TODAY we woke up to the sudden news that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim plans to give a State of the Union or rather a State of the Federation address at 9pm tonight (May 21).
We don’t know why Anwar is going to be giving a State of the Federation address. Today is not Hari Raya nor Independence Day. Tomorrow is Wesak Day but I certainly doubt that Anwar wants to address the country on the eve of Wesak Day just to send his well wishes to the Buddhists.
I doubt even his own team knew that Anwar wanted to give a State of the Federation address until he suddenly decided to do it. If they knew, we would have been given at least a couple of days’ notice to anticipate Anwar’s address.
Anwar, I reckon, is most likely an impulsive person. Just like his announcement about civil servants’ pay increase on Labour Day, his desire to give a state of the union address might have been something that occurred to him at the last minute.
Something was probably bothering his mind like an itch that needed to be scratched, and he probably decided to give a state of the union address immediately to satisfy that itch.
Words must have value
Is there anything important or urgent that happened which suddenly required Anwar to give a state of the union? I highly doubt it.
According to Anwar, he just wants to talk to the nation to “shed light on various issues in the country and abroad”.
The term “abroad” in his statement is interesting. Yesterday (May 20), Iranian president Ebrahim Raisi was declared to have died due to a mysterious helicopter crash.
That is an event that has the potential of triggering the Third World War. Is it to address Raisi’s death and its implication that Anwar suddenly wants to address the nation?
Who knows? I doubt even Anwar knows what he is doing. Like Captain Jack Sparrow, I reckon that Anwar is the sort of person that just “makes things up as he goes along”.
In my view, I think Anwar is probably just going to say the usual stuff that we are used to hear him saying. He is probably just going to say something to the tune of “there are challenges ahead but trust me, I know what I am doing, work together with me, disregard the naysayers, and I will lead you to the promised land”.
As a writer, I, of course, think that words are powerful but even I don’t think that words are as powerful as Anwar believes them to be.
Anwar, I reckon, imagines that words have such magical powers that you can even use them to make water dry and fire cold.
Anyway, regardless of how urgent, important, lofty or noble the words that come out of Anwar’s mouth tonight (May 21), I doubt it is going to make much or any impact at all.
Words only have power if they stand the test of experience.
If not, they are about as important as the cries of “the boy who cried wolf” in the fable. You might believe it the first time you hear it but once you realise that what you hear has no correlation with reality whatsoever, you can no longer be expected to believe it, even when the wolves finally come. – May 21, 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.
