Now with the latest Perak crisis, doubts are emerging about Anwar's effectiveness as the opposition leader. However, the mystery of who is the real Anwar should be analysed from the fox and the hedgehog context.
Philosopher and historian Isaiah Berlin said that foxes know many cunning tricks to survive while hedgehogs know only one single thing.
My instincts indicate that Anwar pretends to be a fox who can fix many of M'sia's social and economic challenges. However, he may actually be a hedgehog with only one real talent: Is it his oratory skills? His ability to hold the PAS-DAP dichotomy together or his anti-NEP and anti-corruption principles (which very few Malays have the intellectual bravery to champion)?
For most M'sians, all they want to see is a shadow cabinet, sound economic policies and a new set of values that will unite the secular and the non-secular sentiments of the citizens.
Since the former Premier Tun Mahathir, who seemed to be more of a fox than a hedgehog, failed to move the country out of its handicaps, the public may now clamour for a hedgehog-type of leader, a man of integrity and vision who only knows how to carry out one great idea that will solve many of the country's problems.
Philosopher and historian Isaiah Berlin said that foxes know many cunning tricks to survive while hedgehogs know only one single thing.
My instincts indicate that Anwar pretends to be a fox who can fix many of M'sia's social and economic challenges. However, he may actually be a hedgehog with only one real talent: Is it his oratory skills? His ability to hold the PAS-DAP dichotomy together or his anti-NEP and anti-corruption principles (which very few Malays have the intellectual bravery to champion)?
For most M'sians, all they want to see is a shadow cabinet, sound economic policies and a new set of values that will unite the secular and the non-secular sentiments of the citizens.
Since the former Premier Tun Mahathir, who seemed to be more of a fox than a hedgehog, failed to move the country out of its handicaps, the public may now clamour for a hedgehog-type of leader, a man of integrity and vision who only knows how to carry out one great idea that will solve many of the country's problems.
Abraham Lincoln's hedgehog genius was to liberate America from the scourge of slavery at the cost of civil war. I guess Barack Obama's hedgehog idea is to do the opposite: promote world peace at the cost of making diplomatic alliances with despotic regimes. ("To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history, but that we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.")
In others words, a false world peace today to postpone the real world war that is looming at the periphery of the global financial meltdown.
1 comment:
I wonder what Obama meant by the unclenched fist metaphor.
The unclenching of a brutal man's fist is a superficial act. If his heart and mind is still bent on destroying his neighbour, then the unclenched fist can easily be clenched again.
I hope the world will not be charmed by the poetical rhetoric of leaders like Obama and examine the double meanings of his words. If people can't see through his words, this man is a prime candidate to be accepted as a future world leader in the new world order.
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