Article From New Straits Times On Disabled Apology In Parliament

DEWAN RAKYAT, Thurs:

Disputably, Datuk Paduka Ibrahim Ali is Malaysia’s greatest, if not the most famous, political survivor: a political punching bag of enormous buffer and a battering ram of raw intensity who berates opponents in his colorfully glottal Kelantanese-speak and outsized personality, not conforming to his medium-sized but bull-like build.

By his own admission, the 57-year-old endured four decades of political battering and volatile political fortunes – forcibly exiled, twice, in his dark years of ISA detention, then loathed by former comrades for his proclivity to jump party but grudgingly admired for his impeccable timing to defect, distrusted by current party colleagues for the same reason, but well liked by friends and devoted supporters though thought to be “flexible” by fellow Dewan Rakyat MPs.

With little or no pause in that four decades, the Independent MP for Pasir Mas has the reputation of a tough street brawler, a pugilist with the ability to absorb bloody political jabs and punches from all sides before counter punching a few lethal blows himself against his aggressors: just ask Kelantan Pas, Berjasa (now defunct) and Umno leaders. Tenacious, with the subtlety of a pit bull, Ibrahim had outlived political expediency while carrying out his mentor’s bidding. That’s the thing with Ibrahim: if he believes in a leader and that leader barks an order, there’s no obstacle that can stop the man from Pasir Mas. Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, one former mentor, can testify to that rock-solid loyalty.

But today, outside the Dewan Rakyat and at the Parliament lobby, Ibrahim’s reputation of fearlessness count for nothing. For all his tough guy, Rambo-style reprisals against political leaders who may have belittled his nationalistic fervour, Ibrahim was somewhat flabbergasted when he was confronted angrily by a group of 30 handicapped people, many of them on wheelchairs. Mutually-minded MPs on the warpath like Lim Kit Siang and like Karpal Singh he can handle but these people?

It all stemmed from the Dewan Rakyat’s first day: Ibrahim, who has this long-standing target practice routine against Karpal Singh inside the august hall, triggered this altercation: in the most dead-panned of tone, he questioned why the wheelchair-bound Karpal did not seek the House’s permission to speak without having to stand up. Admittedly, it was tasteless, politically incorrect and obnoxious, but then, this was a snipe at the bullet-and-insult-proof Karpal we are talking about.
No matter. Ibrahim aggravated matters by refusing to apologise to Karpal despite the barrage of scorn from DAP MPs. But that was that. However, at the Parliament lobby, Ibrahim faced a different proposition. Word was that Karpal’s son, Gobind Singh Deo, was approached by a group calling themselves the Malaysian Against the Discrimination of the Disabled, that carried the wonderfully apt acronym of MADD, at least for today, to get Ibrahim and Bung Mukhtar Radin (BN-Kinabatangan) to meet them. Gobind managed to persuade Ibrahim to meet the MADD people but as he barely spoke, the wheel-chaired people jettisoned protocol by shouting this demand to Ibrahim: apologise to Karpal. The MADD people also pushed a two-page memorandum to that effect to Ibrahim.

Courteously, Ibrahim explained that his poser to Karpal was never meant to hurt disabled people where in fact, he actually loved the handicapped. But that didn’t appease the mob: three or four members of the group shouted back, insisting that Ibrahim apologise to Karpal. That was enough to superheat Ibrahim as he retorted: “Why should I apologise to Karpal? I was only raising a point of order in the Dewan Rakyat!” But shouts demanding that he apologise to Karpal rained on him like rotten eggs and this time, Ibrahim maintained his non-apology stance but at a few octaves higher before deciding that the verbal wrestling wasn’t worth his time. So he walked away, shutting out the drone of jeers, heckles and shouts: “Apologise to Karpal! Apologise to Karpal!”

Then there’s that ungainly appellation of being dubbed the “frog”. Ibrahim isn’t shy of admitting this, acknowledging the fact inside the House while interjecting Datuk Anifah Aman (BN-Kimanis) yesterday when the Sabahan was envisioning, and denying, Sabah BN MPs’ mass defection to Pakatan Rakyat. While Anifah made no honorable or direct mention of Ibrahim in his arguments, the Pasir Mas MP somehow felt a slight and stood up to outline this: why must talk of defections be focused on him!

Amused, Anifah was perplexed at Ibrahim’s ability to defect that he could not decide whether to regard it as a “curse” or a “matter of respect” but he did regard Ibrahim’s serial defections over the years as “flexible” – from Pas to Berjasa to Umno to Semangat 46, back to Umno, sacked from Umno for ignoring orders not to contest as an Independent in 2004, and now an Independent MP who won on a Pas ticket. Go figure.

Ibrahim had a plausible explanation for all the hopping: political struggle, even to the extent of being detained under the Internal Security Act. Twice at that, once in the 1970s and the second in the 1980s. “If you fear the ISA, then forget about any political struggle,” he philosophised.

Now here’s the amazing rub: Ibrahim, in his debate to on the royal address, declared that he was supportive of the ISA although he had been twice a victim. The ISA – the part where police can detain you without trial – should stay but with some major modifications: discretionary powers in the hands of the Home Minister must be transferred to a security committee whose members must also include Suhakam representatives.

Ibrahim clearly understood the confusion of people who naturally think that he must be against the ISA but he gave this rather narcissistic scenario on why the preventive laws were necessary: “I can round up thousands of people to demonstrate in Chow Kit and there may be trouble with the possibility of bloodshed. Now if the security people know about this before hand, they are not about to wait for it to happen. They have to stop it by detaining the organisers.”

Detain yes but only for 14 days instead of the unlimited period of many continuations, he argued. Ibrahim proposed that anyone detained under then ISA must be produced in court within 14 days with proof that the detainee meant to cause trouble that would have breached national security. “If there is no proof, let the detainee go.”

After rambling on a series of points that touched on the lapses in the New Economic Policy that undermined the Malay’s economic share, uneven awards of education scholarships, the need for Malaysia to ratify the United Nations convention on corruption and an “order” to the Rural and Regional Development Minister to visit Pasir Mas to check out the poverty there, Ibrahim appealed MPs to pay tribute to Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad, whom he described as the “most maligned now” despite his towering global achievements for Malaysia.

“Say what you will or curse whatever you like, I too criticised Dr Mahathir, I fought him inside the Umno supreme council when he pushed for the idea of meritocracy but who else spoke his mind, then fought the superpowers like the United States and Britain to raise Malaysia’s profile. Because of him we assume chairmanship of international bodies like OIC. I ask now you to pay tribute to him.”

For Ibrahim Ali, just his typical day of riling up people, putting himself in “harm’s way” but making sure he is heard loud and clear, while maintaining that his health (he suffers from diabetes) doesn’t take a licking. A survivor’s tale.

END