Asia-Pacific, Headlines

POLITICS-MALAYSIA: Anwar Who?

Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Jun 5 2005 (IPS) - Gone are the neck brace, the walking stick, the wheelchair and the tired, exhausted look that was Anwar Ibrahim after 1998, when he was sacked from the government and jailed for corruption and sodomy after trials universally condemned as unfair.

The Anwar Ibrahim, 57, 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 attacking.

At the receiving end was retired prime minister Mahathir Mohamad, his former mentor turned nemesis, who was accused of owning larges stakes in media companies, of allowing rampant official corruption and of responsibility for blatant human rights abuses.

Former speaker of the Indonesian parliament Amien Rais and Thai senator Kraisak Chunhavan also spoke at the function, a forum on Political Reform in South-east Asia, giving Anwar’s political comeback plan added weight.

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

After several weeks of recuperating upon his release – after the country’s highest court acquitted him of sodomy charges – and then several months in Europe, the Middle East and America on the lecture circuit and as an honorary academic at Oxford and Johns Hopkins universities, Anwar had returned to re-launch his political career.

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

Anwar also toured the country, speaking at political rallies to demand an independent investigation into the corruption of past and present leaders.

He promised to bridge differences and exploit common ground to unite the fundamentalist minded Pan Malaysian Islamic Party (PAS) that wants to set up an Islamic theocracy in multi-ethnic Malaysia with the Chinese-based opposition Democratic Action Party (DAP), a secular group defending middle class values.

All well and good, and while several thousand people attended the forum and the rallies, Anwar’s message did not go 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 is that 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 tabloid that because of strict controls and censorship can truly boast that, "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 like Malaysiakini.com give prominence to his campaign, their reach is short.

Privately editors have been told that 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 journalists told IPS, requesting anonymity.

In the vernacular newspapers read by the Malay voters Anwar needs to win over, he is portrayed as a traitor to the race.

"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 repeatedly said. 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. Many 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 challenger after seven years of relentless government propaganda, first under Mahathir and now under Abdullah, 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, unfavourable 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 percent of Malaysians are non-Muslims and previously voted against any political party allied with PAS.

Despite the formidable obstacles, Anwar vows to return. "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.