Khalid Ibrahim: The making of an antihero

Can he escape from the past and be redeemed or transformed in the end?

COMMENT

Isn’t it sublime de facto leadership that after the rottweillers have had their weeks’ fill of ravaging Khalid Ibrahim and sealing his fate as the Menteri Besar (MB) of Selangor, Anwar Ibrahim tells the party congress that he does not agree with personal attacks against Khalid and even calls on the delegates to “acknowledge Khalid’s sincerity and track record”? Touching indeed.

This latest episode of “Desperate Politicians” in Selangor brings to mind the creation of an anti-hero in Jessica Page Morrell’s 2008 manual on “Bullies, Bastards & Bitches”. Has PKR created an anti-hero in Khalid? Let us revisit Jessica’s guide for would-be writers to see if he fits the mould of the anti-hero.

“If you dare to write about less-than-charming characters, you don’t need to always redeem them with an ending in which they see the error of their ways, mend their faults and allow their flinty hearts to be transformed into a choir loft of goodness. You see, Hollywood movies have greatly influenced audience expectations to such a degree that bad people are expected to become good, endings are expected to be tidy and hopeful, and outcomes are expected to be laced with sunshine.”

The end of Khalid’s days as the MB is nigh but I doubt he needs the de facto leader of PKR to orchestrate such a Hollywood feel-good climax to his career. After all, the show ain’t over till the fat gentleman sings and man, when he goes, is he going to sing about the frailties of his erstwhile PR politicians since 2008. Remember, he’s got more files than the rottweilers.

Jessica goes on:

“An anti-hero is a protagonist who is as flawed or more flawed than most characters; he is someone who disturbs the reader with his weaknesses yet is sympathetically portrayed, and who magnifies the frailties of humanity…An anti-hero is often a badass, a maverick or a screw-up. An anti-hero can also play the part of an outsider or loner. This kind of anti-hero often possesses fragile self-esteem, has often failed at love and/or is estranged from people from his past. The reader loves these characters because they are realistic and relatable – just like people in the reader’s life, they’re imperfect and roiling with contradictions. Anti-heroes can be obnoxious, pitiful or charming, but they are always failed heroes or deeply flawed.”

Coming from a socialist background, I have never been a fan of Khalid, especially since the days when he was the Guthrie CEO and was on the opposite side of the fence from the plantation workers we were fighting for.

When he became PR’s celebrated Menteri Besar of Selangor, I was still unimpressed by his neo-liberal and populist policies which included giving away free water to Selangorians.

From 2008 to 2013, we heard nothing but praise and adulation for this PR hero. In a passionate accolade by DAP’s Tony Pua as recently as the recent Kajang by-election:

“Khalid is an extremely honest and hardworking MB.”

The Kajang Bad Movie

It was when PKR announced its asinine “Kajang Move” in complete contempt for voters’ decisions at the 13th general election that Khalid began to display some flashes of the anti-hero.

When he was being openly maligned for being inept and corrupt by the PKR and DAP rottweilers as the basis for his ousting as the MB, Khalid showed amazing team spirit by taking on the role of Kajang by-election organiser and continually putting on his Yogi Bear grin for the cameras. It was like something out of Lu Xun’s “Story of Ah Q” – the classic antihero.

I, for one, could not have stomached such humiliation from the PR rottweillers and still be able to carry on with the Kajang Bad Movie. Again, this bears out Jessica Morrell’s taxonomy of the anti-hero:

“One of the most important qualities to remember is that anti-heroes rarely, if ever, reflect society’s higher values – or what we like to think of as our society’s values; their thinking and values are often antithetical to those of the norm. For example, the sort of traits valued by most members of society – such as honesty, strength, integrity and compassion – will not always be exhibited by an anti-hero in a story. Or, he might have a character arc where he grudgingly adopts some of these traits. Traditional depictions of main players were of good guys with traits that we all wanted to emulate. Anti-heroes turn that assumption upside down.”

Khalid, like most anti-hero characters who come with flaws, neuroses and “issues”, possess an underlying pathos. There is always something that is screwing up the anti-hero’s plan – perhaps it is from his past. Can Khalid escape from the past and be redeemed or transformed in the end?

Wait for the next episode of “Desperate Politicians”. Let’s hope the fat gentleman does not disappoint by failing to sing.

Kua Kia Soong is Suaram adviser