The Price of Opposition
July 16th 2008 23:10
It’s a bad time to be an Opposition Leader in the political world.
In years gone by, a good sound electoral thrashing was enough to shame an Opposition Leader into accepting responsibility and stepping down, or if not at least keep them quiet for a little bit while the ruling party consolidated power. If worse came to worst the ruling party could just have an Opposition Leader killed or locked up like Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Opposition Leader who has been placed under house arrest by the military junta on and off since 1989. But things seem to be looking worse and worse for Opposition Leader’s across the world. I guess they have found, in a lot of cases, that democracy is overrated.
Look at Zimbabwe. There we have a hard man with a harder name to spell (trust me, I just tried three times) as Opposition Leader: former union man Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai may not have the charisma of a Mandela but what he lacks in that department he makes up for in ballsiness. This is a guy who has suffered under the Mugabe regime, yet still had the guts to stand up and run against the Fuhrer of Zimbabwe for the role of President. So Mugabe did what any sensible African dictator would do: he had him beaten to within an inch of his life and then, after clearly losing the election, refused to acknowledge the result. I bet John Howard wishes he could have done something like that. Finally the pressure became too much for Tsvangirai and he announced that he would no longer contest the result, leaving Mugabe a clean path to continue driving Zimbabwe into the ground. The silver lining is that with the amount of people fleeing the economically devastated country, soon Mugabe wont have too many people to rule over.
Another Opposition Leader who didn’t fare too well was Benazir Bhutto. Put aside the claims of corruption, the exile and the perceived elitism. The fact is, Bhutto was what alot of Pakistani’s believed was needed to rebuild the country from the years under General Pervez Musharraf. And they may have been right, but we will never know. Because radicals had Bhutto killed weeks before the election that pundits had as a probable coronation, under a hail of gunfire and explosions. Granted, Pakistan has never been a region known for its stability. But the unapologetic terrorist actions in the murder of such a popular politician is a brazen indictment that yes, it is hard in this day and age to be an Opposition Leader.
And now finally the Opposition Leader being persecuted today: Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim. Ibrahim knew it was coming but I’m sure was still not quite prepared yesterday when Malaysian authorities arrested him near his home in balaclavas, under a charge of committing sodomy with a male aide. Sodomy, of course, is illegal in a staunch Muslim country such as Malaysia and a high-profile figure like Anwar is a target for such slander. Of course, in another country slander like that may shame a politician but would never have him taken off the street and thrown in a cell. Well, between two consenting adults it wouldn’t anyway. And that’s the charge levelled at Anwar, sodomy between two consenting adult males, and that’s the charge that he denies in no uncertain terms. Of all the attacks on Opposition Leaders, this very well may be the most ingenious of them all. Even if Anwar escapes the charge, as he may well do, he will be forever tarnished in the eyes of the Malaysian people who frown on that kind of ‘inappropriate behaviour’. Either way, either he’s locked up or his chances at the election are irreversibly damaged. Win-win.
At least Brendan Nelson only has to deal with a flagging popularity poll.
In years gone by, a good sound electoral thrashing was enough to shame an Opposition Leader into accepting responsibility and stepping down, or if not at least keep them quiet for a little bit while the ruling party consolidated power. If worse came to worst the ruling party could just have an Opposition Leader killed or locked up like Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese Opposition Leader who has been placed under house arrest by the military junta on and off since 1989. But things seem to be looking worse and worse for Opposition Leader’s across the world. I guess they have found, in a lot of cases, that democracy is overrated.
Look at Zimbabwe. There we have a hard man with a harder name to spell (trust me, I just tried three times) as Opposition Leader: former union man Morgan Tsvangirai. Tsvangirai may not have the charisma of a Mandela but what he lacks in that department he makes up for in ballsiness. This is a guy who has suffered under the Mugabe regime, yet still had the guts to stand up and run against the Fuhrer of Zimbabwe for the role of President. So Mugabe did what any sensible African dictator would do: he had him beaten to within an inch of his life and then, after clearly losing the election, refused to acknowledge the result. I bet John Howard wishes he could have done something like that. Finally the pressure became too much for Tsvangirai and he announced that he would no longer contest the result, leaving Mugabe a clean path to continue driving Zimbabwe into the ground. The silver lining is that with the amount of people fleeing the economically devastated country, soon Mugabe wont have too many people to rule over.
Another Opposition Leader who didn’t fare too well was Benazir Bhutto. Put aside the claims of corruption, the exile and the perceived elitism. The fact is, Bhutto was what alot of Pakistani’s believed was needed to rebuild the country from the years under General Pervez Musharraf. And they may have been right, but we will never know. Because radicals had Bhutto killed weeks before the election that pundits had as a probable coronation, under a hail of gunfire and explosions. Granted, Pakistan has never been a region known for its stability. But the unapologetic terrorist actions in the murder of such a popular politician is a brazen indictment that yes, it is hard in this day and age to be an Opposition Leader.
And now finally the Opposition Leader being persecuted today: Malaysia’s Anwar Ibrahim. Ibrahim knew it was coming but I’m sure was still not quite prepared yesterday when Malaysian authorities arrested him near his home in balaclavas, under a charge of committing sodomy with a male aide. Sodomy, of course, is illegal in a staunch Muslim country such as Malaysia and a high-profile figure like Anwar is a target for such slander. Of course, in another country slander like that may shame a politician but would never have him taken off the street and thrown in a cell. Well, between two consenting adults it wouldn’t anyway. And that’s the charge levelled at Anwar, sodomy between two consenting adult males, and that’s the charge that he denies in no uncertain terms. Of all the attacks on Opposition Leaders, this very well may be the most ingenious of them all. Even if Anwar escapes the charge, as he may well do, he will be forever tarnished in the eyes of the Malaysian people who frown on that kind of ‘inappropriate behaviour’. Either way, either he’s locked up or his chances at the election are irreversibly damaged. Win-win.
At least Brendan Nelson only has to deal with a flagging popularity poll.
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