Who’s afraid of Akmal Salleh?

Political exorcism? Dr Akmal has been calling for Umno to leave the Madani government. — AZMAN GHANI/The Star

IN Edward Albee’s masterpiece, Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?, the central question is not about a literal predator – the Big Bad Wolf – but a psychological one: Who is afraid of living life without false illusions? The play’s characters, George and Martha, cling to elaborate, alcohol-fuelled fantasies to mask the rot in their marriage and the stinging failure of their personal ambitions.

“To kill the wolf” in Albee’s world is to perform a brutal exorcism of those lies, forcing oneself to stand in the cold, unvarnished light of reality. This literary theme provides a striking and sophisticated parallel to the current internal friction within Umno, most notably personified by the fiery rhetoric of Datuk Dr Akmal Salleh.