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By the Australian Financial Review
July 8, 2008

JULY 8 — As an underground rocker, Joe Kidd ticks all the boxes — long hair, black jeans, angular features and an undergraduate sense of humour. He's unhinged and has no recognised songs.

But he does have a signature move. When performing “Licking Ass to Get Ahead???, he usually shows his own bottom in a highly choreographed move to demonstrate disdain for the government.

By all accounts, it's often a crowd pleaser but as all performers know, choosing your audience is vital.

An anti-government rally in Petaling Jaya on Sunday was not the occasion. Kidd and his band, Carburetor Dung, were halfway through their third song when the moment arrived. The pants came down, and in an apparent display of modesty, he left the boxer shorts up.

It was pretty tame stuff, but not to the hardline Islamists in the crowd. They rushed the stage, threw bottles and, despite the best efforts of security staff, landed a few blows.

The carnival atmosphere at the Kelana Jaya Stadium quickly turned ugly. The entertainment programme was wisely "suspended" and a good Muslim rushed to the stage and called for evening prayers.

In one moment all the problems of Malaysia's resurgent opposition were on display. The incident showed how the opposition coalition, headed by de facto leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, had little common ground and, like all marriages of convenience, would be difficult to sustain.

The opposition is united in its hatred for the government of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. But the points of hatred differ widely.

For PAS, the country is not Muslim enough. For the moderate urban elite who have supported Anwar's PKR party, the country is too conservative. And to complicate matters further, supporters of the mainly Chinese DAP are highly suspicious of PAS and fear Anwar is too Islamic.

For the moment, government repression, scandals and an attempt to dredge up fresh "sodomy" charges against Anwar have kept the opposition united.

But it's hard to see this lasting. Sunday's rally, intended to show a united opposition, only proved how divided it is. PAS supporters objected to music even being played at the demonstration. "This should not be a rock concert," many yelled.

That sentiment ensured the entertainment was no more, as half the crowd peeled off for evening prayers in a symbolic acknowledgement of the divide.

The melee obscured what was otherwise an incredible effort from the opposition. Despite roadblocks, a government campaign of misinformation, police harassment and the protest being declared illegal, the opposition persuaded 20,000 people to attend a rally on a Sunday night.

It was close to the biggest anti-government demonstration held in Malaysia, a country where the government has systematically suppressed the opposition. It shows that the Barisan Nasional coalition, which has ruled since independence in 1957, is deeply unpopular.

Prime Minister Abdullah is perceived as weak and ineffective. His deputy and heir apparent, Datuk Seri Najib Razak, has been caught up in a scandal over the murder of a Mongolian woman, while corruption and government waste are never out of the public gaze.

This is in a climate of slowing economic growth, rising inflation and the brave decision by Abdullah to cut fuel subsidies early last month. It was economically responsible, but also gave the opposition a popular issue on which to campaign, despite Malaysia's still enjoying the region's lowest petrol prices.

That means Anwar, the supposed economic rationalist who has repeatedly called for reduced government intervention, now wants subsidies increased.

It's populist politics, but not economically sustainable with oil prices at record highs, and should have many of Anwar's supporters in the business community more than a little worried.

But so far he's getting away with it because the government, not used to a credible opposition, is playing dirty rather than debating the issues.

The fresh sodomy accusations against Anwar appeared desperate and gave the appearance of a government prepared to do anything to stay in power.

It was a shocking political miscalculation which gave further credibility to Anwar's claims that the government was out to get him.

But perhaps Sunday's protest shows that someone in the government is learning.

Its efforts to prevent people from turning up were not subtle, but more subtle than usual. There was no uniformed police presence at the rally and authorities did not prevent people from reaching the venue — the roadblocks and police checks were only for those entering Kuala Lumpur from the regions.

There were of course plenty of Special Branch members taking photos, a police helicopter overhead and parking officers handing out tickets. But there were no tear gas and water cannons like at previous gatherings.

The outcome was a show of strength and defiance by the opposition, but by letting people assemble peacefully, the government also had a victory.

It has tangible evidence of a divided opposition that would find it very difficult to govern.

