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| Anwar Ibrahim’s Western Public Relations Effort Failing? Posted: 30 May 2011 08:50 PM PDT
First, Anwar's political touch is turning out to make a lot more lead than gold. Most recently, he has taken to excusing away his inability to move the needle in local elections, in the process doing critical damage to his coalition's efforts in advance of the upcoming national elections by insulting a vital, potential ally. Christopher Badeaux, Red State In the West, we tend to ignore the Muslim countries of Southeast Asia too often in favor of the more rambunctious Middle East; whether this is because we are concentrating our limited energies on the larger problem spot, or ignoring places where things are going well, is probably a function of one's particular outlook on life. Regardless of the source of this disregard, it is an error as great as choosing to ignore the safe streets in city planning in favor of the bullet-ridden ones. The good things don't last without some tending of their own. That leads to Malaysia, a moderate Muslim country with strong trade ties to the United States, that we too often ignore along with its other, moderate neighbors in favor of a pointless bombing campaign in Libya and other adventures in futility. Malaysia has done well for itself, holding fast to a moderate strain of Islam while continuing to grow energetically. It is not heaven on earth, but it is better than most Muslim nations, with religious minorities freely practicing their faith, and calls for extremism loudly and roundly denounced by most Malaysians. It is in and from this fertile ground that Malaysia's current prime minister, Najib Razak, boldly decried the practice of suicide bombing, eschewing the usual Islam-means-peace pablum for a concrete denunciation of murder and suicide, explicitly calling them contrary to Islam and a mark of barbarism. This is especially significant because English is the lingua franca of Malaysia, and so Najib's Oxford speech was reported and understood at home. He cannot — and to his credit, does not — play the all-too-common game of tell-the-non-Muslims-what-they-want-to-hear, revert-to-death-to-the-Jews-death-to-America at home. His political opposite cannot say the same. I'm on the record having a low opinion of Anwar Ibrahim, but that's only because he's a virulent anti-Semite with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood who formed an opposition coalition in his country by recruiting a political party best known for calling for volunteers to fight with the Taliban against the United States. So, you know, little things. But what's worse is how he has played the nasty demagogue at home, then played the good democrat in the West; and what's worse than that is how the Western policy establishment has historically tolerated this. This is one of those critically easy policy rules: If someone is blathering about the Jews being the source of the world's problems, or, more particularly, his own, he is a very bad man, a nutter, or both. You don't need to be a failed painter with a nasty little mustache, a figurehead president with alleged (and hastily denied!) Jewish ancestry, or a former military juntaist whom we have unaccountably not snuffed as he has gone on to destroy one of the most vibrant and productive economies in Latin America for this to be so. You can be an opposition leader trying to wrest control of your country's parliamentary system from someone you casually describe as being controlled by the Jews. Indeed, given his ready trafficking in old anti-Semitic (and anti-Christian) tropes, it is a wonder the extent to which Anwar has retained so much of the goodwill he managed to rack up in the late Nineties. People whom many of us (I include myself) have respected for years tend to shock us by excusing away Anwar's disturbing tells. Probably the best, single example of this I've seen has been Jackson Diehl excusing the anti-Semitism as an unfortunately necessary means of political survival (while giving Anwar an on-the-record opportunity to explain away his minutes-long rant as the result of a slip of the tongue), and giving Paul Wolfowitz, who really should know better, a chance to provide Anwar some same-themed cover. That neither man would tolerate this sort of doublespeak out of, say, a Saudi prince is a telling indictment of their willingness to suspend their disbelief at inconvenient times. Diehl and Wolfowitz are hardly alone. For years — since at least 2008, when Anwar first explained his failure to win a national election as the result of the American Jewish Lobby doing … something — Western policymakers and opinion makers have given the man a free pass, ignoring each round of particularly vicious anti-Semitism as it occurs. Anwar has helpfully made himself available without pause or cessation, ready to say one thing to any Western voice that would listen, and another at home; he has been his own best press agent. A strange thing seems to have happened of late, though. Anwar is on trial for forced sodomy (mistakenly described by Diehl and others who should know better as consensual sodomy), and the judge presiding over the case has allowed it to go forward. In a matter of days, Anwar will have to present his defense, and will doubtless explain again to Western ears that he is a beleaguered democrat facing a political charge (something the Washington Post seems inclined to believe credulously), and tell audiences at home that this is because of the Jews, the Israeli special ops, and/or the Americans. But as yet, there is no groundswell of spontaneous opinion writing in his defense. There is no remarkable wave of excuses and dire warnings about democracy in Malaysia. There is, instead, silence. I would submit this is the result of two, critical factors. First, Anwar's political touch is turning out to make a lot more lead than gold. Most recently, he has taken to excusing away his inability to move the needle in local elections, in the process doing critical damage to his coalition's efforts in advance of the upcoming national elections by insulting a vital, potential ally. He compounded this by accusing the people of Sarawak — where he carefully hid his ties with radical Islam during the local elections, to no avail — of racism for failing to support his ticket, a charge that is not merely not helpful, but has the added bonus of being based on a complete misunderstanding of the facts on the ground. The Western press likes winners and canny underdogs. It's not quite so hot on fools who cannot keep their feet from their mouths. The second, critical element here is the Obama Administration's approach to Malaysia. I have been a not-infrequent critic of the Obama Administration's foreign policy — confused, overt deference to the genocidal People's Republic of China, and a willingness to snub the world's most populous democracy are not actually achievements of which Americans should be proud — but this is one area in which the Administration seems to have caught on more quickly than its outside supporters and critics. Not only is the Secretary of State praising Najib's call for religious moderation, but the Administration as a whole is treating Anwar as a matter of secondary importance. And as we learned during the 2008 Presidential campaign, the media are nothing if not sensitive to the directions open and implicit of this President. The next few months will be interesting to watch. Anwar's trial will conclude with a verdict of some kind, and Malaysia will move toward its next national election. In the face of dual pressure, it would seem reasonable to assume that Anwar will step up his availability and his lobbying of the Administration to build support either for his appeal (if convicted) or his election efforts (regardless of the trial's outcome). Whether his one-man public relations campaign yields the same willingness to ignore rank anti-Semitism and tolerance of Islamist lunacy will rest on the Administration's willingness to stand by its prior positions (an open question) and whether Anwar continues to inject his foot into his mouth when blood libels are not leaving it.
