From the South China Morning Post
KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Yesterday’s arrest of de facto opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim throws Malaysian politics into dangerously familiar waters, with supporters of the popular politician accusing government figures of orchestrating a conspiracy aimed at preventing him becoming prime minister.
The accusations of sodomy echo similar charges levelled against Anwar in 1998, when he was deputy prime minister to his one-time political benefactor Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad. Then, after falling from favour, he was beaten by police and served six years behind bars. He was convicted of corruption, but eventually cleared of the sex charges.
At that time, Anwar’s political star was on the wane, but now the situation could not be more different. With 82 seats behind him in the 222-seat parliament, Anwar was just steps away, said his aides, from engineering government defections that would secure power for his coalition.
And then the fresh charges of sodomy were levelled against him by an aide on June 28.
The timing, say his supporters, can be no coincidence.
“Unless they really have a solid case that can withstand independent legal scrutiny the arrest really sinks the government’s credibility,” said Eddin Khoo, a leading writer and intellectual close to Anwar.
“The majority of the people reject the charge as a frame up and public protest across the country is inevitable. The arrest could explode in the government’s face if it is not handled fairly.”
Anwar has publicly named Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, his rival for the prime minister’s post, as the architect of the sodomy conspiracy, a charge Najib denies. Incumbent Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi is widely viewed as a lame duck leader.
“This [arrest] is very bad … it will go down very badly with the people,” said Tan Sri Ramon Navaratnam, a former senior civil servant and the president of Transparency International, Malaysia.
“It will cause great uneasiness and uncertainty and lack of confidence in the system. There are deeply held fears about whether Anwar will get justice and fairness.”
Ramon, who is also pro-chancellor of a local university, said the arrest and a prolonged trial — if there is one — would be a big setback to the reforms Anwar had started with his coalition’s spectacular performance in the March 8 general election.
“His spectacular political comeback is also in doubt now that such a charge hangs over him like a dagger,” Ramon said.
From political oblivion Anwar led the Pakatan Rakyat coalition of three political parties to claim 49 per cent of the popular vote, 82 parliamentary seats and five state governments in the March polls.
The coalition could not muster a national majority, but considering that about 90 per cent of national seats were held by the government prior to the polls, it was a stunning rebuke for Abdullah.
Immediately Anwar — who was prevented from seeking a seat at the time of the polls due to his corruption conviction but is now eligible to contest a by-election — began wooing government lawmakers to cross over, needing just 30 to topple Abdullah. In late May he announced he had the numbers to form the government but was “waiting for the right time”.
The claim shook the government into giving out billions of dollars in development largesse to the east Malaysian states of Sabah and Sarawak, on Borneo Island, where support for Abdullah was considered weak.
But all of Anwar’s carefully laid plans began to collapse after his young aide lodged a police report that Anwar had forcibly sodomised him at a luxury apartment.
The aide, who had in recent weeks travelled with Anwar to Hong Kong, Jakarta and Singapore, claimed he was forced into sex acts with Anwar on several occasions, most recently on June 26.
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