Malaysia Matters Podcast

Some interesting analysis and opinion on Anwar Ibrahim’s strategy to gain power in Malaysia from Kazi Mahmood.  Keep in mind that Mahmood has a distinct perspective on the politics he is covering.  His long bio page includes this rather unique characterization of his focus:

His expertise today is concentrated on analyzing the situation in the Islamic world, and on the impact of the US led war on terror, which he calls a war against Islam instead. He believes there is a clash of civilizations that is taking shape with the US insistence to interfere in the affairs of the Islamic world. World Futures on line or WFOL as he calls it has been instituted to counter the lies which the US is spreading about Islam.

So keep that in mind while reading the following analysis.  But it is important to try and understand the role that Islamic parties might play in bringing Anwar to power and what they will expect as part of that coalition.

Mahmood argues that Anwar’s inability to consider the wishes of Muslims has undermined his ability to gain a majority:

While the BN were feeling the heat of the opposition campaign to dislodge it from power after more than 50 years of rule, the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) were also taken by a storm that shocked the supporters of the PKR and of the Democratic Action Party (DAP). The Party Islam Se-Malaysia (PAS) was being courted by the Umno and offers were being made to create a new ‘Islamic’ alliance in the country to prevent the loss of Malay-Muslim political power.

The PAS was not in agreement with Anwar’s original plans for take over. The leaders of the Islamic party certainly knew how the former jail bird planned to arrest power from Abdullah Ahmad Badawi but the glitches that existed in the plan put them off. The fact that most of the MP’s willing to jump ship from the BN to join the PR were non-Muslims would have created a situation of great unrest in the country among Malays-Muslims. The Muslims would not want a regime headed by a Malay but run by non-Muslims in general. The number of MP’s of Islamic faith within the PR became an important question that Anwar could not tackle.

The September 16 date clashed with dates that are important in the Islamic calender, such as the Nuzul Quraan. The Muslims in Semenanjung Malaysia felt Anwar was being ’sarcastic’ and were showing ‘disrespect’ to the Muslims by repeatedly calling for a change of regime in Malaysia on that fatal day for the opposition grouping. The PKR failed to rally the majority of MP’s to take power based on the predictions and the landmark date set by Anwar Ibrahim himself.

The month of Ramadan in Malaysia is not the same as those in Afghanistan or Iraq and Somalia where war is still ravaging the countries and disturbing the fasting month of the Muslims. It is a peaceful, joyful and enriching month with prayers and recitations across the Muslim community in Malaysia. Setting the target date to take power by overthrowing the ruling regime – a Malay regime by all means – was a mistake by Anwar.

He gave more importance to the date when Sabah and Sarawak effectively joined Malaya to form Malaysia and in the process offended many Muslims who would have otherwise supported his plans to throw Umno out of power. The date could have differed from the September 16^th date says critics of Anwar Ibrahim who added that it might have been different had Anwar waited patiently for his time to make a breakthrough.

The relationship between Anwar and PAS has been covered here before, but it continues to bear watching.  His impatience seems to have prevented him from solidifying his alliance with the Islamic Party, or using it to his advantage, but it is likely if he is to gain a majority this will change.

The question then becomes: what will PAS and other Islamicists demand in order to join that coalition?

Another organization for which Anwar has provided leadership is The World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). Background on WAMY courtesy of www.discoverthenetworks.org.

The World Assembly of Muslim Youth is also one of the vehicles through which the Saudi Wahhabi government funds Islamic extremism and international terrorism. WAMY was co-founded by Kamal Helwabi, a former senior member of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood, and by Osama bin Laden’s nephew, Abdullah bin Laden (who served as WAMY’s President through 2002 and is now its Treasurer). WAMY raises funds for the terrorist group Hamas, and in October 2002 made Hamas leader Khaled Mash’al an “honored guest” at a Muslim youth and globalization conference held in Riyadh. WAMY also helps finance the Kashmir insurgency against India, characterizing it as a “liberation” movement. 

A Saudi opposition group reports that WAMY disseminates literature encouraging “religious hatred and violence against Jews, Christians, Shi’a and Ashaari Muslims.” As WAMY puts it, this literature is expressly designed ”to teach our children to love taking revenge on the Jews and the oppressors, and teach them that our youngsters will liberate Palestine and Jerusalem when they go back to Islam and make jihad for the sake of Allah.” Some WAMY publications have included interviews with Saudi clerics such as Ayed al-Qarni, an adviser to Saudi Prince Fahd. In one such interview, al-Qarni stated that he prays for America’s destruction daily, that he encourages students to go to Iraq to fight against U.S. forces, and that those who cannot go should at least contribute money to the cause. Another WAMY publication features a list of “martyrs” who have attacked and murdered Israelis; one of the individuals on this list is a man who drove 14 bus passengers off a cliff as a member of the group “Heroes from Palestine.” 