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| Posted: 30 May 2011 12:39 PM PDT By Terence Fernandez, The Sun "WE began with a small group of orphans in a building built from timber we found while clearing the land. We cut the slope to make space for the building." These telling words of Mohamed Noor Ismail illustrate how we take things for granted when it comes to adhering to safety rules. Mohamed Noor is the co-founder of Madrasah Al-Taqwa Al Hidayah in Hulu Langat which was lost to a landslide that killed 16 people, mostly young boys, on May 21. To call it an orphanage is an anomaly, as our reporters discovered when they spoke to Mohamed Noor recently. Many of the children who were killed had parents and relatives. Anyway, we are not going to split hairs over this, as what is important is to prevent further occurrences of such tragedies – which are becoming all too common. I was in two minds over writing about this tragedy. After the landslide in Taman Bukit Mewah, Bukit Antarabangsa, on Dec 6, 2008 buried 14 bungalows and killed five people, the authorities promised to be more pro-active and vigilant in ensuring that developers played by the rules. Unfortunately this had not happened due to the turf war between the Public Works Department (PWD) and the local councils – both of which are pushing the buck to each other. To make matters worse, a declassification exercise by the state government turned into a political tirade as both sides – the past and present administration as well as the federal government started pointing fingers at each other. There were also games of one-upmanship being played as the state government was given the runaround between the police, the PWD and the Housing and Local Government Ministry in getting preliminary reports on the Taman Bukit Mewah landslide. Now, with regards to the latest tragedy, someone needs to be held accountable for not fulfilling safety requirements when setting up the building. The fact that there was no certificate of fitness (CF) puts the Kajang Municipal Council (MPKj) in the spotlight. It is not enough for council president Datuk Hassan Nawawi Abdul Rahman to say that the 17-year-old building existed before the council was even formed (in 1997). The fact is the council did not conduct the checks it could have done to ensure that homes and buildings on slopes are safe and issued with CFs. Now suddenly, MPKj realises that all homes in this landslide-prone area do not possess this vital document. That those who ran the centre also did not feel compelled to ensure they got one also makes them culpable. The architects, engineers and contractors must be equally held accountable. If they had breached their professional duties by cutting corners and bending the rules, criminal charges must be brought against them. It is encouraging that the police have opened a criminal negligence investigation. Hopefully this time at least, someone pays for the lives lost. PWD senior director Datuk Ashaari Mohamad had gathered that massive tree-felling had compromised the integrity of the soil, causing it to give way following abnormal rainfall in the days preceding the tragedy. He also said the orphanage building had been erected too close to the hillside. This alone gives one a good head start to find out the cause and the culprits. However, I risk sounding like a broken record. The same points were put forward by many columnists and yours truly after every landslide. These tragedies are often followed by visits by VIPs and politicians who come bearing sombre faces, cheques and strong words. But once the focus of the media shifts to other pressing matters, the promises are forgotten or take a back seat to other issues that need immediate attention. This has always been the case. And the fact that the Highland Towers verdict which absolved the local council from negligence "because local councils cannot be sued", is a slap in the face to those who are campaigning for stricter guidelines or even a ban on hillslope development. That the release of the Taman Bukit Mewah tragedy report is impeded by the Official Secrets Act (OSA) flies in the face of logic and yes, decency. That the authorities want to keep things under wraps in bringing to book those responsible for flouting the law is mind-boggling and does not reflect any sincerity in wanting to put things right. Now with Hulu Langat, there seems to be more urgency in wanting to fix faults of the past, probably due to the 14 young lives that were lost. The announcement of initiatives in this direction by Housing and Local Government Minister Datuk Chor Chee Heung while welcomed, begs the question: shouldn't requirements such as submitting plans and the imposition of deadlines be the basic necessities of any development? Even so, it is good that the authorities and the rest of us have woken up. Hopefully these recent positive developments do not get side-tracked by politicking, cover-ups and short memories. |
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