Anwar under the radar in Malaysia

Asia Times Online
Jun 7, 2005

Anwar under the radar in Malaysia
By Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR - Gone are the neck brace, the walking stick, the wheelchair and the tired, exhausted look that distinguished Anwar Ibrahim after 1998, when he was sacked from his position as Malaysia's deputy prime minister and jailed for corruption and sodomy after trials universally condemned as unfair.

The 57-year-old Anwar who walked onto the stage of a posh hotel here last week to speak before a packed audience of supporters and foreign diplomats was a picture of health. He was suave, confident, articulate - and on the attack.

At the receiving end of his assault was retired prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar's former mentor-turned-nemesis, who was accused of owning large stakes in media companies, of allowing rampant official corruption and of being responsible for blatant human-rights abuses.

Former speaker of the Indonesian parliament Amien Rais and Thai senator Kraisak Choonhavan also spoke at the function, a forum on political reform in Southeast Asia, giving Anwar's political comeback plan added weight.

In Malaysia, Anwar insisted, corruption is endemic, unemployment is on the rise, police abuses go unchecked, and democratic institutions have been weakened.

After several weeks of recuperation on his release from jail last September - after the country's highest court acquitted him of sodomy charges - and then several months in Europe, the Middle East and the United States on the lecture circuit and as an honorary academic at Oxford and Johns Hopkins universities, Anwarreturned to Malaysia to re-launch his political career.

The charismatic former deputy prime minister has vowed to press ahead with reformasi (reform) and unite and strengthen the disparate opposition to face the government of Abdullah Badawi in general elections due in 2008.

Anwar has also toured the country, speaking at political rallies to demand an independent investigation into the corruption of past and present leaders. He has promised to bridge differences and exploit common ground to unite the Islamic Party of Malaysia (Parti Islam Se-Malaysia, or PAS) with the Chinese-based opposition Democratic Action Party, a secular group defending middle-class values.

All well and good, but while several thousand people attended the forum and the rallies, Anwar's message has not gone beyond that select group of people who are already converted to his cause and firm believers in reform.

For the general public, Anwar has simply disappeared from the political scene. The reason: the government-controlled media, the only media allowed free rein in the country, has completely blacked out the challenger.

"Has Anwar sneaked back into the country?" was how a doctor reacted when this reporter told him Anwar spoke at a forum on political reform. "I did not read it in The Star," he said, referring to the mass-circulation English-language tabloid that, because of strict
controls and censorship, can truly boast, "If we did not report it, it did not happen."

Anwar has been transformed from an establishment figure whose every word was dutifully reported into an opposition icon whose every move must be assiduously ignored. No editor dares violate the government order to black him out, and with it in place, Anwar faces an uphill task in making his plans known and his presence felt. While the alternative media and Internet-based news websites such as Malaysiakini.com give prominence to his campaign, their reach is short.

Privately, editors have been told Anwar is a security threat because he would split the majority Malay community, whose unity and well-being is the bedrock of stability in this multi-ethnic society.

"The instruction is preferably not to report, and otherwise report the inconsequential aspects in the inside pages," a veteran journalist told Inter Press Service, requesting anonymity.

In the vernacular newspapers read by the Malay voters Anwar needs to win over, he is portrayed as a traitor. "He is a traitor, he ruined the economy and shamed the Malay race," is a common and often repeated refrain.

It is not difficult to block news about Anwar or - the other side of the coin - to unfairly attack him, because the country's newspapers and television stations are directly or indirectly owned by political parties in the ruling 14-party National Front coalition.

"We are like government servants - there is no room to disobey in the first place," said the journalist.

Malaysian universities and Malaysian students abroad are also warned against attending lectures given by Anwar on pain of losing their scholarships.

In addition, election laws also work against the politician. Because of the corruption conviction, he is barred from holding office or contesting in elections until 2008. This law can only be circumvented if the king grants a pardon. But Anwar has refused to ask for one, arguing it would be an admission of guilt.

"I am the victim and totally innocent," he has said repeatedly. But his supporters, some of them very senior retired civil servants, submitted a petition to the king in May to grant the pardon.

Political analysts say there is little chance of that happening because even if the monarch is amenable, the constitution says he must act on the advice of the government. Several veteran government ministers, many of whom remain loyal to Mahathir, are implacably against a pardon for Anwar. (Mahathir had groomed Anwar as his successor but turned on him after 1998, when Anwar questioned his policies and spoke out against official corruption).

To Anwar's inner circle, the real obstacle to his comeback is public perception of the man after seven years of relentless government propaganda, first under Mahathir and now under Badawi, portraying Anwar as the very incarnation of Satan - indecent, guilty of many crimes, corrupt, a sexual deviant and an Islamic fanatic.

Weighed down by such a negative general perception and facing official harassment, unfavorable election laws and a thorough media blackout, Anwar has a mountain stacked against his comeback plans.

Even an open invitation last week from PAS inviting him to join the party and lead the opposition is a doubled-edged sword. "Fundamentalist-minded Muslims are overjoyed, but moderates are unhappy with the invitation. Non-Muslims must be terrified," an
academic analyst told IPS.

More than 40% of Malaysians are non-Muslims and previously voted against any political party allied with PAS.

At the weekend, PAS secretary general Nasharuddin Mat Isa, a British university graduate who is seen as a moderate, beat incumbent fundamentalist cleric Hassan Shukri in a three-corner fight for the post of deputy president, and all three vice presidential posts were won by party moderates who are not clerics, for the first time in PAS' history. This might, conceivably, open the door for Anwar.

Despite all the obstacles, Anwar vows to return to politics. "I am a Malaysian, this is my home," he said recently. "I have returned, don't count me out."

Despite that enthusiasm, it remains an open question whether Anwar can regain his former pole position in Malaysian politics.

(Inter Press Service)

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