Sarawak Headhunter's Reply To James Anak Bond's Open Letter To Cyber Headhunters

See below the original Open Letter and Sarawak Headhunter's reply in red.

Saturday, September 27, 2008

Letter to headhunters

First draft September 25, 2008;

Open Letter to cyber headhunters

http://knightadventure.blogspot.com/2008/09/letter-to-headhunters.html

By James anak Bond

25th September. Kuala Lumpur

Open letter to blogger Al Tugauw and his contingent of headhunters.

From within the shooting range of James anak Bond.

A headhunter & Borneo assassin

Anwar Ibrahim & you-know-who

First and foremost, I must say You rock!

Thank you for the compliment, even if rather backhanded. I note that you have also called me an assassin. I would prefer if the people of Sarawak rock, i.e. rock and sink Taib's boat.

That I would offer if I were aide to Anwar Ibrahim. From Taib Mahmud’s balcony across the Sarawak River, I would screech you suck! Personally, I’m proud of you. As one of few Sarawak bloggers who can highlight socio-political issues and attract fans and critics alike, you have all the good stuff in you. Keep it rolling. If going up is hard, try going down sometime.

I gather you’re a practical person and that you meant well in your articles. Your interesting views over matters related with politics and Sarawak may not always tow the same line with some people, I included, but who are we to dictate your line of thought in this area. Far be it I make the exception today, but can word ‘compromise’ appeal to you?

Yes, I believe I am a practical person and I do mean well for the poor people of Sarawak generally. But let's make one thing clear from the start. There are certain things I can compromise on of course, but certainly not corruption and abuse of position in government.

Before you’re left struggling as to figure the rationale of this letter I better take the cat out of the bag. NO, friend, I don’t come to pick a fight with you. YES, friend, we can fight if it should come to that – we are headhunters in any case. So is Anwar Ibrahim a headhunter. But as far as Anwar is concerned and when that Anwar Factor is framed in the context of Sarawak, I invite you and the rest of headhunters to suspect a thing or two about this Deputy Prime Minister, I mean former Deputy. I mean, we to have some reservation about his intention, trustworthiness and integrity before we should confirm our alliance with him. Not everything that glitters is gold.

My friend, fellow Sarawakian and headhunter, I am far from enamoured with Anwar or any other Malayan for that matter. I have more than some reservations about him and I certainly agree with you that not everything that glitters is gold - for I have seen gold turn into shit and shit turn into gold.

.

That is our talking point in this letter.

Try I will to remain impartial to everyone.

… but to err is man.

Anwar is armed to the teeth to win not only Permatang Pauh but also the entire country, if he has his way. Our hope is he would take over the country’s helm by fair play, not by means of crook or dishonesty.

I think you are not so naive to believe that anything is fair in politics. How do you play fair against opponents who are crooked and dishonest? We can try of course and try we must, but let us not be naive to believe that Anwar will play fair. Dare we hope that he has changed from his days with UMNO?

Assuming the good fortune is moving in Anwar’s direction the anxiety is mine that he would become the next Prime Minister of Malaysia – I hate to backtrack in my blog and this letter. Assuming the worst, Anwar can blow up his chances and will be kept dreaming – My contention hit home. Therefore, I suppose I should exercise some modesty in my haranguing Anwar, in case he is not a double agent as I have imagined and that I have been wrong about him. I suppose the rest of the headhunters also can have some reserve about speaking too highly of Anwar, in case he is indeed a double agent and that many will be forced to recover themselves afterward.

No comment.

The keyword I propose is “Wait”, hold the fire, guys.

My fellow headhunters from the land of the hornbills, if I may share with you my superficial observation, we cannot say we want Pakatan Rakyat not Anwar Ibrahim. Anwar and Ibrahim are one; Pakatan Rakyat and Anwar are one. Anwar must be spoken in the same breathe with Pakatan. Pakatan Rakyat is actually born out of the struggles in KeAdilan; KeAdilan is born out of the struggles in Anwar Ibrahim.

