Malaysian Malaysia, a National Day story

From the Singapore Straits Times

SINGAPORE, Aug 9 — As the Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim saga unfolds before our eyes, reflecting a similar episode 10 years ago, it is strange that Singaporeans do not experience a sense of deja vu, not of the first episode but of Aug 9, 1965.

As we celebrate National Day today, the Anwar saga uncannily reminds us of the tumultuous events that led to this important date, our separation from Malaysia.

While the absence of deja vu may be attributed to the passage of time of more than 40 years, anyone who reads Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew's memoir, a bestseller in Singapore, cannot fail to notice the parallels between Lee's battle against Umno and Anwar's challenge against the same juggernaut.

While Anwar had cobbled together political parties of all stripes into a coalition, Pakatan Rakyat, Lee formed the Malaysian Solidarity Convention, an alliance of opposition parties. His slogan, Malaysian Malaysia, and Anwar's battle cry, Reformasi, both address the same basic issue bedevilling Malaysian society then as now: social injustice.

Like Anwar, Lee was demonised and attacked in the state-controlled media. “Arrest Lee,” screamed banners of Umno activists in daily demonstrations. The atmosphere was tense as it is now with the impending arrest of Anwar.

Could it be that the seeds of Malaysian Malaysia, planted four decades ago and dormant so long, have suddenly taken root and germinated as Reformasi?

Perhaps it can be said that seismic changes are taking place in Malaysia because there has been no political renewal and special-interest groups are entrenched?

Perhaps the race-based system which both Lee and Anwar challenged, under which this group preserves its interests, is no longer tenable in the age of the Internet.

Perhaps, too, many Malays who support Anwar now realise that Malaysian Malaysia (or Reformasi) is what the country needs to lift the masses out of poverty, not an astronaut or istanas. If so, then perhaps Lee was right after all.

If Anwar is jailed again, he will be Malaysia's Aung San Suu Kyi, and Umno perceived in the same light as Myammar's military junta.

For Singaporeans who have read Lee's memoirs, the connection with National Day is uncanny.

-TMI