Perkasa chief eyeing the polls
Datuk Ibrahim Ali, who has unabashedly compared himself to Donald Trump, is planning to lead a Malay rights political front to contest the next general election.
DATUK Ibrahim Ali has aged somewhat since he formed Perkasa seven years ago. There is less hair and he no longer bounces around as he used to, but the moment he opened his mouth, it is clear that he is still the one and only “Tok ‘Him”, the abbreviated name that his supporters have for him.
The Perkasa president electrified his audience at the Perkasa AGM yesterday when he announced that he intends to lead a Malay rights political front or what he calls “Barisan Bebas” (independent front) to contest the next general election.
Candidates will come from Perkasa as well as groups and individuals who believe in defending the main pillars of Perkasa – Malay rights, Islam, Malay rulers and Malay nationalism.
Ibrahim will be one of the candidates and his group may contest up to 50 Malay-majority seats.
Ibrahim has not lost his firebrand aura but Perkasa is no longer the organisation that had once captured the attention of the nation. Back then, whether you loved or loathed him, you watched every word that came out of his mouth.
But politics is like that, people are constantly looking for the next new sensation and it looks like the Red Shirts leader, Datuk Jamal Yunos, has replaced Ibrahim as the face of the Malay right wing.
Perkasa has lost a great deal of its original oomp! because the big names who had once thrown their support behind it are now pursuing their own agenda.
Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, a recipient of the “Bintang Perkasa” award, has gone on to form a new Malay party while several Perkasa leaders have joined Dr Mahathir on his new adventure.
Veteran journalist Tan Sri Zainuddin Maidin was this year’s “Bintang Perkasa” recipient, but his keynote address did not go down well with the Perkasa crowd.
The gist of Zainuddin’s speech was that no political party can achieve power by harping on Malay rights and unity because Malaysia is made up of different races.
Zainuddin also teased Ibrahim, saying that he is no longer the only famous “frog” because there are so many frogs these days and they come from both sides of the political divide.
But Ibrahim’s party hopping days are over. He had declined to join Dr Mahathir’s party and going by his presidential address, it was obvious why.
Ibrahim detests DAP as much as the DAP members dislike him. Like many Malays of his generation, his distrust for DAP is connected to the party’s past statements on religion and special rights of the Malays.
A large part of his presidential address was devoted to criticising DAP and to a lesser extent, MCA and Gerakan.
He has been unable to accept that his idol Dr Mahathir is now working hand-in-glove with DAP leader Lim Kit Siang.
He probably feels betrayed that Dr Mahathir has reconciled with Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim after more than a decade of demonising the former deputy prime minister.
He also claimed that Malay issues were sidelined when Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak came up with the 1Malaysia theme.
He said PAS became muted on Islamic issues when it was part of Pakatan Rakyat and he saluted PAS for finally breaking away.
He implied that the same would happen for any Malay party that teamed up with Pakatan Harapan.
“These people accused DAP and Anwar of so many things and now they tell me to be big-hearted and to accept Kit Siang and Anwar. I am not a great man like Tun Mahathir. I guess I am small hearted, I cannot change what I think of them.
“I still respect Tun Mahathir as a leader, he has done a lot for the country and I learnt a lot from him. But I am no longer a gurkha. I am now my own man and the leader of Perkasa,” he said.
Ibrahim is essentially a political animal and he is preparing to take Perkasa to another level in the general election.
Some think that this is Ibrahim’s way of prolonging his political relevance. Politics is in his blood and he really believes he is meant for bigger things.
Reporters at his press conference yesterday looked at each other and rolled their eyes when he said that if Donald Trump could become the US president, then he can also be considered as prime minister material. The notion was both amusing and disturbing at the same time.
Ibrahim is also shrewd enough to know that in order to keep Perkasa members from straying, he needs to inject hope and excitement. Telling them that the organisation will be going into battle in the general election will motivate and give them something to look forward to.
The emergence of groups like Perkasa, Parti Pribumi and before that, PKR, shows that Malay society is in a state of flux. No single party can be all things to all men and that is something which big boy Umno has to think about.
At the same time, the birth of new Malay parties every few years also shows that Malay leaders take defeat in a very different way from their counterparts in more mature democracies. They cannot accept losing and their reaction is to form their own party where they can be the leader.
That may explain why Ibrahim seems quite contented to be leading Perkasa. He is the unchallenged star in Perkasa where he has the loudest voice and the most unusual ideas.
Ibrahim is Perkasa and Perkasa is Ibrahim. It’s not a healthy situation but, for now, it works just fine for him and Perkasa.