By Baradan Kuppusamy
KUALA LUMPUR - Anwar Ibrahim may be facing the final battle of his epic political career. The Malaysian opposition leader will stand trial on February 2, accused of sodomizing his former aide, a charge he has said was trumped up to foil his plans to seize state power in the next general election. "They want to derail my plans to become prime minister, to rewrite the history of this country, to end the injustices and violence against the people,'' Anwar said at a recent rally outside Kuala Lumpur. "I am facing a horrendous ordeal. It's all politics, a conspiracy to derail the reformation of society,'' he said as scores of supporters mobbed and hugged him.
Anwar is attracting thousands of people to his rallies across thecountry ahead of a trial that some political analysts say will make or break his four-decade-old career in politics. He was jailed on the same charges a decade ago after trial that was universally rejected as biased, and released after Malaysia's highest court declared him innocent. "The trial can adversely impact his political career and that of the [opposition] Pakatan Rakyat coalition that he leads - and even the reformation struggle he has led for so long,'' said Sivamurugan Pandyan, a political scientist with the University Science Malaysia. "It all depends on what happens at the trial and how the case is handled,'' he said, adding that Anwar's 1999 sodomy trial was a public relations disaster for the government because many people rejected the guilty verdict. In 1998, Anwar figured in a political power struggle with Mahathir Mohamad, then strongman premier of the multi-racial Southeast Asian country.
The 1997-98 Asian financial crisis was the backdrop of that power struggle. Anwar, the finance minister and Mahathir's deputy, was sacked as the economy shrank and the Malaysian currency, the ringgit, plummeted. Mahathir declared Anwar unfit to lead because of alleged "homosexual tendencies'', promptly sacked him and later had him arrested under security laws that allowed for detention without trial. Anwar was subsequently charged with corruption and sodomy and convicted to 15 years in jail. He launched a political party, Parti Keadilan Rakyat, or People's Justice Party, and a reform movement from jail. Six years into his sentence, he was released after the country's Federal Court acquitted him of the sodomy charges.
In 2008, Anwar put together the Pakatan Rakyat opposition, a coalition of dissimilar political parties, including his own PKR, the ethnic Chinese-majority and secular Democratic Action Party and the Pan-Malaysian Islamic party. The coalition seized five states at the March, 2008 elections, ending the two-thirds parliamentary majority the ruling Barisan Nasional had enjoyed for half a century. Those electoral gains brought Anwar one step closer to Putra Jaya, Malaysia's purpose-built political capital. In March 2008, new shockwaves hit the country. Anwar was arrested, questioned and subsequently charged with sodomy against his aide, Saiful Bukhari, setting the stage for the February 2 showdown. Under Malaysian law, sodomy is punishable by 20 years in prison. If Anwar is found guilty and jailed, the decision would setback his impressive political comeback and reform agenda. Notwithstanding the trial, Malaysia is gradually changing under the leadership of Najib Razak. In the view of many people, the urbane prime minister has done an admirable job since taking over the country in April last year.
"He has co-opted the change agenda from the Pakatan,'' Denison Jayasooria, a political scientist with the National University of Malaysia, said. "He is making the changes that the country needs and he is gaining political mileage with his reform agenda." Gradually, reform of the government and society is taking place under the 'One Malaysia' concept," he said, referring to Najib's idea of uniting the country's different races and distributing resources in a fairer manner. Anwar's political agenda has likewise promised dramatic reforms. His coalition released a "Common Policy Platform" document in December outlining the major changes they would make if voted into power in the next general election, which many expect to be called next year even though the government's term officially ends in 2013.
A key pillar of the document outlines affirmative action for all Malaysians, rather than helping only bumiputra, or native Malays and indigenous people, as outlined in the country's 1970 New Economic Policy. The Pakatan agenda also promises to reduce federal power and grant states more freedom to manage their resources, including a bigger share of oil and gas revenue. "The Pakatan is offering in form and substance an alternative vision of how to build a new Malaysia, starkly different from what the Barisan has offered in five decades of misrule," said former parliamentarian Sim Kwan Yang. "It is a far superior, just and urgently needed vision,'' he said. "We need a new Malaysia.'' The upcoming sodomy trial is just one dimension in Anwar's struggle against entrenched forces, political analysts said. "We are very worried about what will happen to Anwar. We do not want to see him jailed again on trumped-up charges,'' said Lim Kit Siang, a veteran parliamentarian who was first elected in 1969. "But as a united Pakatan coalition, we are ready to struggle on for reform and democracy. We will battle on."