The Anwar affair
upsets her as it does other cabinet ministers who
regularly meet their foreign counterparts. The pleasantries
over and the question these days is on how
the man who would be prime minister is
now a man who would be a prisoner after being treated
appallingly in detention. Trade missions are asked intrusive
questions like how did the former deputy prime minister get
a black eye when detained under the Internal Security Act after
solemn promises from the prime minister and the
police chief that he is well treated.
But what Datin Seri Rafidah says would turn international meetings on its head. When heads of government meet on telecommunications or trade, they should not discuss politics or any issue outside their purview. When business men and trade ministry officials meet to drum up trade and investment, then it is all right. So long as the head of government and the trade mission is Malaysian; foreigners still cannot, should not. The problem with Rafidah is that her hatred for Dato' Seri Anwar is so ingrained, that she cannot understand why the man who would be convict should attract so much international attention, when such a proficient, hard worker of a trade minister as she who singlehandedly had saved the nation at international conferences cannot even get the international respect and publicity she thinks she deserves. Having helped destroy the man, she finds it galling to explain why. Why could not Dato' Seri Anwar be like Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah or Tan Sri Musa Hitam or even Tun Ghafar Baha, who either kept quiet when defeated or blabbed their way to a paralytic brain? This confusion in her brain makes her make stupid remarks. Like many of her cabinet colleagues.
M.G.G. Pillai