Investigations of the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center uncovered, in an apartment of one of the terrorists, an envelope marked “WAMY” along with a training manual on how to set up terrorist cells in other countries and stage attacks.

WAMY came under FBI scrutiny after 9/11, when it was determined that a radiologist, Dr. Al Badr al-Hamzi, whose credit card was found among the possessions of the hijackers, was receiving funding from the organization. The Senate Finance Committee requested that the IRS examine WAMY’s U.S. branch for links to terrorism. WAMY was also named in a trillion-dollar lawsuit by the families of the victims of 9/11.

In May 2004, federal law-enforcement, immigration, and anti-terrorism agents raided WAMY’s Alexandria, Virginia office, seizing all of its computers and hard drives, and arresting a volunteer board member, Ibrahim Abdullah, on immigration charges. WAMY had been operating out of the office of Jamal Barzinji, who was involved with a total of seven organizations that were raided by federal agents in connection with terrorist financing. After the raid on its office, WAMY likened itself to the YMCA, saying that it was interested only in “youth education, youth development, and serving the Muslim community.” 

Though WAMY’s activities in the United States were derailed, its operations elsewhere in the world continue unabated — in many instances with the help of other, likeminded organizations. For example, WAMY’s efforts in Somalia are supported by  the “Christian charities” Novib and Oxfam, which are based in the United Kingdom and Holland, respectively. 

One of WAMY’s closest affiliates is the European Council for Fatwa and Research, which aims to spread fundamentalist Islam and implement Shari’a (Islamic Law) worldwide. Another organization with intimate ties to WAMY is the Muslim Students’ Association of the U.S. and Canada. And four directors of the International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT) – including Anwar Ibrahim, a terror-supporting Malaysian Islamist who co-founded IIIT – are trustees of WAMY.  

In December 1999, WAMY announced at a press conference in Saudi Arabia that it “was extending both moral and financial support to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) ”to help it construct its $3.5 million headquarters in Washington, D.C.”  WAMY also agreed to “introduce CAIR to Saudi philanthropists and recommend their financial support for the headquarters project.” In 2002, CAIR and WAMY jointly announced, again from Saudi Arabia, their collaboration on a $1 million public-relations campaign.

Islam scholar Stephen Schwartz calls WAMY “the Saudi equivalent of the Hitler Youth: a hate-mongering, ultra-extremist group preaching, among other niceties, that Shia Muslims are not real Muslims, but products of a Jewish conspiracy.” The website Militant Islam Monitor characterizes the organization as “part of the Saudi Wahhabist ‘Jihad through conversion’ drive.”

While a fellow at the American Center for Democracy, Ilan Weinglass detailed for FrontPageMagazine.com Anwar’s ties to terrorism through the International Institute of Islamic Thought:

Anwar Ibrahim is a founder and director of the Muslim Brotherhood affiliated International Institute of Islamic Thought (IIIT), a think tank in Virginia that has alleged links to terrorism. IIIT’s 2003 tax-exempt IRS filing lists a $720 donation to the al-Haramain Islamic Foundation of Ashland, Oregon, which was designated as a terrorist funding organization by the U.S. government in 2004. Among the Treasury Department’s findings were that the Oregon branch of al-Haramain engaged in tax fraud, money laundering, supporting Chechen mujahideen affiliated with al Qaeda, and had “direct links between the U.S. branch and Usama bin Laden.” In fact, many of al – Haramain’s offices around the world were closed for supporting terrorism.

There is more evidence of IIIT’s links to terrorism. A few examples: according to court documents, in the early 1990s IIIT donated at least $50,000 to a think tank run by Sami al-Arian, the World Islamic and Study Enterprise (WISE), that served as a front group for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. IIIT is also named as a defendant in two class-action lawsuits brought by victims of the 9/11 attacks. One alleges that IIIT received the bulk of its operating expenses from the SAAR network, whose component groups are accused in another class-action suit of being “fronts for the sponsor of al Qaeda and international terror.” The same suit lists IIIT as well as every officer of IIIT besides Anwar Ibrahim as a supporter of the SAAR network. This public information was available to SAIS, yet the school extended a fellowship to Ibrahim.

Ibrahim, along with three other IIIT directors, is also a trustee of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY). According to congressional testimony of testimony of Jonathan Winer, former Deputy Secretary of State for International Law Enforcement, in October 2002 WAMY made Hamas leader Khalid Mishal an “honored guest” at a conference held in Riyadh. A Saudi opposition group reports that WAMY disseminates literature encouraging “religious hatred and violence against Jews, Christians, Shi’a and Ashaari Muslims.” Evidently, as a trustee of this group, Anwar Ibrahim is far from advocating moderate Islam.

