Asia Times: Anwar takes aim from prison



	August 17, 1999	atimes.com

Southeast Asia

Anwar takes aim from prison
By Anil Netto

PENANG, Malaysia - Like any other birthday party, friends cut a cake for the celebrant and some 60 of them sang ''Happy Birthday''. Only the surroundings were odd - the federal court in the Malaysian capital of Kuala Lumpur was the backdrop, and 15 truckloads of riot police along with water cannon and a dog unit were observers.

The person being feted was ousted Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who turned 52 on August 10. After having been sentenced in April to six years in jail for allegedly abusing his position to influence a police probe against complaints of sexual misconduct against him, Anwar is now back to trooping in and out of court, this time to face charges of sodomy.

The Anwar trials have become something of a long-running feature in Kuala Lumpur city life. Malaysians have grown used to finding page-long stories about the trial on the inside pages of their papers - though the reports are much shorter and less prominent than they were during the first trial.

On Malaysian television however, Anwar has become a non-entity, with little footage of the trial being screened and trial reports condensed to a couple of sentences. But there is little sign that Anwar has faded from public consciousness after nearly a year in detention, and seemingly trapped in a political wilderness.

Just a year ago, Anwar had the ear of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. As deputy premier and finance minister, he was the only Malaysian official who could argue against the views of Mahathir in public, although he always took care to do this with utmost respect. Anwar was expected to succeed Mahathir as premier.

But he was gaining more and more enemies within the United Malays National Organization (UMNO), the dominant party in the ruling coalition. What his supporters call a ''whispering campaign'' against him began, accusing him of coveting the premiership and aiming to oust Mahathir. In September 1998, Anwar was sacked. He was arrested later that month, and has not been released from official custody since.

From his prison cell, however, Anwar is still making his presence felt, lobbing sporadic bombshells in the form of police reports on alleged corruption and abuse of power involving key officials, including Mahathir himself. Apart from Mahathir, the reports have targeted Finance Minister Daim Zainuddin and International Trade and Industry Minister Rafidah Aziz.

News reports say the reports accuse Rafidah of abusing her position by awarding shares in publicly-listed companies to her son-in-law, and Mahathir of preventing an inquiry into the matter. Daim is accused of corruption. Likewise, Mahathir and businessmen Eric Chia were accused of corruption in the losses of the national steel maker Perwaja Terengganu Sdn Bhd.

The reports' publication has drawn sharp denials from government officials, who say Anwar is engaging in blackmail and breaking the oath of secrecy he took when taking office.

Public statements by Anwar's supporters in recent days that Anwar had kept six boxes of documents overseas, whose contents would be exposed at the right time, have also irked Mahathir and other officials. Mahathir says the documents Anwar took were classified under the Official Secrets Act and their use was restricted to government business: ''This proves that Anwar does not respect the law.''

Mahathir also says Anwar's actions now prove his intention to grab power when he was still in government and to ''topple certain government leaders including me. Clearly, he has been collecting these documents for a long time with the intention of using them to topple several government leaders. This goes to show that far from being a victim, Anwar himself had tried to victimize many people.''

The reports revealed by Anwar come at a time when most people expect a snap general election to be called soon - the talk now is that it will be in the first half of September - though the law allows the government until mid-2000 to hold the polls. So far, the charges have provided opposition parties with more ammunition to support their claims of official corruption and abuse of power. Said political analyst Dr Maznah Mohamad: ''Mahathir and the government are on the defensive and hence you know that it is going to be very significant.''

Many Malaysians began becoming more critical of the Mahathir government after Anwar showed up in court soon after his arrest, with a black eye. An official inquiry established that he had been beaten in custody by the police chief at the time.

Anwar's calls for wide-ranging political and social reforms have breathed new life into the ''reformasi'' movement that was set off by his arrest sparked. Sources close to the Anwar camp now say new restrictions have been put upon him in prison, and more may follow.

In an interview, one of Anwar's lawyers says it has become more difficult for his attorneys to see him. ''Lawyers now have to give three days' notice and their belongings are now searched going in and out of prison. The prison officer now sits and observes the whole meeting,'' he said. The lawyer also says a decision has been made, but not yet implemented, to move Anwar to a special room of eight by 12 feet, next to the prison mortuary. Now, he is in the hospital wing ''where no prisoners have any contact''.

Political commentator MGG Pillai recntly described Anwar's cell-to-be: ''The room has a window but it is so high up that he cannot look through it.'' According to him, the contractor who built the room broke down and wept when told what it would be used for.

Before the rules were tightened, Anwar, a father of six children aged from seven to 18 years, had been allowed food his family brought in. Wardens would also often bring from their homes cooked food to his liking, Pillai added. But that was stopped abruptly, said Pillai. ''He is, I understand, not allowed the reading material he was once allowed to.''

Anwar's public appearances these days are limited to those court. But Maznah observed: ''He is still very important. People have passed the stage of openly demonstrating but I'm sure the anger is still there. It is wrong for Mahathir to think that just because people are not doing anything it means they have lost interest in the issue. Many people are just plain fed up and sick.''

(Inter Press Service)

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