Why was Ibrahim Libya a terrorist when Anwar Ibrahim was in the government and now that he is out of the government Ibrahim Libya becomes a martyr? And Anwar must not forget that his father-in-law, Dr Wan Azizah Ismail’s father, was one of those advisors of Dr Mahathir who advised the Prime Minister that Musa Hitam may be up to no good.
THE CORRIDORS OF POWER
Raja Petra Kamarudin
Since my yesterday’s article, Malaysians mudah lupa, a few readers commented that 30 years ago Malaysians did not have access to alternative news, Malaysians obtained their news only from the mainstream media, Malaysians did not know better and believed the government propaganda, etc.
This is actually not true. I remember less than 20 years ago when I was active in the late MGG Pillai’s chat group, Sang Kancil, I used to have running battles with the Chinese supporters of DAP. They did not believe what the mainstream media said. That was very clear because they made sure we knew in the coarse language that they used. But when we tried to explain anything to them, they would turn racial and whack us mainly because it was a non-Chinese that was talking to them.
They were fiercely anti-Malay, anti-Islam and anti-PAS. As much as I tried to explain that PAS is not what they say it is and that they are wrong about what they think PAS is they would not believe me. To them, anything Malay or Islam is evil, PAS especially. Umno may not be that great but at least there is no danger of Malaysia turning into an Islamic State with Umno.
I eventually left that chat group after MGG Pillai told me whom these people are. Most were DAP supporters, all were Chinese, and some actually lived overseas such as in Australia and New Zealand.
I gave up trying to explain things to them and instead started my own website, Raja Petra’s Homepage. This was in the mid-1990s, before the birth of the Reformasi movement in 1998.
So I do not buy this argument that 30 years ago Malaysians did not have access to alternative news, Malaysians obtained their news only from the mainstream media, Malaysians did not know better and believed the government propaganda, etc. They did have access to the alternative media. It is just that since we are not Chinese then what we say was rejected. That was the long and short of it all.
And the 1999 and 2004 general elections proved it. Chinese would vote Chinese and whatever we may say about PAS and PKR, since both are not Chinese, we would never get the support of the Chinese.
My wife discussed this matter with me and suggested that I ‘break away’ from PKR, the party I was working for from the time the party was formed in April 1999 right up to the March 2004 general election. And it was my wife who not only suggested, but also nagged me for five months, to leave PKR and startMalaysia Today. And I did, in August 2004.
The reason my wife felt that remaining in PKR was futile is because PKR is a political party, and a Malay-based political party on top of that, to quote the late MGG Pillai. Hence it would be very difficult to reach and convince the non-Malays, the Chinese in particular. More than ten years of failure surely is proof enough. So we need a new platform to reach the Chinese and maybe Malaysia Today could be that platform.
And that was mainly why I left PKR to start Malaysia Today, to try to crack a very hard nut, the Malaysian Chinese mentality.
Years ago I had written about the weaknesses of Malaysia’s air defence system. Malaysia is not able to monitor the air traffic above our skies. If a foreign country sent its air force to attack Malaysia the country would be wiped out long before we were even aware we are being attacked.
I mentioned that the country’s radar system was merely ‘for show’ and did not really function well. A lot of money may have been spent to set up our radar system but it was all a load of crap. If we really faced an attack we would be in serious trouble. We cannot even detect Singapore planes infringing our air space and the United States flies over our air space about 2,000 times a year. There are only 365 days in a year so if it is 2,000 times a year how many times a day would that come to?
Alas, no one bothered about this report. None of the opposition leaders took up this issue. It was just I alone talking to the nation with no one else interested in what I had to say.
Today, every Malaysian and his dog are screaming about the ‘inefficiency’ of the Malaysian government. We do not even know what happened to MH370. Where has the plane gone? How come we do not know? Are we not monitoring our air space?
Exactly! The same issues I raised many years ago but no one bothered. And you want to blame the mainstream media for this?
Even earlier than that I raised the issue of the Memali incident. I happen to personally know the Commander of the PFF (who was a close friend of mine) that was tasked with the job of taking action against Ibrahim Libya.
What was of concern to me at that time was I heard that Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad was urged to not leave the country (that has since been confirmed). However, the trip to China had been planned beforehand and there was no way they could cancel the trip at the eleventh hour. Those who wanted Dr Mahathir to cancel the trip were worried that the Acting Prime Minister, Tun Musa Hitam, might ‘mismanage’ the Memali affair.
You see, Musa was very angry with Dr Mahathir. And this is because Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah had challenged him for the post of Deputy President (the second time around) and Musa wanted Tengku Razaleigh, who was then the Finance Minister, sacked from the government.
Dr Mahathir, however, refused to sack Tengku Razaleigh. Instead he was only ‘demoted’ to the post of Minster of Trade and Industry. And this upset Musa because, although this may be seen as a sort of demotion, the Trade Minister is almost as powerful as the Finance Minister.
Hence, those close to Dr Mahathir (Anwar Ibrahim included) were very suspicious of Musa and felt that leaving the country in Musa’s hands and allowing him to solve the Memali problem may be very dangerous.
And these people were proven correct, as history can now testify. Memali was a disaster.
All this has been raised before. We mentioned the political intrigue in Umno and how Musa was lining up his forces to challenge Dr Mahathir because of his unhappiness regarding the ‘demotion’ of Tengku Razaleigh — who should have instead been sacked. Soon after that, all hell broke loose when Umno split into Team A and Team B. So our suspicions were not unfounded after all.
What puzzled us at that time is when PAS issued a statement denying any links to Ibrahim Libya. But we thought he was not only an active PAS member but also one of its candidates. So why did PAS distance itself from Ibrahim Libya? Was this because Ibrahim Libya was propagating deviant teachings, as the government alleged? Was this because Ibrahim Libya was propagating violence and terrorism, as the government alleged?
If PAS itself has washed its hands of Ibrahim Libya then who are we to defend him? Maybe what they said about him is true after all.
Now, of course, everyone is singing a different tune. Even Anwar Ibrahim back in 1985 condemned Ibrahim Libya. Today, Pakatan Rakyat wants this matter reopened and a reinvestigation into the events in Memali conducted.
Why was Ibrahim Libya a terrorist when Anwar Ibrahim was in the government and now that he is out of the government Ibrahim Libya becomes a martyr? And Anwar must not forget that his father-in-law, Dr Wan Azizah Ismail’s father, was one of those advisors of Dr Mahathir who advised the Prime Minister that Musa Hitam may be up to no good.
