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He Who Must Be Destroyed At All Cost Makes Others Nervous
 
My good and dear friend of almost three decades, Tan Sri Sanusi Junid, the Menteri Besar of Kedah, appears to tie himself in knots in his latest barrage about respecting the laws.  He told reporters after his weekly executive committee meeting in Alor Star yesterday PAS does not respect because it promises to "free" the jailed former deputy prime minister, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim.  PAS therefore cannot "uphold the constitution and the laws" and would abuse "power should it come to rule the country."  The constitution and laws must be respected, but "PAS thinks it can rule the country at its whims and fancies if it comes to power", he says.  Mercifully, the Menteri Besar didnot say anything about raping and disrespecting the law by the government which ensured the high prominence a jailed prisoner has on the Malaysian conscience.  He claims PAS' preoccupation with his political nemesis is proof of its political bankruptcy;  after all, the fellow "is not an issue anymore".

     But should not my friend pose this to his own party, UMNO, and the governing coalition?  If Dato' Seri Anwar is irrelevant, why do National Front and UMNO leaders relentlessly hark at his irrelevance on the national scene, while nervously rearranging and refocussing policies to gain lost ground, looking behind their backs to see if Dato' Seri Anwar stalks them with a stolen M-16 rifle after escaping from Sungei Buloh prison?  Why does, indeed, the mentri besar himself accuse PAS of flogging a dead horse?  But political nervousness and uncertainty forced him to react.  Last Tuesday, the PAS deputy president, Haji Abdul Hadi Awang, repeated the opposition promise to have Dato' Seri Anwar freed should it come to power.  It can, as the National Front has the right to pardon and expunge the convictions of its leaders the courts sent to jail.  I can think of two prominent UMNO stalwarts who were -- a cabinet minister sentenced to death for murder, commuted to life imprisonment, released and pardoned after a few years in jail, now back in honour in UMNO politics;  the other, a mentri besar, jailed for technical corruption much like Dato' Seri Anwar's, released early from prison, pardoned, and now a free man.

     In Dato' Seri Anwar's case, the case wends its way through the appeal courts.  When National Front MPs were convicted, the government decided they could retain their seats and their offices until final disposal of their appeals and, if necessary, until pardon is rejected. Dato' Seri Anwar's is no different.  Which is why he remains, still, the MP for Permatang Pauh. although he can do precious little for his constituents from his 49-square-foot cell where he is sequestered in solitary confinement.  Tan Sri Sanusi's worry is that it is his nemesis who continues to dictate the political debate:  it is the first time since the formation of UMNO that one former leader dictates its nervousness.  Dato' Sir Onn Jaffair, could not ensure that;  nor Tengku Razali Hamzah;  nor Tan Sri Musa Hitam.  But in the General Election to be held soon, Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim dominates the issues of both the National Front and the opposition coalition.  That unnerves the National Front leadership.  All Tan Sri Sanusi did was to reflect that fear and uncertainty.

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my