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Category: Malaysia In The News

By Hannah Beech, TIME
Monday, July 7, 2008

A sex case that is engrossing Malaysia's public and stirring political unrest is getting even more bizarre. No, not the scandal surrounding political opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim, who was accused last month in a police report of sodomizing a 23-year-old male aide. This case involves Abdul Razak Baginda — a former aide to Anwar's political nemesis, Deputy Prime Minister Najib Razak — who is currently standing trial for abetting the murder of his Mongolian ex-lover. In October 2006, she was shot twice in the head and her body was blown up by military-grade explosives in a jungle clearing near Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia's capital. Charged with actually having killed the woman are two members of the government's security forces who provided security for the country's top leaders.

Ever since Razak was arrested, Deputy Prime Minister Najib has denied any involvement in or knowledge of the alleged murder plot, saying he had never even met his former aide's paramour. But on July 3, Balasubramaniam Perumal — a private investigator who had been hired by Razak prior to the Mongolian's death — claimed in a sworn statement that not only had Najib met the murdered woman but that he had carried out a sexual relationship with her. The private detective's bombshell came at a news conference organized by none other than Anwar, who claims that the sodomy scandal undermining his own political future are the handiwork of Najib.

Then a day later, Balasubramaniam retracted his statement about Najib and the Mongolian. The allegation, he claimed, had been made under duress. Things got even more surreal on July 5 when the private detective and his family suddenly disappeared, according to a nephew who filed a missing-persons report. By Sunday, the Malaysian police announced they were seeking help from Interpol to find them.

All this intrigue has heightened what looks set to be a political showdown between Anwar and Najib. Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose ruling National Front coalition suffered its worst-ever showing in elections last March, has already promised to hand over the reins to Najib, although the exact timing is unclear. Meanwhile, Anwar, who was once a Deputy Prime Minister and rising star within the National Front, has vowed that the opposition will seize power by mid-September. He broke with the ruling alliance a decade ago when a power struggle with then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad descended into political farce. Anwar was sacked from the No. 2 job and slapped with sodomy and abuse of power charges. He served six years in jail before the sodomy conviction was overturned in 2004. Now, Anwar says he will be able to gather enough defectors from the ruling alliance to topple the government. If he succeeds, Anwar will become the first
 opposition Prime Minister in Malaysia's history.

On July 6, as the case of the missing private investigator was taking its strange turns, thousands of Malaysians gathered in a stadium near Kuala Lumpur to protest recent government-directed hikes in fuel prices and to show support for Anwar against the latest sodomy charges. Rallies are rare in Malaysia, and this one culminated in a rousing speech by Anwar, who again promised that the opposition will unseat the National Front. Whatever happens, with two sex scandals unfolding at the same time, it's sure to be a salacious summer in Malaysia.

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Category: Malaysia In The News

By Simon Tisdall, The Age
July 5, 2008


A NATIONAL drama involving leading government figures, conspiracy claims, personal smears, sodomy allegations and a grisly murder appears to be driving Malaysia towards its biggest political upheaval since independence in 1957.

Act one of this unfolding epic was played out in March's general elections, when the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition suffered heavy losses at the hands of Anwar Ibrahim's People's Justice Party and its allies. Although it held on to power, the Government's parliamentary majority was slashed to 30 seats.

The results seriously wounded Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi, already criticised as weak and uninspiring, and triggered a power struggle within his United Malays National Organisation.

With the party facing defeat for the first time since the British left, and with millions of dollars in contracts and patronage at stake, the plot has thickened in recent days.

First, Najib Razak, the ambitious Deputy Prime Minister and Mr Abdullah's presumed heir, was linked in court testimony to the 2006 murder of a Mongolian translator with whom, it was claimed, he once had a sexual relationship. The killing of Altantuya Shaariibuu was particularly gruesome, her body having been blown to bits.

Then last week, a university drop-out told police he had been sodomised by Mr Anwar. The allegation was similar to claims made against the married father-of-six in 1998 after Mr Anwar, as deputy prime minister, fell out with the then prime minister, Mahathir Mohammad. Mr Anwar was beaten by police, tried, found guilty and jailed — only to have the verdict overturned after Dr Mahathir retired.

Mr Anwar has dismissed the allegation as a repeat attempt to smear him, part of a conspiracy that he said was hatched by Mr Najib and police officials to block his path to power. "He feared that I will use the Altantuya case against him to embarrass him and probably lead to his downfall," he said this week.

Mr Najib denies involvement in any conspiracy and also denies any connection with the murdered Mongolian woman.