Ibrahim and his family were also the beneficiaries of an apparent tax fraud perpetrated by IIIT. The same tax filings showing a donation to the al-Haramian foundation show $92,200 in contributions to Ibrahim’s daughter, Nurul Izzah. IIIT violated U.S. law when it wrote “none” under “Donee’s relationship” when listing donations to Ibrahim’s daughter. The group would have lost its tax-exempt status had it been known that it was sending money to the family member of a director. Ibrahim never disavowed this act when given the chance and even stated explicitlythat these contributions were made for the education of his six children.

Moreover, the International Free Anwar Campaign (IFAC), which was established when Ibrahim was in a Malaysian prison, has some apparent links to al Qaeda. Rahim Ghouse, who was an IFAC leader based out of Melbourne, Australia, had business dealings with Yassin al-Qadi, who is on the Treasury Department’s list of Specially Designated Terrorists for funding al Qaeda. While this alone is not conclusive, it should have raised a red flag. Instead, SAIS assigned Ibrahim to “counsel students who wish to learn more about Southeast Asia and the Muslim world.”

Perhaps most importantly, Ibrahim never disavowed IIIT’s support of terrorism. On the contrary: in an October 25, 2003 response to the broadcasting of terror-supporting charges against IIIT on Australian television, he effusively praised the organization and said that charges against it were politically motivated.

One of the first things that Anwar did after being released from prison in 2005 was attend meetings in Turkey with Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his advisor Ahmet Davatoglu at the behest of their Justice and Development Party (Adalet ve Kalkınma Partisi, or AKP). Anwar’s pro-Malay, Islamacist rhetoric has been previously covered here, but relationships with like-minded individuals must be noted as well. Only a month ago, Erdogan and the AKP vary narrowly avoided dissolution in a split-vote constitutional court ruling that found that Turkish secularist principles had not been violated.

But secularists within Turkey remain unconvinced.

In spite of Turkey’s strides towards westernization and the possibility of EU membership, the AKP is a protagonist of ethnic and religious derision. Erogan’s advisor, Ahmet Davutoglu provides a basis for this concern as a concept of governance. Davutglu writes: “The world is composed of cultural blocs, and Turkey falls into the ‘Muslim bloc.’”

From the US perspective, Turkey under Erdogan has proven to be a difficult strategic partner in the war on terror. Does the condition of the US relationship with Turkey foreshadow a decline in the US-Malaysia relationship under Anwar?

We already know that Anwar perceives Malaysia to fall within the “Muslim bloc.”  And so, in the context of the war on terror, the US must question what ground will be lost as Anwar pushes Malaysia closer to Sharia and farther from the West.

What is often overlooked is the fact that, aside from being accused and imprisoned for sodomy back in 1999, the other charges Anwar was incarcerated for were related to malfeasance and corruption. But the fruit of likely corrupt activity that Anwar partook in during his time in the public trust during the 1990’s was not yet evident.

Work done by TerrorFinance.org points to the lucrative May 2006 IPO of Al-Baraka Banking Group, (ABG) - an entity who’s chairman, Salah Kamel was responsible for the purchase of shares of Bank Islam that at the time was a Malaysian government-owned entity and allegedly involved in laundering funds belonging to the Third World Relief Agency.  Anwar has been, and still is a member of the board of directors.

Further, it appears that while Anwar was Minister of Finance in the mid-90’s he sold the government’s remaining shares of Bank Islam to SAAR Foundation, headed by an individual named Jamal Barzinji. At the same time, SAAR foundation was financing Anwar’s International Institute of Islamic Thought. Barzinji was a director at each organization. 

For the entire article go to: 

http://www.terrorfinance.org/the_terror_finance_blog/2007/02/yassin_alkadia_.html

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.

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.

 

The Malaysian Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced today that it is eliminating visas on arrival for 27 countries as of this Friday. Reported countries included are India, Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Citizens of the aforementioned nations will have to make arrangements prior to arrival in Malaysia.

Visitors from these countries, many whom have come to Malaysia to work, too often overstay their visas. According to Expressindia.com, Home Minister Syed Hamid Albar said that: 

“although foreign workers had contributed tremendously to the economy, they were also the cause of social ills, illegal squatters and diseases such as tuberculosis…”

Malaysia relies heavily on foreign workers who number about 2.1 million, half of them Indonesians. About 140,000 are Indians, 330,000 are from Bangladesh and 260,000 Nepalese…

US citizens will still enjoy a favorable visa upon arrival with stays authorized up to three months with a possible extension of another two months.