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Pandangan Kolumnis Akhbar Filipina 1

From: Amir  ruddin (surat pembaca)
Date: 03 May 1999
Time: 04:06:58

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Manila Standard,Friday, April 30th, 1999

Mahathir's nemesis By Nelson Navarro

Just minutes after meeting Malaysia's Wan Azizah Ismail, I am convinced that Mahathir Mohamed has found his match.

At first glance, Azizah doesn't look like somebody who stands any chance of turning the table against the aging strongman. Not anytime soon. Her jailed husband and erstwhile Mahathir heir apparent, Anwar Ibrahim, seems bound for a long prison term. For all the CNN and foreign media coverage, the National Justice Party she has somehow stitched together appears rather makeshift and no real match to the all-mighty United Malays National Organization.

Facing a small group of Manila journalists at yesterday's media dialogue at the Ilustrado Restaurant in Intramuros, the woman in traditional Malay dress, complete with a light yellow veil, looks very inch the perfect recipient of political charity and platitude. As personal guest of Cory Aquino, she could, at the very least, expect ringing, if ritual endorsements of her lonely crusade to "reform" Malaysian society, spring her husband out of jail and oblivion, and, hopefully, lead the country into the next century.

But much to our surprise, this self-described "accidental politician" turns out to be far more intelligent, perceptive and, yes, refreshingly humble about matters political, economic and everything under the sun. Her rapier-sharp sense of humor is the kind that quickly disarms doubting Thomases and makes mince-meat of all tormentors, especially males who're unwilling to concede equality to women.

"Why do you look so stern?" I ask her with all irreverence, apologizing for my westernized male chauvinist point of view. "Perhaps it's the western prejudice about Muslim women who wear veils, perhaps the fear of Muslim fundamentalism. When did you start wearing that veil?"

Azizah is further taken aback by my side comments that she actually looks prettier in person than in the media, her winsome personality, once she as let off her guard, projecting a lot more human warmth and sincerity.

"I started wearing the veil in 1973, when I was first year in medical school," she says with a slight British accent. "My mother was horrified. But I did it out of conviction and, you know, I blended beautifully in Ireland. They thought I was a Chinese nun."

This provokes gales of laughter from the otherwise drowsy journalists who'd been herded by Eggie Apostol and Melinda Quintos-de Jesus, many of whom arrived grousing about the "unholy hour." There's no doubt Azizah has grabbed everybody's attention with her funny line about the time she was taking ophthalmology studies in the Emerald Isle, that proud bastion of Roman Catholicism.

With the ice broken, the rest of the one-and-a-half-hour session turns into friendly banter about things deathly serious and warmly up-lifting. Like the Anwars' undeniably uphill fight to topple Mahathir and rid Malaysia of "cronyism, nepotism and corruption." Also, the providential way her husband's forced confinement, much like Ninoy Aquino's, has brought the family closer than it has ever been.

Precisely because Malaysia's economy seems to be in good shape and her countrymen and women have relatively little to grumble about in material terms, they should be challenged to create a more humane and decent society. "If that happened to No. 2," referring to her husband's persecution, "it can happen to others. I don't want that to happen to anyone."

Azizah has found an enthusiastic soul sister in Cory Aquino. The Anwar story, up to a point, sounds so much like a Malaysian remake of the Aquino saga. It's not only Anwar following Ninoy's path from traditional to reform politics, although the former has fortunately avoided the latter's fatal appointment with destiny. Well, so far. The Inquirer's Bel Cunanan goes at length about how Cory was fixated with the Ninoy card against Ferdinand Marcos from start to finish in 1986. While expressing admiration for her newfound friend and patroness ("The burden Mrs. Aquino had to bear was much more"), Azizah politely conveys the impression that she has arrived at the point of really wanting to take on Mahathir, instead of merely "warning the seat" for her imprisoned husband.

Unlike the single-issue Mrs. Aquino on the campaign trail, Azizah seems to have struck a neat balance between playing dutiful wife and concerned citizen who's responding to a wider social responsibility. Although it was Anwar's downfall that had pushed her into the arena, she's now in the battle to stay and she's determined to win. So she implies over and over again, surprisingly without sounding unduly pushy or obsessed.

Yet Azizah is obviously pulling her punches against a ruthless regime that happens to be presiding over an economy that's believed to be rebounding from the Asian financial crisis. "Many friends have stayed away," she admits, "but it's understandable. Their bank accounts can get scrutinized. Homes and offices have been ransacked for supposed secret documents. Some officials have been transferred. Even children's scholarships have been withdrawn.

All such harassments for the serious crime of being seen with Azizah or joining her political crusade.

Bereft of ideological goobledygook, her basic line is that somebody's got to take up the cudgels for her husband. It's the familiar Coryista refrain, also echoed by Myanmar's Aung Sun Suu Kyi, about lighting candles instead of cursing the darkness -- if not now, when?

Dealing with the wily Mahathir, now 73, is one thing, she is told, but how about the other old men and entrenched leaders within the opposition or "alternative" movement, as she prefers to call it?

"I'm politically naïve," she confesses. "But I have talked to Mrs. Aquino and at some point, I guess, I'll just have to tell them: 'Look guys, I'm the best you've got!'"

Azizah is no shrinking violet. Asked how the more personal charges of sodomy brought against Anwar has affected her and her family, she goes, straight to the point. "It was very painful, especially for the children (they have six)," she says. "You know, all the jeering, the cruel jokes in the school."

Then she mentions "The Mattress," the Anwar trial's equivalent of Monica Lewinsky's blue GAP dress. "They brought that thing to the trial," she says, "and it had all these stains and they cut 13 holes. Wow, it was quite a rump!"

Making light of this cruel trick that backfired sends everybody roaring with laughter again. So absurd were the wild allegations of Anwar's sexual trysts, she points out with a somewhat detached tone, that the persecution had proved absolutely nothing. Even the guy who was supposed to have been sodomized has been found to be "untouched," medically speaking.

Of Malaysia's future direction in the event she or her husband comes to power, Azizah is careful to eschew any intention or propensity to create a Muslim fundamentalist state as feared by some critics and detractors. First of all, the Anwars believe in trade globalization, probably the one substantive reason for the falling out with Mahathir, who favors a more protectionist economic approach. What they envision, she says at length, is an open and democratic society that upholds human values and gives justice to everyone. Although Islam is the country's official religion, citizens of all other faiths or non-faiths will be equal before the law. Above all, so much power will never again be concentrated in one person.

But is Malaysia ready for a woman prime minister?

"Ready or not, I'm here!," she deadpans, flashing a winning smile and giving everybody a naughty wink. "I'm a fresh face, you know."

Last changed: May 06, 1999