Malaysia Matters Podcast

With a sure and steady desire to impose sharia law, the prospect of Parti Islam se-Malaysia (PAS) defining the government of Malaysia is a frightening, but real threat. PAS leadership has continued to indicate that it is in favor of an Islamic state. If there is any question about the will to impose a fundamentalist order upon a country that has made great progress towards moderation and that is an ally in the war on terror, look no further than steps PAS has taken in the past, first in Kelantan, and then in Trengganu in 2002 when it won local control of that northeastern state and PAS leadership sought to subvert due process in order to impose their fundamentalist will.

The state chief minister, Abdul Hadi Awang, said he believed that his responsibility toward God took precedence over fulfilling the requirement to refer the Shariah bill to the federal attorney general before it was enacted. 

In that instance, a moderate federal government provided the check on power needed to avert the complete will of PAS, but again, that will has been made very clear.

Are we to presume that Anwar, who himself has ties to terror, will defend Malaysian pluralism and tolerance against the aims of PAS, that very core of his coalition he owes so greatly for any victory that he has, or may achieve?

In the wake of his landslide victory Malaysia’s Islamist party has  endorsed Anwar Ibrahim, removing a major obstacle in his push to win power.

But the question remains whether he can hold his coalition together:

Analysts said that PAS, which wants an Islamic state in this Asian country of 27 million people, would remain a difficult partner for Mr Anwar’s “rainbow coalition” which also comprises liberals and an ethnic Chinese party.

Reports of early results show Anwar winning by a landslide in the by-election contest over the parliamentary seat his wife gave up. 

IHT is reporting that, “With 18 percent of the vote counted, Anwar was leading by 5,855 votes to 1,910, according to the Malaysian Election Commission.” Anwar’s chief information deputy has declared victory and said Anwar: ”We are entering Parliament with a clear agenda and they [ the governing coalition] should wake up with the stark realities of the day.” 

If the numbers hold firm, Anwar’s claim that there there has been a mandate for change will carry enough weight to make real the potential for sufficient defections from the National Front to bring the PKR into power. He needs 30 to do so in order to accomplish this by his stated date of September 16th. 

Tricia Yeoh, director of the Center for Public Policy Studies, said she believed there was enough infighting and disaffection within the governing party that these defections were feasible. But Anwar’s opposition movement is still young and its unity could fray if it moves too quickly into power, she said.

“I do think they have sufficient numbers,” Yeoh said of Anwar and his allies. “The issue is whether it’s the best and most strategic move for him now.”

Anwar’s coalition is a precarious balance between a those representing ethnic minorities and hard line PAS, who seek an Islamic state.  Anwar’s winning argument, something both factions can agree upon is an anti-corruption message.

“One of the things that has held this country back is the issue of corruption - resources are not being distributed in a way that is fair to the vast majority of people,” said Bridget Welsh, a specialist in Malaysian politics at the School of Advanced International Studies of Johns Hopkins University in Washington.

But it is questionable whether Anwar, who himself has a checkered past, can be relied upon to match virtue with rhetoric. And minorities should be extremely concerned about his underlying interest in an Islamic state. The record indicates that to be the direction he would lead.

Political factions are making it a bitter fight for the Malay vote prior to Tuesday’s election in Permatang Pauh. Each side has accused the other of race-baiting - and in the process seem to be guilty of doing so themselves.

Najib was quoted in Bernama, the state run news agency, as saying that: ”Anwar is so desperate to become prime minister that he is willing to pawn the dignity and principle of the Malays like opening Universiti Teknologi Mara to the other races who are allowed to establish their own universities.” 

Najib said those who like to politicise the dignity of the race, religion and nation should be rejected as a leader.

As reported by VOA, Wong Chin Huat, an analyst in Anwar’s camp, claimed that “UMNO has stoked racist sentiments during the campaign period, including comparing the ethnic Chinese to pigs, which are considered unclean by Muslim Malaysians.”

“The UMNO machinery has been playing up ethnic sentiments to its height. They openly compare Chinese as pigs,” added Wong Chin Huat. “You never do that publicly, never put that in a campaign and this time around UMNO used that in a Malay area hoping that would push up the Malay support to create that sense that if you have Anwar winning, the Chinese and the Indians are going to dominate the country.”

Winning the Malay majority electorate in Permatang Pauh is seen as the key to controlling whether there will be substantial enough defections from UMNO to shift the balance of power to Anwar and the opposition and knock down the BN government for the first time. The tipping point for substantial enough defections, according to Wong Chin Huat, would be for Anwar to capture 70 - 80 percent of the Malay vote. He needs a total of 30 to defect from the government.

Polls close at 5:00pm (0800 GMT) on Tuesday. There are 58,459 eligible voters.

 

The fight for Malay hearts and minds is in earnest in Permatang Pasir and Penanti state constituencies, were Malay voters make up 68% of the total 58,459 voters.

As reported by the Star Online, PKR leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim kicked off his daily campaign with a visit to Kampong Sama Gagah market where party workers gave away curry powder to market-goers. 

Later in the evening, he attended a dinner with the Chinese community in Seberang Jaya before making an appearance at his nightly ceramah perdana in Mengkuang Titi.

Leading the Barisan camp was Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi who made a brief stopover at Kampong Permatang Ara, Permatang Pasir, just before midnight on Thursday to give moral support to party workers and meet villagers who came out in droves after hearing that the national leaders were in the vicinity.

He spent almost one hour mingling with the villagers and even enjoyedpulut (glutinous rice) with salted fish, showing he is still very much akampung boy at heart.

