Thursday, March 8, 2012

You're Your Own Worst Enemy

I couldn't recall who first said "You're your own worst enemy." but from my understanding, it was originated from "Man is his own worst enemy" spoken by the Roman senator and philosopher Cicero. The quote is what I've been summarizing about in regards of my observations of PKR, it's top two leaders and apart from that KITA's Zaid Ibrahim. Similarly, there are many fellow colleagues who view the famous Allies General George Patton's ego as his own worst enemy. One of them who famously alluded that was his close friend, Omar Bradley. It is the ego of man that gets the best out of him and it's a tough thing to defeat unless it can be kicked out of a man's system.

I've been reading rants and tweets from a friend of mine, KITA's former CEC-member who was unceremoniously dismissed with the other members of the committee. I can dig up the whole list of tweets in regards to what he said, if wished. Previously when Zaid said KITA will not contest in the elections and instead show unconditional support, I was certain that Zaid made several big mistakes while he's still at PKR. I did remarked previously that you need to understand the relationship between Anwar Ibrahiim and Azmin Ali before you can attempt to take on them. One friend of mine told me of Zaid being cautioned of that relationship during the Permatang Pauh by-election campaign. But having been in the party for less than year, many viewed his actions in the party as impatient and barging through.

When he announced today that instead of dissolving the party and have KITA contesting in seats in several states, a friend of mine opined of him as a flip-flopper. Easy enough to say. But this doesn't mean that I am anti-Mr.A or anti-Mr.B or something.

Which now brings back to Anwar. Anwar's main weakness is also about the ego getting the best of him. At times, he claims to have this and that, he can turn around things in Putrajaya. There's an acknowledgement that the need to win seats in Sabah and Sarawak to gain control of the government. But then the sentiment and mindset of Sabah and Sarawak is not the same as in Peninsular. Their's as they put it as their own independent sub-camp. If the big-three from peninsular wants the lion's share of seats in Sabah and Sarawak, it would be very difficult to accomplish the objective. Unless, they make partners and friends with the local-based parties like SNAP, STAR and so forth.

Why can't PKR and their two partners make more friends with their local partners? It's one way to demonstrate their show of autonomy giving to East Malaysia. If you recall the agreement points of the two states prior to joining the federation in 1963, it's not appropriate to push and exert over there. That's what STAR is doing right now in Sabah. That's fine if the peninsular parties can represent there, but the scale has to go lower. In other words, give them to the local parties there. Lest, the mistake is seen in Batu Sapi. Barisan Nasional has local partners there, and as the saying goes, there's no harm done in having extra partners to help them out in the agenda.

If the PR's agenda is to also inline of "Anything But UMNO" agenda, then the ego, being their own worst enemy has to be shed. People with notable egos like Anwar, Azmin and Khalid Ibrahim - not just the three of them, but others have to step aside or at least settle their differences with their other partners before going ahead with the agenda. There's not much time really, maybe at least another 2-3 months before the earliest time of a general election. The crisis in Kedah is also another example of Azizan's old methodology, considered obsolete in the current age compared to what was 30 years ago. Obsolete is also alluded to what some people and think-tanks look at the Pemandu's ETP as well.

It may be a harsh way to get those with high egos aside but it is also a way to pave for more caliber people to represent the community in the Parliament. Having watch Patton biographical movie many years ago, I was reminded of the infamous Cicero quote above - a man's downfall from an enemy he can't defeat: himself.

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