Do we want or even need Pakatan Rakyat? We may have to seek a strategic alliance with Pakatan Rakyat for the short term gain of change (for better or for worse), but in the long term I believe Sarawakians should go it on their own without any interference from the Malayans. We can and we should.

No doubt Pakatan Rakyat have other prominent leaders banded together with Anwar in the fold. That is because they need Anwar more than Anwar would need them, because they cannot match Anwar’s popularity among the rakyat; because in order for them to achieve their ultimate goal they need someone in the person of Anwar Ibrahim to even out the odds and lubricate the feat to victory. Now fully fledged, Anwar has grown into some kind of a cult icon overnight that eclipsed all other names and meanings. He must remains atop the pyramid of power to keep everyone united in the movement. In worse case scenario, take out Anwar from the structure and everyone around him will fall to pieces. After that happened we are returned to the same old days when DAP is made in Taiwan and PAS is made in Mecca.

Popularity, though to some extent (some may even say a great extent) necessary, cannot be made a yardstick for performance. We have seen how the BN and Taib can still remain "popular" even without any real performance. Yes, Anwar and his charisma make a good lubricant to ease the way to victory, but only because the BN refuses to learn its lessons and listen to the voices of the people.

Becoming a "cult icon" as you put it also has its disadvantages, especially when people realise that Anwar is only human. But I wouldn't say that taking Anwar out of the scenario would return things to the same old days. Malaysia would be drastically changed by such an event, and people who rise against the tyranny of the BN will also learn not to depend only on Anwar for change. Change for the better will only take place when people take that change into their own hands and not depend on others to effect it for them.

Many reasons why Anwar is gaining supports throughout the country like a singer Mila gaining SMS votes in Akademi Fantasia last two seasons, and not necessarily we know all of the reasons. If politics can be understood as we can a Reality Show, life in Malaysia should be extravagantly joyous and fun filled. But the fun in politics is only exclusive to those who are in the driving seats. To the rest of the people, such as us, we only enjoy the different between Anwar and Anwar-Not.

Time to put the rakyat in the driving seat. To paraphrase a popular airline slogan, "Now Everyone Can Politic".

.

Why Anwar is a favourite among Malaysians? Because Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is not the favourite. Why Abdullah is not the favourite? Because Anwar Ibrahim is the favourite. One appears timid because the other appears gregarious. Their approaches to political challenges are similar any which way you look at it. If Anwar think he can solve the fuel price crisis Abdullah also think he can. It is also this easy last time when the choice was between Anwar and Mahathir. Yes, there were several reasons to that but for the rest of people like us we only see Anwar is gregarious but Mahathir is smarter.

The only reason why Anwar has become a favourite is because Abdullah is stupid. That only shows that in politics you can still succeed at least initially even if you are stupid, because the rest of the people are stupider than you. But do not assume that this will last forever, people learn and they become smarter and when they become smarter than their stupid leaders care to acknowledge, then a spectacular failure is in plain sight, except that in their stupidity they will fail to realise it.

Even Mahathir was not really smart - he just took advantage of other peoples' weaknesses. Some may see that as evidence of smartness, but again it does not take smartness to be exploitative, just a complete lack of conscience. If that is the kind of leader that people want then they will get the leader they deserve.

Pakatan Rakyat appears righteous when many of us suspect UMNO is host to arrogant bastards. One appears good because the other one appears bad. Are they not the same one thing – political party? When UMNO Baru and Semangat 46 (splinter group from UMNO) locked horns 20 years ago, I guess the choice was between Not Good and Not Bad.

This is true to some extent. Political parties are nothing more than organized vested interests. As John Jay Chapman said, "A political organization is a transferable commodity. You could not find a better way of killing virtue than by packing it into one of these contraptions which some gang of thieves is sure to find useful."

Madam Chiang Kai Shek stated it quite well when she spoke, inadvertently or otherwise, of herself and her cronies, "Every clique is a refuge for incompetence. It fosters corruption and disloyalty, it begets cowardice, and consequently is a burden upon and a drawback to the progress of the country. Its instincts and actions are those of the pack."

