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KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim went on the
offensive Tuesday over sodomy accusations, filing a complaint
against the police chief and attorney general, and planning a public
rally.
Anwar, a former deputy premier who spent six
years in prison on sodomy and corruption counts before a stunning
return to politics in elections in March, said the new allegations
are designed to prevent him from taking power.
After a dramatic interlude holed up in the
Turkish Embassy, where he took refuge at the weekend saying his life
was in danger, Anwar came out swinging at the government of Prime
Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi.
Saiful Izham Ramli, a member of the policy board
of Anwar’s Keadilan party, which leads a three-member opposition
alliance, said there would be a campaign including a rally on
Tuesday night.
“We are now going on an offensive,” he told
Agence France-Presse. “Now we have a game plan.”
Prime Minister Abdullah’s United Malays
National Organization (UMNO) helms a national coalition that has
ruled the country since the former British colony won independence
after World War II.
But Anwar’s opposition alliance made a
surprisingly strong showing in March, grabbing one-third of the
seats in parliament and undermining the coalition’s longtime hold
on power in this nation of 25 million.
After the expiry of a ban on public office
related to his earlier conviction, Anwar said he was poised to enter
parliament in a by-election when the government concocted the latest
allegations by a 23-year-old male aide.
Anwar was sacked as deputy prime minister in
1998 in the midst of the Asian financial crisis that heightened his
power struggle with then Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Shortly after, he was charged with sodomy and
corruption, and appeared in court with a black eye after a beating
from the police chief.
As part of his current fightback, and
accompanied by 50 supporters who scuffled with police, Anwar filed a
complaint Tuesday at a police station over that beating a decade
ago.
It alleged that the current police chief, who
was then the investigating officer, and the attorney general, who
was then the prosecutor, falsified the investigation into the
assault by police chief Abdul Rahim Noor.
Anwar spent six years in jail until the
nation’s highest court overturned the sex conviction, and he
emerged in poor health and spent several years recuperating and
working as an academic.
Now the 60-year-old has been staging a political
comeback, looking to win a parliamentary seat in the by-election and
gather enough defectors from the ruling coalition to be able to take
over as prime minister.
Analysts said the new sodomy allegations could
hurt the prime minister and actually help Anwar, a charismatic
figure whose colorful political career has nevertheless long been
accompanied by the tinge of scandal.
“A large number of people do not believe the
allegations, and this whole episode may have benefited Anwar more
than it has damaged his reputation,” said Ibrahim Suffian, a
pollster from the Merdeka Center.
Anwar was in Manila in early June for a private
visit with former Presidents Joseph Estrada and Corazon Aquino.
During a forum at De La Salle University, Anwar called for the
return of the Malaysian contingent to the International Monitoring
Team that is overseeing the fragile truce between the Philippine
government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
-- AFP With The Manila Times
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