[ Laman Ehwal Semasa ReformIS ]
Date: 29 Aug 1999
Time: 23:25:34
Remote User: -
Anwar Still Has Political Allies By Ranjan Roy Associated Press Writer Thursday, August 26, 1999; 1:57 a.m. EDT
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) -- Leaping up a flight of stairs from an underground tunnel for convicts, Anwar Ibrahim steps into a blue-carpeted courtroom and suddenly becomes his former self.
The one-time heir to Malaysia's political throne leans across a wooden rail, hugs his relatives, waves and shakes hands with his supporters and in hushed tones talks to his political allies until a guard nudges him toward the dock.
One year ago, Anwar was the second most powerful and popular politician in the country, as deputy prime minister and finance minister.
Then on Sept. 2 last year, Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad abruptly fired Anwar, accusing him of homosexuality, corruption and plotting to topple him.
Anwar, who vehemently denies the charges, was convicted of abuse of power and is serving six years in solitary confinement while standing trial for allegedly sodomizing a former family driver.
At the Sungai Buloh prison clinic, until an even more isolated cell is complete, Anwar reads and does prison chores like painting walls. Guards don't let him get too close to fellow inmates. Even during communal Muslim prayers, he is brought in last and is first to be taken away, says his wife, Azizah Ismail.
The year has left Anwar, 52, pale and thinner. His ironed shirts hang loose on his drooping shoulders and his bald patches are more pronounced. But he ensures a dignified and stylish presence in court, carrying a brown leather briefcase, wearing jeweled cufflinks and polished black dress shoes.
Locked away from public gaze, Anwar is even more charismatic. Despite Mahathir's best efforts, he has created a martyr who has hurt a carefully manicured political landscape controlled by the prime minister's United Malays National Organization, or UMNO, since Malaysia became independent in 1957.
Anwar posters, pins, T-shirts, cassettes of his speeches and books about his life flourish as fast as the government tries to erase him from public memory.
His photograph -- with his right fist raised in defiance, deep bruises around his left eye inflicted by the police chief on the night of his Sept. 20 arrest -- is now a symbol of state oppression. The cry ``Reformasi,'' the Malay word for political reform, reverberates at opposition rallies.
``Previously, the ruling party was considered unassailable. Now there is serious talk of forming an alternative,'' Anwar told The Associated Press in a written reply to questions.
``In recent times, we have never witnessed such debate on corruption in high places, abuse of police powers and instruments of government.''
Surrounded by computers spewing out evidence and arguments, a battery of top government prosecutors sit in the courtroom trying to prove that Anwar is a homosexual, a crime in this predominantly Muslim country.
Defense lawyers, one a senior opposition lawmaker, in turn attempt to prove a political conspiracy behind the charges.
Anwar's lawyers may be losing the battle, but outside the courtroom, Anwar allies are gaining ground.
Roused by the public outcry over Anwar's treatment, an opposition hounded into near oblivion during Mahathir's 18-year rule sprang to life.
Parties shed mutual suspicions and racial and ideological barriers to form a coalition in the name of making Malaysia more democratic.
Thousands have braved the government's wrath to join opposition rallies, especially those attended by Azizah, who heads the new National Justice Party.
Until last year, politics rarely intruded into the lives of ordinary Malaysians. But the Anwar case jolted the usually placid Southeast Asian society.
People increasingly voice their opinions and flaunt their views by pasting stickers and flying flags of opposition parties on their cars. Executives wear Justice Party tie-pins, and new opposition magazines flood the newsstands.
New Web sites, accessed by thousands each day, spout venom at Mahathir. A popular one promises ``a much clearer window to the outside world and even back into our own country.''
``The Anwar episode triggered something that was underlying, like the storming of the Bastille triggered the French revolution,'' said Rustam Sani, a political science professor and popular newspaper columnist.
He recalled how pro-Anwar activists threw paper balls and soft drink cartons at government leaders at UMNO headquarters the night Anwar was expelled from the party.
``Never before in the history of Malay politics has something like this occurred,'' he said.
Yet the opposition holds only 25 of the 192 seats in Parliament, and few expect a major turnover after general elections, which must be held by June 2000.
Meanwhile, Anwar's family suffers in his absence. '`I think he tries to shield us from the prison conditions,'' says Nurul Izzah, 18, explaining her father's reluctance to discuss the harshness of solitary confinement for a white-collar crime.
``We are getting used to the new life, but the pain is always there.''
© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press