Tian Chua, the People's Justice Party information chief and a new MP, said the sodomy claim had backfired. "The latest poll shows 60% of people think it's nonsense, only 10% believe it's true," he said. "The Government did it to get some breathing space, to deflect attention from the crumbling of their party."

Mr Tian said Mr Anwar had started legal proceedings against his accuser and against police involved in the previous case, 10 years ago. The Opposition leader would also begin a "national fightback tour" this weekend. "We are going on the offensive for the next 100 days," Mr Tian said. The final act of the drama would come in September, when he predicted the Opposition would have enough parliamentary seats to defeat the Government.

Not everyone agrees that denouement is certain or likely. Mr Anwar's political comeback has become one of the longest running shows in South-East Asia. Mr Abdullah has vowed to stay on. And Dr Mahathir reportedly suffered a mild heart attack yesterday. Amid the furore, cooler heads urge caution.

"I think we have to wait and reserve judgment until the police investigation (into the sodomy claim) is complete," said a political analyst in Kuala Lumpur. "All of this is beginning to resemble a circus. We are becoming a laughing stock."

GUARDIAN

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Category: Malaysia In The News
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Published by thespec.com
By Gwynne Dyer
Independent

July 5, 2008

Reading the first reports about the accusations against Malaysia's opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, I had to check the date at the top of the page. Had there been a time-slip? Was this file 10 years old? For Anwar to be accused of sodomy again, 10 years after he last challenged the position of Malaysia's prime minister and ended up in jail for sodomy (a crime in Malaysia), stretches the notion of coincidence to the breaking point.

Ten years ago the prime minister was Mahathir Mohamad, the long-ruling autocratic leader who had made Anwar his deputy prime minister. The two men fell out over economic policy and Anwar's too-obvious ambition, so Anwar was charged with corruption -- and, for good measure, with sodomy.

Anwar is a married man with six children. That does not mean he could not be guilty of homosexual rape, but there were many questionable elements of the case, including the fact that he was beaten almost to death by the national chief of police after he was arrested.

Nevertheless, Anwar was convicted and sent to prison. His political career seemed over.

Mahathir finally retired at the age of 78 in 2003, and the courts overturned Anwar's conviction for sodomy the following year. He was freed from jail, but because the corruption conviction was not also quashed, he was still banned from running for office for five more years. But the opposition coalition had come to see him as a leader, and his wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, became the head of the opposition in parliament.

Then, in the March election, the ruling National Front lost the two-thirds majority in the national parliament it had held for the past 40 years, emerging with a narrow majority that could easily crumble if only a couple of dozen of its members defect to the opposition. As they well might, given the way Malaysian politics is played.

Both the ruling National Front and the opposition alliance led by Anwar are coalitions of parties representing Malaysia's three main ethnic groups: Malays, Chinese and Indians. To some extent they are just the "ins" and the "outs" -- many leading members of the opposition coalition, like Anwar himself, once belonged to the National Front, but were disappointed in their ambitions -- but some of the opposition parties also want to overthrow Malaysia's entire ethnic settlement.

The dominant population in most of Malaysia is the Malays. But under British rule, huge numbers of Chinese and Indian workers were imported -- and their descendants now account for 40 per cent of the country's 26 million people.

The immigrants quickly came to dominate the economy, while the Malay majority remained mostly rural, less educated and much poorer. Malay resentment erupted into bloody race riots that almost tore the new country apart in 1969 -- and so the New Economic Policy of 1970 gave preference to Malays for government jobs, university places and business licences.

Malaysia has prospered greatly since then -- but the National Front that was created to preserve this deal was always in power, and the country was not really a full democracy. Much time has passed, and last March's election showed how much has changed. The new state government in Penang cancelled the Malay preference rule when it took power last March, and last month, Anwar claimed 30 National Front members of parliament were ready to defect to his coalition, which would give the opposition a majority.

Moreover, the legal ban on Anwar's participation in public life expired in April, and he was clearly going to seek a parliamentary seat in a byelection soon. He might have been prime minister by September. It would have been a revolution in Malaysian politics.

Then suddenly last week, a 23-year-old man who volunteered to work for the opposition during the election earlier this year, and then became an assistant to Anwar, accused him of sodomy. Anwar immediately took refuge in the Turkish embassy, fearing the next step would be assassination.

