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"If Anwar is smart, he would use this time to concentrate on building his party (so that better candidates are selected the next time) and Pakatan's internal cohesion as well as playing a more effective role as the leader of the opposition." NEW STRAITS TIMES
Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's boasts of a government takeover by defections have boomeranged on him with Pakatan Rakyat's loss of Perak. Amused by the opposition leader getting a taste of his own medicine, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad revelled in his blog that "Anwar will learn a lot of lessons from this drama".
"After all, did he not say the biggest party hop would be on Sep 16. Oh! Wrong. Sept 24. Oh, wrong again," the former prime minister said.
He delighted in the irony of Anwar's stand on Bota assemblyman Datuk Nasarudin Hashim, who had quit Umno to join the Parti Keadilan Rakyat and then U-turned back to Umno.
"What is most comical is hearing Anwar's comments regarding Nasarudin who joined Parti Keadilan Rakyat and left PKR.
"Jumping in (the trap) is allowed but jumping out is illegal," Dr Mahathir said.
Just after Nasarudin joined PKR, Anwar said he saw it as "the beginning of a new wave".
Predicting more crossovers at a Chinese New Year party to usher in the Year of the Ox in Klang, he had said "just be patient, we are working hard like the ox".
On Friday, a day after counter-defections scuppered the Perak government, Dr Mahathir ended his blog entry with a snigger: "He, he, he."
More seriously, critics of the former deputy prime minister, including former PKR Youth chief Mohamad Ezam Mohd Noor, lashed out at Anwar's two-faced attitude to party-hopping.
Ezam said Anwar's mercenary inconsistency in regard to party loyalty and discipline did not make him a "good statesman". As the crisis unfolded in Ipoh last week, the international news wires quickly savoured the just deserts, describing the fall of the Pakatan in Perak as a "boost" for Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak and a "blow" to Anwar.
"Criticism from the opposition rings hollow as Anwar tried to use defections to engineer a path to power last September, and failed," Reuters reported on Thursday.
"Losing Perak would be a slap to Anwar's alliance, which won an unprecedented five of Malaysia's 13 states in the general election last year," echoed the Associated Press.
Anwar's comeuppance was not only a point to be made by journalists.
Election analyst Ong Kian Ming, in an article on Friday that was otherwise partial to the opposition, called the Perak imbroglio "a kick in the rear that Anwar and Pakatan needed".
"By turning the tables on Anwar, Najib has effectively stopped him from speaking out further about enticing BN crossovers, at least for now.
"If Anwar is smart, he would use this time to concentrate on building his party (so that better candidates are selected the next time) and Pakatan's internal cohesion as well as playing a more effective role as the leader of the opposition," he said.
At a press conference after the swearing-in on Friday of BN's Datuk Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir as Perak menteri besar, however, Anwar again bragged about luring defectors.
Perhaps half believing that he could still pull it off, senior leaders of the Pakatan, such as Pas' Datuk Seri Abdul Hadi Awang and the DAP's Lim Kit Siang, have indulged Anwar as the presumptive prime minister.
Nasarudin's first crossing on Jan 25 was roundly welcomed. With no hint of hypocrisy, Terengganu Pas commissioner Datuk Mustafa Ali was reported five days later as saying that BN defectors were doing the right thing but Pas members would never be allowed to switch.
When Nasarudin reversed direction, however, as part of a quartet of assemblymen who pulled the carpet from under the Pakatan state government, Lim paradoxically called it a "coup".
Of the Pakatan stalwarts, only DAP chairman Karpal Singh declined to be mesmerised by Anwar's rhetoric and stuck to a principled stand against party turncoats.
Last June, Anwar assumed he had Karpal on his side. "If people endorse our agenda and policies, Karpal does not have problems" with cross-overs.
On Jan 9, in the latest of Karpal's rebuffs, he said: "DAP will only form the Federal Government with the support of the people in the general election, together with its partners in the Pakatan Rakyat, and not on the support of crossovers."
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