Malaysia Matters Podcast

With clear inability to instigate a vote of no confidence by today’s most recent self-imposed deadline, Anwar’s camp has been circulating rumors that they have been conducting talks with the government, purportedly over transfer of power. Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi denies this. 

Having utterly lost the momentum gained in Anwar’s by-election victory, PKR seem now resulute to camaign on rumor-mongering in hopes that their fractious coalition may hold together long enough to completely eliminate public confidence in the government. But competing interests have from the start been a burden within PKR. Under the strain, Anwar set aside time today to reassure PAS leadership that their place in the next government would be significant. 

Parliament reconvenes on October 13th, a date seemingly not that far off. But amidst the already tenuous nature of his coalition, his failure of a grand scale to come through on critical deadlines already has eroded a great deal of confidence in him. Anwar is in real danger of watching all his best laid plans come to naught. The 13th may not seem far off, but a lot may happen between now and then.

 

Anwar Ibrahim has another day in court coming

-This time in an anti-defamation suit he filed against Dr Chandra Muzaffar, president of the International Movement for a Just World. Anwar wants RM 10 million for statements made by Chandra in two different publications according to a report by Bernama: in The Star under the headline “Disaster if Anwar is PM”, and in the New Straits Times under the headline, “Chandra breaks silence on Anwar” on March 5.

The next date for case management has been set by The High Court for November 19.