Coming into the final stretch of the by-election campaigning, both the NB and PKR election workers have increased their door knocking campaign as well as attendance at evening ceramah in an effort to touch as many voters as possible.

It is widely believed that Anwar will win a seat in parliament. The question will be whether the margin is significant enough to be declared a mandate for change in the government.

Anwar Ibrahim has shown himself again to be more radical than freedom-loving individuals should be comfortable with him being. For instance, he railed against Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi’s Islam Hadhari project, saying, ”There is only one Islam,” and that Islam Hadhari implies that there is a “bad Islam.” The conclusion is that Islam Hadhari should be scrapped.

While there may be one true faith, there are any varieties of expressions of Islam, many of which are highly intolerant. Islam Hadhari, though admittedly flawed in practice, at least has been an attempt to moderate those who would otherwise trample the rights of others. An honest discussion of the issue would recognize this.

What blueprint for acceptance of minority rights and civil society does Anwar propose?

It is easy to tear down what others have had the imagination to build, but doing so is not in itself the hallmark of a leader.

A leader through example inspires others on to achieve greatness.

But what inspiration to achieve greatness does Anwar give the people of Malaysia?

Truly, what does his example inspire?

Anwar’s recent anti-semitic remarks gave us pause and cause to take stock of the man and another look at his record and past associations. It is of paramount importance that both Malaysians and Americans understand the dangerous implications of a Malaysia ruled by Anwar Ibrahim.

As is pointed out by Ganesh Sahathevan of the The Terror Finance Blog, “many Westerners believe Anwar to be a liberal who would prefer the rule of civil law rather than Sharia. This belief is often relied on to argue against any evidence of his involvement in the financing of terrorism , or at the very least, structures that lead to acts of terrorism.”

But the evidence of involvement with those connections can’t, and shouldn’t be ignored - especially by Americans (including Gore) who seem to be drawn in by Anwar’s ‘underdog’ status as opposition leader and choose to ignore facts about his past. 

His role in founding the International Institute of Islamic Thought, and the IIIT’s subsequent financing of jihadist and Islamist organisations known to be involved in acts of terrorism should set off alarm bells.

For instance, during Israel’s action in Lebanon, Anwar’s commentary in the press was very pro-Hamas and anti-Israeli. It would seem that associates of his put that sentiment into action. A board member of Anwar’s IIIT, Sheik Yusuf Al-Qardawi, “for whom Anwar has great admiration, ” is the likely founder and leader of the “Union for Good,” an association now banned in Israel because it is a de facto Hamas support network.

 

It has taken nearly two months, but Anwar Ibrahim finally has received copies of the police report filed by Mohd Saiful Bukhari Azlan on June 28 with which charges of sodomy have been levied, according to Malaysiakini and confirmed by politicalwatchmalaysia.

The police had maintained that Anwar would receive the report after he had been officially charged with a crime. But he was charged on August 7th.

By dragging their feet and withholding the information, the government has played into the hands of Anwar, a politician particularly adept at PR, by feeding those inclined to be skeptical the notion that the government has been up to no good.  

But on the other hand, according to Anwar, the report may have been withheld for good reason; namely that it might show holes in the case against him.

“We have found there was another inconsistency in the police report that was given to us - six weeks later, (and) on the instruction of the minister,” he told reporters in Yayasan Aman building in Permatang Pauh, where the party’s election campaign office is located.

While it has been much talked about that that the charges of sodomy taint Anwar’s image, ever the fox, there is opportunity for Anwar in the midst of disaster.  The other side of the coin is that, if the government gives Anwar ample opportunity to show that he has been unfairly persecuted, the resulting backlash could prove the deciding factor in turning PM’s to his cause -and thereby ushering in the PKR to power.

So what DOES the report say?

At this point, the only folks who don’t have a copy are the people of Malaysia.

 

It seems this particular conspiracy theory never gets old or goes out of style:

Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has accused his country’s government of supporting the pro-Israel lobby in the US and Jewish groups inside Israel.

“I have evidence proving that the government is backing the Jewish lobby in the US and some parties inside Israel,” Anwar told IslamOnline.net in an exclusive interview.

But as usual those making the accusations have nothing but their own grand theories to offer as proof or evidence:

Anwar, a former deputy premier contesting legislative by-election as the next step in his plan to become premier, declined to elaborate on the nature of the support or his evidence.

I guess it is easier to blame the “Israel Lobby” than to address the very real problems involved.

It might be easy to laugh off such conspiracies if there wasn’t a long history of tragic results from this type of worldview.

After Mohamad Saiful’s oath last week, it should be no surprise that Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has come out supporting Saiful’s claims. Saiful, who at a press conference last week that was held the day before Anwar filed paperwork to participate in the upcoming by-election, presented photographs of himself at mosque swearing on the Koran that he was raped by Anwar.

The Prime Minister said that:

“According to Islam, an individual seeking justice should be respected, even though it may be a personal issue,” the premier said, according to the New Straits Times Monday.

“There are those who question his method and whether he is following the right procedure but in his heart he must have a clear intention,” Abdullah said.

“The incident must have been traumatic, otherwise he would not have lodged the police report.”

In Anwar’s corner, the former Indonesian president Abdurrahman Wahid, a friend of Anwar’s for 15 years, held a press conference in support of Anwar, decrying Saiful’s action as unislamic, and a political gimmick saying “I think (the allegations) are wrong because I know Anwar and I believe totally in him.”

“It is un-Islamic because there is no such thing as swearing in syariah. Both should go to the syariah court,” he said at a press conference at the Parti Keadilan Rakyat headquarters here.