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POLITICS: Malaysia Faces Severe Test as Anwar Stands Trial

Analysis by Baradan Kuppusamy

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 9 2010 (IPS) - Malaysia’s reputation as a progressive, tolerant and moderate Muslim state is now at stake as the country’s best known democratic leader Anwar Ibrahim stands trial for alleged sodomy and risks being jailed for many years if declared guilty.

Civil society groups, both in Malaysia and abroad, worry that without the reformist leader whose political championing has fuelled significant democratic changes in society since his expulsion from the ruling United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party in 1998, the South-east Asian country’s transformation would suffer serious setbacks.

Such transformation is expected to usher in a freer media, more accountable state governments, a once lame-duck parliament flexing its muscles and a reenergised judiciary, all of which all at risk as Anwar’s political future hangs in the balance.

While world leaders have openly expressed concern about the need for and the fairness of the trial that has put Anwar under siege, within the country opposition to the trial is being led by Tengku Razaleigh Hamzah, a former finance minister, a senior leader of UMNO and an outspoken government critic.

He said the trial of Anwar, which began early this month, poses a serious challenge to public confidence in the government. “Public confidence is essential to the basic functioning of government,” he told IPS.

Razaleigh has been increasingly critical of the government, which he said is unable to lead the transformation of Malaysian society.

“The trial is being conducted in an overwhelmingly politicised environment. We no longer live in an insulated world,” he said, adding the pre-trial publicity in the local, government-owned, mainstream media is “blatantly unbalanced.”

“Many Malaysians believe that sections of the executive and political establishment have an interest in this trial. There does not seem to have been any attempt to remove this suspicion,” he added, echoing the widespread suspicion that the trial is politically motivated and designed to derail the resurgent opposition by removing its charismatic leader.

“In such circumstances the principle that justice must not only be done, but must be seen to be done is breached. We as Malaysians suffer when our government loses credibility domestically and internationally,” he said.

In its editorial on Feb. 7, the ‘Washington Post’ newspaper said that the prosecution of Anwar matters to the world, responding to criticisms from Malaysian officials that “outsiders” were meddling in the country’s legal system.

Deputy Foreign minister A. Kohilan Pillay had urged foreign missions to respect Malaysia’s legal system and not to interfere in the conduct of Anwar’s sodomy trial. He assured the international community that the judiciary was free from political interference and that Anwar would get a free and fair trial.

Malaysia had always been a one-party state, stated the ‘Post’, but in the past two years it had made “remarkable strides toward becoming a democracy,” and credited Anwar for the change.

“The fact that Mr. Anwar went on criminal trial last week should deeply concern the democratic world. The outcome could determine whether one of Asia’s most economically successful countries preserves its stability and embraces long-overdue reforms,” the editorial said.

A former deputy prime minister, Anwar was deposed and jailed in 1998 by former Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.

What followed was what many construed as a manifestly unfair trial, in which Anwar was convicted of homosexual sodomy, a crime in Malaysia punishable by up to 20 years in jail.

The country’s highest court, the Federal Court, overturned the verdict six years later, which allowed Anwar to resume his political career, this time as a courageous champion of democracy in Malaysia and other Muslim countries.

Anwar soon forged a coalition of opposition parties, including his own multiracial People’s Justice Party, an Islamic party, and a secular party. He has campaigned against the government unwritten policy promoting racial discrimination, which funnels economic favors to well-connected members of the ethnic Malay majority.

In the past two years, his coalition has pulled off a string of stunning victories in state and parliamentary by-elections. It now controls four of 13 state governments in federal Malaysia.

It is widely believed that a revitalised opposition under Anwar’s leadership would have a fair chance of winning the next national election, slated before 2013, seize federal power and rewrite what in critics’ view is a deeply racist history of the country.

If convicted and even fined 2,000 ringgit (582 U.S. dollars) or more, or jailed even for one day, the 63-year-old beleaguered opposition leader will be barred by election laws from running for parliament in the next five years.

If this happens, it may sound the death knell for Anwar’s bid to become prime minister, derail an otherwise sterling comeback and damage the political fortunes of the multi-ethnic, broadly secular Pakatan Rakyat coalition that he leads.

“In short this is a make-or-break event for Anwar,” political scientist Sivamurugan Pandyan told IPS. “Everything is at stake … his ambition to become prime minister, his political career, the future of his Pakatan Rakyat. It’s over for Anwar if he is found guilty and jailed for even a few years.”

“If Anwar is imprisoned or barred from contesting (the result of the trial), it would be a blatant human rights violation and (a disservice to) the interest of Malaysia,” said Ramon Navaratnam, former president of Transparency International Malaysia.

“Such an eventuality will significantly damage the democratisation process (of Malaysia),” he told IPS.

By most accounts, Malaysia, too, is on trial.

The judiciary, which had shown some independence in recent years, has once again come under attack for its perceived bias and for pandering to political masters.

Neither the attorney general nor the police are widely seen as independent or impartial institutions, having been constantly accused by opposition lawmakers of selective persecution.

“The public perception is that the trial is politically motivated,” said Transparency International’s Navaratnam. “Most people think this trial is unnecessary and it is selective persecution.”

The growing momentum that Anwar had enjoyed in the aftermath of the 2008 general election, in which his coalition won five states and took 82 seats in the 222-seat bicameral parliament, has been gradually dissipating.

The Pakatan Rakyat coalition has been hit by defections, internal squabbles and major differences over how to deal with Islam, Malay special privileges and, more recently, the deep division over the use of the word ‘Allah’ by Christians.

The differences are shattering unity in the coalition.

On the other hand, Prime Minister Najib Razak, who still enjoys majority Malay support, is on a major charm offensive to steal away the minority Chinese and Indian voters, who together make up about 35 percent of the electorate totaling 13.7 million.

The minority voters had strongly backed Anwar in 2008 but opinion polls shows some of them are having second thoughts about the Pakatan because of its inability to get its act together.

“Najib is winning the hearts and minds of the people with his ‘One Malaysia’ (slogan),” said Pandyan, referring to the former’s ‘We are One Malaysia’ campaign, a platform based on mending the nation’s fractured race relations.