Waiting for Anwar 'GODOT' Ibrahim

Anwar Ibrahim does his magic trick again. He says taking over the government is no longer his priority. Yes, of course we know what is the reason behind this.

He could have done what he promises all and sundry had it been Pak Lah who is still the PM. The PM is leaving in March and with the planned leave he’s taking, that means, he will be out effectively in January. In March when UMNO convenes, that will just be the formalised last rites for Pak Lah.

But Anwar of course is eclectic when it comes to religion. This time, he chooses to be a Shiite, who don’t believe in last rites or the talqin. Therefore he will not partake in doing the last rites for Pak Lah.

He in fact wants Pak Lah to stay on so that he has all the reason to harangue the weak and inept leadership. His plan lives as long as Pak Lah is there. With Pak Lah’s exit, his grand design dies in an unmarked grave.

Because with the advent of Najib, however maligned this chap is, Anwar knows he has a formidable adversary.

We can already see the initial repercussions of Pak Lah’s decision to go. Those forces within UMNO are already aligning themselves behind Najib. Najib will get a more united UMNO and more determined.

In the end, Anwar’s promises is reduced to a tragicomedy, similar to Samuel Beckett’s play, Waiting For Godot. Substitute Godot for Anwar’s power grab.

Waiting for Godot is a play by Samuel Beckett, in which two characters wait for someone named Godot, who never arrives. Waiting for Godot is Beckett's translation of his own original French version, En attendant Godot.

Sakmongkol has made several adaptations.

Instead of people waiting for 2 consecutive days as in the original play, the rakyat and the PKR faithfuls and the converted( including the bourgeois class inhabiting areas in PJ/Damansara, Bangsar,haha- the champagne socialists, the smoked salmon socialists,the cafe-latte drinkers- these have to wait for an indeterminate period. Who are they waiting for?

They all wait for a man named Anwar Godot Ibrahim. While waiting for Godot Ibrahim, they amuse and play with themselves They claim him an acquaintance but in fact hardly know him, admitting that they would not recognise him were they to see him. So far they know of him as a person wronged because of trumped up homosexual charges in the 1990’s and now is the subject of another homosexual charge. Yes, the government is bloody thick, when it comes to find something to do Anwar Godot Ibrahim in.

To occupy themselves, they eat, sleep, talk, argue, sing, play games, exercise, swap hats, and contemplate political suicide — anything "to hold the terrible silence at bay". In addition they also do candle light vigils, participate in partisan forums and so forth. They delude themselves that they are doing something believing out of all that futilities , something will come up.

Without these noises, the dreadful silence will engulf them. "Silence," says Beckett, "is pouring into this play like water into a sinking ship", arguably both true and ironic, given the play's wordy banter and patter.

That’s what waiting for Anwar “Godot” Ibrahim is doing to them. Meanwhile, RPK waits for his own Godot.