Guess who is Perkasa’s guest of honour
(Harakah Daily) – UMNO offshoot Perkasa will be having its annual assembly and Malaysians may finally be able to see its members gathering in large numbers, a sight many have been waiting for amid repeated yet-to-be-fulfilled claims of the group’s wide following.
But the large crowd is not the only attraction promised by Perkasa’s incorrigible chief Ibrahim Ali.
In what may possibly eclipse Ibrahim’s much humoured fame, the Perkasa congress, which will be held in Kuala Lumpur, will have a guest of honour, one who many Malaysians have not completely forgotten.
“The AGM will be opened by former inspector-general of police Rahim Noor who we have invited in honour of his vast contributions for the nation,” Ibrahim declared at the Parliament lobby today.
Rahim (left) of course is best remembered for the infamous Black Eye incident involving former deputy prime minister-turned-parliamentary Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim.
“Bapa anjing”
On the night of his arrest on September 20, 1998, Rahim “lost his cool” and administered karate-like blows on a blindfolded Anwar who was detained at a cell in the Bukit Aman police headquarters.
Hours later, he was to tell the media that Anwar was “safe and sound” under police custody, only to be shockingly proven otherwise when the one-time acting prime minister appeared in public days later sporting a black eye.
In comic exchanges with Anwar’s counsel Karpal Singh at a Royal Commission of Inquiry set up amid public outrage over the ‘black eye’, Rahim claimed that he was provoked by Anwar who called him “bapa anjing” (father of dog).
He claimed that he entered Anwar’s cell and had wanted to remove Anwar’s blindfold, but before he could do so, Anwar said “ni, bapa anjing” (“here comes the father of dogs”), at which point, he slapped Anwar on the right and left side of his face. Karpal then reminded that Anwar was blindfolded, and questioned if Anwar could have possibly made such remarks, unless he had smelt the canine.
Karpal then disputed Rahim’s claim that the incident lasted several seconds, saying he could not have hit Anwar seven times in such a short time.
“Mike Tyson would not have managed that,” Karpal remarked.
Now 68, Rahim (pic) had largely been out of public view since then, until recently when he made a comeback after being recruited to counter PAS deputy president Mohamad Sabu’s revisionist view of Malaya’s history of independence.
The choice of Rahim at the Perkasa event should come as no surprise. Ibrahim after all is a staunch loyalist of Perkasa’s patron Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and resurrecting another figure from the tumultous era when the latter reigned is only natural.