Along the same lines, as John Arbuthnot put it even more succintly, "All political parties die at last of swallowing their own lies," a fate I believe which is swiftly befalling the BN.

And of course Miss Fong appears innocent when put to stand beside Bung Mokhtar. When you put black man Barrack Obama to contest with white American McCain sure the issue of race can come into play. But they are actually two of a kind – American politician who believes he can do better for the Americans. On Malaysian soil, how much can Anwar offer that Abdullah cannot offer?

Unfortunately you are wrong here, Anwar can offer much more that Abdullah is unwilling to or cannot offer, the only difference being that Anwar is probably smart enough to know what he can get away with and Abdullah is again too stupid to realise that he can't get away with any more.

The greatest tragedy in Malaysia politics can happen when Anwar win but he repeats exactly the same wrongs Abdullah did during his time in office. Have we not seen this kind of ‘dejavu’ taking place in many countries already?

Only if the people allow him to and Anwar is as stupid as Abdullah was.

The second worse tragedy is when Abdullah outmatch Anwar but later drawn to his incompetent self and go back on many of his words.

Are the people that stupid?

Either one, we are the bigger loser.

Again I repeat, are we that stupid? Or do we think that we are merely unfortunate? Remember, collectively, we get the leaders we deserve.

To paraphrase Kurt Vonnegut, Jr, "The two real political parties in Malaysia are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Barisan Nasional and the Pakatan Rakyat, instead."

The third worse tragedy is when we dump a girlfriend and marry her sister only to find out too late the wife is even bigger a liar than the girlfriend.

To avoid such a tragedy, we can do no better than to dump them both! It is never too late.

The fourth worse tragedy is when we shoot the wrong girl.

Which one?

So, WAIT, hold the fire, guys. We only die twice.

Only in the James anak Bond movies.

You may want to ask:

So what choice do we have beside Anwar Ibrahim?

I don’t know. Keep looking.

We won’t sell ourselves cheap to anyone, would we?

Why sell ourselves at all?

As to bring my letter to a close, I invite Al Tugauw and his contingent of headhunters to give Abdullah the benefits of the doubt. Even if he should go down, let him walk out gracefully. After all, his days are numbered. Come June 2010 he’ll be gone from Putrajaya. Even if he should be replaced by someone prior to his dateline nothing much the new guy can do, other than bracing up for the next election. Which Prime Minister would want to lose face during general election without having even completed one term?

How is it possible to give the benefit of the doubt to someone like Abdullah who has proven time and again "cakap tidak serupa bikin"? He does not deserve a more graceful exit than a quick boot to his backside. Why wait and prolong the agony of the rakyat? What matters more, the rakyat or Abdullah's or Najib's loss of face?

The second part of this agreement deal with our fair treatment to Anwar Ibrahim. Let us play hard to get with Anwar. Let Sarawak not sell herself cheap to him. Even if he can promise to give us the whole of the country bundled together nicely with oil and gas royalty in total sum of 45 years, even if he can do exactly that, let him present it to us on a silver platter before we must hail him as a messiah.

I have no problem with playing hard to get so long as Taib Mahmud does not continue to get his way. Why should Sarawak sell herself cheap to Anwar or any other Malayan? Just because Taib did it (sold Sarawak cheap to the Malayans) doesn't mean we should continue to do so.

If you would agree, we fear the repeat of 1963. Sarawak don’t want to be a prostitute again, you know what I mean. If you would agree, this prostitute cannot be fooled twice.

I don't agree that Sarawak is or has ever been a prostitute, even if some of its leaders have been pimps.

Until Anwar strut his stuff, Sarawak must remain clothed.

I don't think I like the sound of that and I certainly would not like to see Anwar strut his stuff. Sarawak must always preserve its sanctity and its leaders must always ensure that they do so.

Thank you
- OO7

I hope I have made myself clear.

Thank you too.
Al Tugauw
Sarawak Headhunter