Anwar left the embassy after getting a promise from Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi that he would not be harmed, but he could be arrested at any time.

The National Front government, even if it did not set the whole thing up, certainly plans to let it play out. When Badawi was asked what he thought about Anwar's denials, he said it "was common for an accused person" to claim he was innocent.

This is a very dangerous game. The blood and fire of 1969 seem far away from the prosperity of modern Malaysia, but it was the pro-Malay preferences of the 1970 deal that made it stable. Now that deal has to be reshaped into something less unfair to the minorities. Malaysia can do it the easy way, or the hard way. It may choose the hard way.

Gwynne Dyer is a London-based independent journalist whose articles are published in 45 countries.
 

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Category: Malaysia In The News
Written by Associated Press Correspondents in Kuala Lumpur

Published in The Australian

June 30, 2008

POLICE opened an investigation yesterday into allegations that Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim sodomised his male aide, sparking fears he could be sent back to prison on the same charge that ousted him from Malaysia's government a decade ago.

Mr Anwar immediately retreated to the Turkish embassy in Kuala Lumpur, amid concerns for his safety. He denounced the allegation, made in a complaint to police filed by the 23-year-old aide, as "a complete fabrication".

The dramatic developments, which began to unfold just before midnight on Saturday (local time), will have a severe impact on Malaysian politics, which have been in turmoil since elections on March 8 handed the governing National Front coalition its worst-ever result.

Mr Anwar, 60, resurrected his political career after leading the opposition to spectacular gains in the elections.

Prime Minister Abdullah Badawi insisted the Government was not responsible for the accusation, saying there was no conspiracy "to cause (Anwar) trouble or harass him or raise such issues to undermine him".

Asked about Mr Anwar's denial, Mr Abdullah said it "was common for an accused person" to claim innocence.

Mr Anwar said the accusation was engineered by "interested parties" to prevent him from exposing the national police chief, Musa Hassan, and the Attorney-General, Abdul Gani Patail, for their alleged roles in having him accused of sodomising his driver in 1998 and of abusing his power to cover up the action.

Then prime minister Mahathir Mohamad fired Mr Anwar as his deputy. He was convicted on both charges, but Malaysia's highest court overturned the sodomy conviction and freed him in 2004.

Mr Anwar has always insisted he was framed to stop him challenging Dr Mahathir. Mr Anwar claimed he recently obtained evidence to show Mr Musa and Mr Abdul Gani fabricated evidence against him in 1998.

"I believe we are witnessing a repeat of the methods used against me in 1998 when false allegations were made under duress," he said yesterday.

Criminal Investigation Department chief Bakri Zinin said the aide filed a complaint claiming Mr Anwar had sodomised him at a condominium in an upmarket Kuala Lumpur suburb.

Mr Bakri indicated Mr Anwar faced no immediate threat of arrest, stressing police had just begun their investigation. "We want to establish the allegation first, to see whether there is truth or not," he told a news conference. "We will conduct a thorough investigation and be fair to both sides."

Mr Bakri warned Mr Anwar's supporters against launching another round of the protests that erupted after his sacking a decade ago, saying: "If you want to create havoc, we will deal with you according to the law."

Political blogger Ahirudin Attan posted a transcript of the police complaint, in which the man claimed Mr Anwar sodomised him "without my consent" on Thursday. He said it was not the first time, and that the complaint was made to "obtain defence and justice for myself".

Sodomy, even if consensual, is punishable by 20 years' jail in Muslim-majority Malaysia.

Mr Anwar was attending a party meeting in a hotel near Kuala Lumpur, but he moved to the Turkish embassy early yesterday amid concerns he could be arrested. "Because he is considered a threat to the Government, we are concerned about his safety. He can't afford to be detained again," party deputy president Syed Husin Ali said.

The People's Justice Party identified the accuser as Mr Anwar's assistant, who started working for him in March. Mr Anwar claimed the allegation was "clearly a desperate attempt bythe ... regime to arrest the movement of the Malaysian people towards freedom, democracy and justice".

The National Front coalition lost its traditional two-thirds parliamentary majority in March, and ceded control of five of Malaysia's 13 states to Mr Anwar's opposition alliance.

The ban on Mr Anwar holding political office ended in April, and he has indicated he wants to re-enter parliament through a by-election, which would make him eligible to become prime minister.
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