Khairy and Reezal summon the spirit of inappropriate models from History
November 30, 2012
Khairy and Reezal summon the spirit of inappropriate models from History
by Terence Netto@www.malaysiakini.com
"Invoking the spirit of past historical personages when galvanising the troops for battle is a task of some delicacy: calling forth good models can make for a tangible difference to history's course, while, conversely, summoning the spirit of inappropriate models renders toxic the more barbarous undercurrents that flow beneath the surface of political history."-Terence Netto
COMMENT: The revenant ghosts of Winston Churchill and Barry Goldwater hovered over the UMNO general assembly, especially in the pronouncements of leaders of the Youth wing of the party.
Well, they could just as well have summoned the battle cries of Attila the Hun or Malcolm X for their combative purposes; that they didn't must have produced relief on the part of observers and adversaries alike.
Invoking the spirit of past historical personages when galvanising the troops for battle is a task of some delicacy: calling forth good models can make for a tangible difference to history's course, while, conversely, summoning the spirit of inappropriate models renders toxic the more barbarous undercurrents that flow beneath the surface of political history.
Politicians need to draw on their understanding of the past to shape the future.
Reezal, the UMNO Youth Information Chief, did not invoke Goldwater but his rhetoric dealt in the monochromes that recalled the Republican candidate in the 1964 US presidential contest that was made famous by a statement from him that encapsulated what democracy's leading lights would reject:
"I would remind you that extremism in the defence of liberty is no vice! And let me remind you also that moderation in the pursuit of justice is no virtue!"
In defence of UMNO's cause, Reezal emulated Goldwater's strictures against moderation when targeting his party's adversaries: he denounced Pakatan Leader Anwar Ibrahim as the "Great Betrayer" and excoriated PAS Spiritual Leader Nik Aziz Nik Mat as the "Great Misleader".
One supposes we have to be glad that Reezal did not lurch into depicting Nik Aziz as the "Great Satan", as Iranian propaganda regularly refers to the US. For someone who also described UMNO as chosen by God, Reezal's portrayal of Nik Aziz as the "Great Misleader" is somewhat mild compared to what the deity's elect are wont to call their enemies.
Vaults of History
In the incessant volleys of a general election campaign, which is what the present political season is, the use of epithets, even choleric ones like 'Great Betrayer" and "Great Misleader", can be put down to and excused as reflecting the heat of the battle.
But voices ringing out in the heat of partisan political battles will not resonate if not given the right words – and from the right models – to shape them.
Pakatan's proponents have mined the vaults of history, particularly for nuggets from personages who have given their lives in quest for their people's or their country's salvation. Thus pearls shed by the likes of Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela have been appropriated for the cause they espouse: salvation of the country from the depredations of more than a half century's rule by BN.
Besides these luminaries of the freedom struggles of their peoples, Pakatan has invoked thinkers like Maimonides, Ortega y Gasset and Reinhold Niebuhr, even the poet TS Eliot at various junctures of their long campaign to energise the Opposition for what they consider is the task of national rejuvenation of a polity debilitated by corruption and racism.
The chief appropriator of this mine of the incandescent in history's catalogue of the best that has been thought and said has been Pakatan supremo Anwar Ibrahim who has ranged far and wide, sieving the gold from the ore and secreting it in myriad speeches on the stump.
In a way, Khairy's invocation of Churchill is in imitation of Anwar's penchant for the quotation that encapsulates a thought or distills an argument. In one of those ironies in which history abounds, what Khairy may not know and Reezal would be loath to acknowledge is that Anwar has already influenced the thinking – of at least the Youth wing of their party that in its present ardour is led to brand him the "Great Betrayer" when, paradoxically, he may well be the one to propel them to reconstruction through reconstitution.
Read More @ Source More » Barisan Nasional (BN) | Pakatan Rakyat (PR) | Sociopolitics Plus | 大马社会政治
Comments