COMMENT Now that the cat has sprung out of the bag and is dashing about among a wider public, the only news would be if anyone has died of shock from the revelation that Dr Mahathir Mohamad has withdrawn support for Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak.
After months of premonitory sniping at the premier by his satraps, notably A Kadir Jasin and Zainuddin Maidin (left), the man himself has come out in the open with a formal declaration of hostilities.
There is no more cogent example of déjà vu nor self-parody than the producer himself reiterating he is about to re-start a familiar business - the demolition of a sitting PM.
A fortuitous benefit of this incipient extravaganza - to the federal opposition, Pakatan Rakyat - has been the confirmation that their self-destructive shenanigans in Selangor have furnished the opportunity to the premier demolisher of incumbent PMs to fix on this as the most opportune time for the unleashing of his decanal decapitation of national head honchos, not to mention a few deputies as well.
The wonder is that anyone at all, at this advanced juncture of their career trajectories, could be surprised at how the two protagonists, one of the drama about to start and the other of an already running one in Selangor, confirm a truism of classical Greece - that character is fate.
Character here is taken to mean the way in which a person confronts the things that happen to him, a number of which may come about as a consequence of his characteristic behavior. Fate is the sum of the decisive things that happen to a person, whether as a result of his characteristic behavior, or fortuitously, at the behest of some transcendent power.
That the characters of Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim have fed off each other is by now a staple of Malaysia's modern history.
Malaysians are beginning to realise that the one's career could not have been possible without the other and vice versa.
Truly, the reformasi movement would not have been catalyzed into something urgent and insistent without what Mahathir did to Anwar in September 1998 and how the latter reacted to the events.
Before September 1998, the movement was an inchoate yearning; after Amwar's jailing and obloquy, reform became a national agenda.
Mahathir would not have been able to prolong his tenancy of the PM's office - 22 long years - without Anwar's lieutenancy for 16 years of that tenure.
Certainly, the accretion of power to the office of the PM and Umno president could not have taken place without Anwar's tacit support, as heir presumptive to Mahathir.
The long running drama of their interaction since they first met in 1971 and their influence on the life of this nation over the last four decades is so pivotal that our history itself becomes confused with their own biographies which goes to illustrate historian Thomas Carlyle's theory that humanity advances by means of these demi-gods or 'heroes'.
Succumbing to the danger of self parody
But as the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson cautioned: "Every hero becomes a bore at last": the two are presently in danger of inducing a yawn in arenas they once bestrode as giants.
If it happens it would be due to their succumbing to the danger of self-parody each is tempted to flirt with, Mahathir more so.
Men of destiny seek proof of their greatness by exercising a license to go too far, and as the fear grows that destiny may have placed a terrible joke on them, they double and redouble the stakes on the wheel of fortune. In this way they destroy themselves.
By claiming at the commencement of his unseat Najib campaign, after the fashion of Brutus, that it is not because he loves his leaders less but that he loves the people and country more, Mahathir is parodying what Anuar Musa, then a young delegate from Kelantan to the Umno general assembly in 1983, who quoted from the Shakespearean play Juluis Caesar the words Brutus used before stabbing Caesar. The Roman emperor was surprised that a friend like Brutus could be part of squad of assassins with regicide in mind.
Anuar cited the quotation in the course of rhetorical flights faintly critical of Mahathir's leadership of Umno. Mahathir's response was characteristically brusque. "Brutus stabbed Caesar" he reminded the Umno delegates. In other words, back-stabbers are back-stabbers, their lofty motives notwithstanding.
If Mahathir unseats Najib, the wheel would have come full circle in his career: he began his ascent to the top of the greasy pole by destroying one Umno president (Tunku Abdul Rahman) and is set to end his career by destroying the son of the man (Abdul Razak Hussein) who gave him the chance to rise after a display of Oedipal rage against the Tunku.
If PKR allows Anwar to convert the party into his personal fiefdom, his thrust to the top of the totem pole that began with his rebellion against nepotism, cronyism and corruption in 1998 would flirt with what could well be a fatal contradiction.
Not for the first time in history would pivotal allies-turned-adversaries have symmetrical characters/parallel fates.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades now. He likes the profession because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.
