From the other Press: on DSAI

YL Chong plays a newshound observer and sometimes extracts from the other Press on current Malaysian issues and personalities. This is from the Sydney Morning Herald, via smh.com.au. As desiderata2000.blogspot.com is a strictly non-profit weblog, I duly acknowledge with gratitude for copying from the Press from Down Under, a country with which I have special affinity and fond memories of as the Oz government paid for my upkeep for about 13 years. Thanks.:):)


Back and ready to weave his magic
August 11, 2007

Nearly three years after his release from prison, the self-styled Mandela of Malaysia is preparing to re-enter the political fray. Jane Lyons reports.

WHEN Anwar Ibrahim was set free after six years' jail, he told Nelson Mandela that at least his had been a short walk to freedom. While he admits his imprisonment has made him more reflective and patient, it has not diminished his resolve.

"I have a stronger passion for freedom and justice," says Anwar, as he sits in his Petaling Jaya office near Kuala Lumpur. Relaxed and charming, he is meditative in his attention; his speech is punctuated with laughter at his jokes and the exclamation of his hands.

The difference, he says, between himself and his South African counterpart is the persecution he continues to endure. Surveillance and police harassment may seem incongruent with this modern city of lights and its I-can-build-higher-than-you towers but Anwar says such restrictions are still hallmarks of his life. Only the brave or the dedicated visit him.

"Malaysia is not comparable to some of the more depressive regimes that one is more familiar with: Syria, etc. But the system is suppressive," he says. "You are under constant threat with the Internal Security Act, you have no access to the media and for the last five months I have been trying to get permission to speak here in KL.

"A half a century after independence and we are still talking about independent judiciary, a free media, free and fair elections. We should not continue to give this excuse that people are not ready, that leaders know best; it's the same condescension of the colonial masters."

The clarion call to end corruption is another Anwar trademark and he has been crying foul over the Deputy Prime Minister, Najib Tun Razak, and his alleged links to a high-profile murder case. Two police from Najib's Special Operations Force have been charged with killing a Mongolian model. Abdul Razak Baginda, the model's lover and the head of a think tank closely tied to Najib, is also on trial for conspiracy to murder.

Anwar says the police, judiciary and Attorney-General have already begun to close ranks. "I am just asking for a full professional investigation - no cover-up."

As a protege of the former prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, Anwar rose quickly through the ranks of the ruling party, the United Malay National Organisation, and was anointed deputy prime minister in 1993. But by 1997 the father-son relationship had begun to sour. They were diametrically opposed on economics and things came to a head in 1998 when Anwar and his allies tried to raise debate on corruption and nepotism in the party. He was sacked in September 2 of that year.

Anwar responded by calling for reforms, inspiring a movement for democracy, economic reforms and social justice. On September 20, thousands of people marched to Mahathir's residence to demand reform and the prime minister's resignation. Mahathir responded with like force: Anwar was arrested that night and charged with sodomy and corruption.

The image of his raised fist and battered face from a prison beating, as he entered court, went around the world. Amnesty International declared him a prisoner of conscience, Time Asia shouted "Malaysia without Anwar" from its front cover and Al Gore called it a travesty of justice.

With his 15-year sentence and the ensuing street protests, his coronation as the icon of reform and a new force in Malaysian politics was complete. The "Anwar factor" was coined to describe his political impact and cult of personality. The Free Anwar campaign, while lacking the global resonance of the South African catchcry, became the new rallying slogan of the reform movement.

In September 2004 the federal court overturned his sodomy charge, although it upheld the corruption charges. Anwar was set free but was banned from political activity until April 2008.

He has spent the past two years lecturing in American and British universities, and returned to Malaysia in December to inject life into a lacklustre opposition. In May a Government threat to disband his party stopped the 59-year-old from being officially elected president of Keadilan, the party his wife, Azizah Ismail, formed while he was in jail. But there is no question among members that he is its leader.

The Free Anwar campaign was the genesis of the party, which has expanded into a multiracial party. But it's almost 10 years since Anwar's incarceration and the reform movement is less a cohesive force than a fragmented sentiment.

"It's not remembered or treated as a movement. I think what he is trying to do is get the party going and the opposition," says Khoo Boo Teik, an associate professor of Murdoch University's Asia Centre and author of Beyond Mahathir.
Khoo says it is hard to judge the strength and character of Anwar's following. "There would be a broad range of people: old, young, even corporate figures are in there."

But he has no doubt that Anwar can still wield some of his old magic. "He's always been a charismatic leader. He always knew how to reach people, especially the youth,' Khoo says. "So it's not surprising that people who are disenchanted with the system see in Anwar the leader who can bring reforms."

Keadilan has combined forces with two opposition parties, the Democratic Action Party and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, to challenge the incumbent 14-party National Front, led by the UMNO, at the next general election.

The party has been busy organising rallies in predominantly rural areas in the past five months. It says Anwar is drawing crowds of between 5000 and 30,000. "I went to Kelantan five days back; about 30,000 people walked miles to listen," Anwar says.

The blogging world is also full of high hopes. "Rise Anwar, for the sake all Malaysians. Kick those corrupted UMNO leaders past and present out of the system. They are the ones who are killing the country," screams one.

