IN response to the criticism saying that Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim should not have accepted former premier Datuk Seri Najib Razak’s apology, Anwar recently fired back by saying something to the tune of “why not, I am the father of the nation.”
A lot of people are trolling Anwar for saying that he is a father of the nation, and to be frank, I can understand why. When I first heard Anwar refer to himself as the “Father of the Nation”, my first reaction was that of cringe too.
I think part of the reason why his self-reference sounded so weird is because of my age. When you are in your 40s, people referring to themselves as your father does have an odd note to it.
If I myself felt so odd hearing Anwar refer to himself this way, I can imagine how those in their 70s and 80s must have felt.
Seeing the relationship between age and cringe level to what Anwar said, I think that the millennials and the Gen-Z were probably the only group that took what Anwar said in stride.
A couple of months ago, I probably would have had a field day making fun of Anwar for mimicking the likes of Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin or Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob with their “Abah” and “Pak Long” affectations.
I probably would have mocked Anwar for thinking that he is a part of the reformation movement when he is still captured by such third-world ideas like being a father of the nation.
But that was before the unveiling of the 2025 Budget when Anwar made good on his promise to raise wages and increase social protection for all the workers in Malaysia, both foreign and domestic.
Honestly, before he came out strongly for the workers in the Budget 2025, I honestly thought that Anwar was just riding on the Reformasi agenda to hoist him up to power.
I don’t blame myself for thinking like that because for a year plus after his reign, all I saw Anwar doing was increase his stranglehold on power and look like he was intent on wrecking vengeance on his enemies.
As it turns out, maybe there is more subtlety and nuance to what Anwar was up to than what meets the eyes.
I might have only seen madness in his method before, but after Budget 2025, I am starting to see Anwar with new eyes, and from this point of view, it really looks like maybe there is a method behind the madness of Anwar after all.
For all you know, rather than indulge in absolute power and enjoy disposing of his enemies slowly by a death by a thousand cuts, maybe Anwar was just doing what he was doing because he was setting the pieces and bidding the time to bring the Reformasi agenda to fruition.
When you clean house, the house will get messier before it becomes cleaner. Maybe things just looked messier in the first two years of Anwar’s reign because Anwar was genuinely trying to clean the house.
In any case, after he came out strongly and unexpectedly for the working and middle class in Budget 2025, I am now of the opinion that Anwar might likely be the once-in-a-lifetime champion that the working class and middle class have been waiting for for decades.
We have to remember that Anwar is 77 years old. People of that generation might appreciate these sorts of things in a way that those from the younger generation might not be able to fathom.
If being the father of something is what Anwar wants, and if he is indeed going to reform the economy and radically transform the lives of 80% of the Malaysians, the least we can do for him is fulfil his desires when it most likely not even going to cost a single thing.
Of course, it is a little premature to call Anwar the father of the nation now, but if Anwar manages to raise the minimum wage to a living wage of RM 3,000 per month like he has hinted he would, who is to say that it cannot happen in a few more years?
Personally, I am partial to the term Bapa Reformasi. I think the epithet has a nice ring to it and it will suit him. – Oct 30, 2024
Nehru Sathiamoorthy is a roving tutor who loves politics, philosophy and psychology.
The views expressed are solely of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Focus Malaysia.