After months of premonitory sniping at the premier by his satraps, notably A Kadir Jasin and Zainuddin Maidin (left), the man himself has come out in the open with a formal declaration of hostilities.There is no more cogent example of déjà vu nor self-parody than the producer himself reiterating he is about to re-start a familiar business - the demolition of a sitting PM.
A fortuitous benefit of this incipient extravaganza - to the federal opposition, Pakatan Rakyat - has been the confirmation that their self-destructive shenanigans in Selangor have furnished the opportunity to the premier demolisher of incumbent PMs to fix on this as the most opportune time for the unleashing of his decanal decapitation of national head honchos, not to mention a few deputies as well.
The wonder is that anyone at all, at this advanced juncture of their career trajectories, could be surprised at how the two protagonists, one of the drama about to start and the other of an already running one in Selangor, confirm a truism of classical Greece - that character is fate.
Character here is taken to mean the way in which a person confronts the things that happen to him, a number of which may come about as a consequence of his characteristic behavior. Fate is the sum of the decisive things that happen to a person, whether as a result of his characteristic behavior, or fortuitously, at the behest of some transcendent power.
That the characters of Mahathir and Anwar Ibrahim have fed off each other is by now a staple of Malaysia's modern history.
Malaysians are beginning to realise that the one's career could not have been possible without the other and vice versa.
Truly, the reformasi movement would not have been catalyzed into something urgent and insistent without what Mahathir did to Anwar in September 1998 and how the latter reacted to the events.Before September 1998, the movement was an inchoate yearning; after Amwar's jailing and obloquy, reform became a national agenda.
Mahathir would not have been able to prolong his tenancy of the PM's office - 22 long years - without Anwar's lieutenancy for 16 years of that tenure.
Certainly, the accretion of power to the office of the PM and Umno president could not have taken place without Anwar's tacit support, as heir presumptive to Mahathir.
The long running drama of their interaction since they first met in 1971 and their influence on the life of this nation over the last four decades is so pivotal that our history itself becomes confused with their own biographies which goes to illustrate historian Thomas Carlyle's theory that humanity advances by means of these demi-gods or 'heroes'.
Succumbing to the danger of self parody
But as the philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson cautioned: "Every hero becomes a bore at last": the two are presently in danger of inducing a yawn in arenas they once bestrode as giants.
If it happens it would be due to their succumbing to the danger of self-parody each is tempted to flirt with, Mahathir more so.
Men of destiny seek proof of their greatness by exercising a license to go too far, and as the fear grows that destiny may have placed a terrible joke on them, they double and redouble the stakes on the wheel of fortune. In this way they destroy themselves.
By claiming at the commencement of his unseat Najib campaign, after the fashion of Brutus, that it is not because he loves his leaders less but that he loves the people and country more, Mahathir is parodying what Anuar Musa, then a young delegate from Kelantan to the Umno general assembly in 1983, who quoted from the Shakespearean play Juluis Caesar the words Brutus used before stabbing Caesar. The Roman emperor was surprised that a friend like Brutus could be part of squad of assassins with regicide in mind.
Anuar cited the quotation in the course of rhetorical flights faintly critical of Mahathir's leadership of Umno. Mahathir's response was characteristically brusque. "Brutus stabbed Caesar" he reminded the Umno delegates. In other words, back-stabbers are back-stabbers, their lofty motives notwithstanding.
If Mahathir unseats Najib, the wheel would have come full circle in his career: he began his ascent to the top of the greasy pole by destroying one Umno president (Tunku Abdul Rahman) and is set to end his career by destroying the son of the man (Abdul Razak Hussein) who gave him the chance to rise after a display of Oedipal rage against the Tunku.If PKR allows Anwar to convert the party into his personal fiefdom, his thrust to the top of the totem pole that began with his rebellion against nepotism, cronyism and corruption in 1998 would flirt with what could well be a fatal contradiction.
Not for the first time in history would pivotal allies-turned-adversaries have symmetrical characters/parallel fates.
TERENCE NETTO has been a journalist for four decades now. He likes the profession because it puts him in contact with the eminent without being under the necessity to admire them.
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