But while some believe Anwar is a phoenix rising and the general election, which is due in 2009, will be called before April to mitigate the still-potent Anwar factor, others believe he cannot rise from the ashes of his past.

Like Anwar before him, Razaleigh Haji Ibrahim is an UMNO youth leader and member of Parliament. He says there is a difference between how Anwar portrays himself internationally and the way people see him in Malaysia.

"This is not a kind of Mandela thing. Anwar is a very cunning politician; he will say what you want to hear. After he is free now, it is not about his principle anymore. He is about power," Razaleigh says.

"He has a lot of sympathisers and support from outside. But we are trying to build Malaysia from inside and we hope that the international public can get the real story."

Saifulbahri Kamaruddin, a journalist who covered Anwar in the '80s and '90s, believes he had little principle to begin with.

Saifulbahri wrote last year to the online newspaper Malaysiakini: "So, now the former deputy prime minister is trying to be an angel, supposedly innocent of everything that occurred when he was in power. It was the same with his accusations of the government being corrupt, the very institution of which he had been part of for 15 years and had enjoyed its largesse and dispensed patronage in a way typical of UMNO even now."

Criticisms of Anwar have not been limited to personal weakness; coalition in-fighting and high-profile departures from Keadilan have also raised questions about the opposition's strength. In late June the party's former youth chief, Ezam Mohd Noor, cut ties with Keadilan, accusing Anwar of dictatorial policies. The former vice-president, Saifuddin Nasution Ismail, the secretary-general, Anuar Tahir, a Supreme Council member, Saari Sungib, and the deputy president, Abdul Thaman Othman, have also joined the ranks of the departed.

"I am more inclined to help the Islamic party," says Saifuddin, who still helps Keadilan with strategy. "Of course, Anwar was not happy about this; he believed I should help him."

As for the departures from his party, Anwar says: "I appreciate the contribution of everyone who has contributed to the party and I have expressed it repeatedly before this. But we need to move on and focus on creating a new Malaysian agenda. I cannot stop anybody to disagree but since this is the consensus among the majority in the party, we need to focus on the future."

Saifuddin says Anwar is still a force to be reckoned with but a fragmented opposition isn't doing him any favours.

In 2001 the Democratic Action Party left a coalition with Keadilan and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party over the issue of an Islamic state. The DAP's secretary-general, Lim Guan Eng, says the party now co-operates with Keadilan but will not return to the coalition or co-operate with the Islamic Party until it drops the Islamic state agenda.

But concerns over the Islamisation of Malaysia are not restricted to Democratic Action Party. Moderate Muslims, religious groups, feminists and political parties have expressed concern over the rising dominance of a puritanical Islam in national social, religious and legal affairs.

Recent cases involving apostasy, family custody and burial rights have highlighted the subservience of civil law to the Sharia court, and the Government has made no bones about declaring Malaysia an Islamic country, despite the 1957 constitution stating it is a secular one.

But Anwar doesn't believe a de facto Islamic state is being created.

"The Malaysian constitution is unique in which, while it is based on the liberal and democratic system, Islam is the religion of the federation and each state maintains control of the administration of religion. The problem lies in the administration of the system."

Ultimately the political has become personal for Anwar. He says the humiliation of his sodomy charges and his time in jail have changed him. At a Shakespeare conference in Brisbane last year, Anwar, a fan of the Bard, said the characters spoke to him during his incarceration. They also seemed to speak about him.

"In Julius Caesar you find yourself talking to Brutus, asking him why he made the fatal error to allow Mark Antony to address those fickle-minded Romans," he told the audience. "And then it dawns on you that you yourself may have suffered the same overweening confidence in the goodness of your cause to fight injustice and tyranny."

Prospero's words from The Tempest were even more telling. "And as the end grows near, you discover freedom with the rediscovery of virtue within yourself, " Anwar said.

His eyes twinkle when he is reminded of his words. Yes, he admits, they echo some of his regrets and mistakes. "I am very passionate about these issues, freedom and democracy and anti-corruption drive. I thought this was right and therefore it has to win. I was probably a bit too simplistic and the forces of power and the orchestration and machinations of the authority that don't share those views can make things very, very difficult," Anwar says.

As for the question of virtue, he says only: "I don't think I can absolve myself of all the excesses of the Government and the collective responsibility."

Khoo says it is futile to discuss character; reform is not contingent on the question of fallibility. "He was part of the system, no doubt, but he was twice its victim as well. To what extent Anwar will push reform depends critically on public demands, political support and socio-economic conditions," he says.

NOTE: The highlights (BOLDED thus) in the news report are all mine -- YL Chong

DESIDERATA: Just one comment todie-- ah, SDR Anwar Ibrahim quotes Shakespeare's often, a passion quite up my oft "sunshine", and sometimes, "dark" alley.

I am leaving out more comments and call on my dear EsteemedReaders to lend theirs since I am an "interested party" to DSAI's activities being a party member from January 2007, so it's best you don't listen too much from YL so as not to crowd/cloud thy mind with partisan propaganda. I APologise I am in no position (at the moment?) to promote Ganda-ganda Wang Anda:( as definitely I don't own any AP!:)