest seat in the country for him to contest in. It was also a vital step in convincing BN MPs to cross-over, which I’ll get to in a moment.

I was a bit annoyed when I saw requests by elected PKR members for voters to donate money for Anwar’s campaign. It’s a common misconception in politics that whoever spends the most money has a better chance of winning. In this election there was no way for Anwar to lose, in fact BN needed money the most as their candidate is not a national icon.

Then there was the mass exodus of PKR members across the nation to Permatang Pauh. I was aghast to learn that many MPs and ADUNs travelled there to lend their support. If you asked me I think most just wanted to show face and share the spotlight with Anwar, to satiate their vanity.

I can understand MPs being a bit free as Parliament is already in session so whatever preparation they had to do for House Q&A had (ideally) been done. Even so, only 28 MPs were in attendance at one of the Parliament sittings so clearly both BN and Pakatan members were too caught up in the excitement.

But for those ADUNs serving in State governments? There is no end to the amount of work that needs to be done – the workings of the nation should not pause for one man.

They dropped whatever tasks they had going on and rushed there ‘to help’. Many of the strategists and thinkers in the party aren’t the ones in office today. So yes, I am disappointed by this cultist behaviour. The time spent in Permatang Pauh could have been put to better use in their respective constituencies.

Some voters’ reactions to the resulting cancellation of an important community project puzzled me – ‘Its ok, we understand, they have to support their leader’. They did not express anger or disappointment that the elected representative had reneged a promise to help without any apology.

I don’t believe voters should be this tolerant. It is not ok to accept responsibility for a task and just drop it when Anwar has a need. It is called ‘putting Party before Country’.

There is a justification for what happened. Anwar needed to show the BN MPs how much support he had, so calling in as many PKR members as possible across the country was important. Over 40,000 Opposition supporters were in Permatang Pauh – a historical gathering indeed.

It sends the message, “See all the free support that I can gather, no one in BN has this support from the people”. This election was not about electing an MP, but about inspiring crossovers and seizing control of the Federal Government.

You could argue then that their presence was needed. Realistically, it was the grassroots hordes that were needed the most – not the elected representatives and their aides.

I can’t help but feel sorry for the voters who got screwed over. I suppose the shared view of the voters is to take a loss now for a win later (September 16th crossovers).

But I won’t forget that for PKR members, their commitment to the people is secondary to their commitment to Anwar.

Swearing On The Quran

This blog post contains my personal views on Islam and may be a bit too preachy for some. Please skip it if that bothers you.

I feel that the time is right for me to do my duty as a Muslim and Malaysian by doing what is right. With this, I swore in the name of Allah at the Federal Territory Mosque this evening in accordance to the teachings of Islam and as advised by religious scholars and teachers that I was sodomised by Anwar Ibrahim.

The oath I’ve taken was done voluntarily and it was done to uphold the truth as a Muslim, a Malay and a Malaysian.

I understand that if the allegations and oath that I’ve taken under the name of Allah are not true, I will be cursed by God and tragedy and curse will come upon my family and the generations after me forever.

I’ve taken this oath to prove that my allegations are completely true. This is the best way for me to attain justice in the world and the hereafter and for me to redeem my pride and dignity as Allah is the only place where I can complain to.

I’ve done this for God and I took my oath in the house of God, that I was humiliated and sodomised by Anwar Ibrahim and I do not wish to lie to the world as he has done.

With this, I challenge Anwar Ibrahim to swear by Islam and do it in a mosque, witnessed by religious scholars, teachers and all Malaysians to deny what I’ve accused him of.

– statement by Saiful to the press, published in Malaysiakini on 15th August 2008 (link)

Saiful’s act of swearing on the Quran and subsequent statement to the press really bothered me. It helps spread misconceptions about Islam to the public and was a pointless move.