Anwar upbeat despite setback on sex chargesAnwar upbeat despite setback on sex charges
\nBy Kevin Brown in Singapore
\nPublished: December 3 2009 20:05 | Last updated: December 3 2009 20:05<\/p>\n
Anwar Ibrahim, the Malaysian opposition leader facing a criminal trial for sodomy, says the government has miscalculated if it thinks that jailing him will keep it in power at the next election.
\nMr Anwar faces his second trial for sodomy in January following the high court\u2019s rejection of an attempt to have the charges struck out on the grounds that medical evidence showed them to be false and that the prosecution was biased.
\nThe court\u2019s decision is a setback for Mr Anwar, a former deputy prime minister and finance minister, who spent six years in prison on similar charges before Malaysia\u2019s federal court overturned his conviction in 2004.
\nHowever, in an interview with the Financial Times Mr Anwar said the fresh charges were part of a conspiracy by the Barisan Nasional (National Front) government to undermine the three-party Pakatan Rakyat (People\u2019s Alliance) coalition, which made spectacular gains at the 2008 general election.
\n\u201cI am resigned to the fact that I am dealing with this oppressive system and I must be prepared for the worst,\u201d Mr Anwar said in his office in Malaysia\u2019s federal parliament building in Kuala Lumpur.
\n\u201cIt is not the courts, it is [the government],\u201d he said. \u201cTheir political masters will instruct them that I be convicted. Then they have to be prepared for the grand battle; I am not taking it hands down. I will do what it takes; we will see.\u201d
\nMr Anwar said the Alliance leaders had agreed a strategy for running the coalition if an election \u2013 due by 2013 \u2013 is called while he is in prison. \u201cI am optimistic that my incarceration would not necessarily put them in a sure victory; I think probably to the contrary,\u201d he said.
\nMalaysia, a multi-racial state of 28m people, has been in political turmoil since the unexpected election result, which opened the possibility of a transfer of power between competing parties for the first time since independence from the UK in 1957.
\nThe National Front, a 13-party coalition of mainly regional and race-based parties, won 140 of the 222 seats, but for the first time lost its two-thirds majority in parliament, which had allowed it to change the constitution.
\nIts three main components \u2013 the United Malays National Organisation, the Malaysian Chinese Association and the Malaysian Indian Congress \u2013 have been rocked by leadership disputes. Umno dumped Abdullah Badawi, its election-winning leader, in favour of Najib Razak, his deputy, in April last year.
\nMr Najib has sought to stabilise the coalition, ordering Umno\u2019s Chinese ally to resolve its festering leadership dispute and signalling to the MIC that the National Front might encourage other Indian-based parties if it fails to revitalise itself.
\nHe has campaigned effectively against Mr Anwar, whose successive political careers have drawn accusations of inconsistency and opportunism.
\nThe prime minister has also sought to re-engage minority voters through economic reforms intended to dilute discrimination in favour of ethnic Malays, who make up about 53 per cent of the population.
\nHowever, tensions have continued to flare, with Muslim protesters publicly trampling on a cow\u2019s head, sacred to Hindus, and a government minister claiming that Indian demonstrators wrapped an Umno flag around a severed pig\u2019s head, regarded by Muslims as unclean.
\nThe three-party opposition coalition also has troubles, though, with few ideological links between its three parties \u2013 Mr Anwar\u2019s multi-ethnic Parti Keadilan Rakyat (People\u2019s Justice party), the mainly ethnic Chinese Democratic Action party and the Islamist Parti Islam Semalaysia (PAS).
\nSome PAS leaders favour an alternative alliance with Umno, which would bring the two mainly Malay Muslim parties together, while others have clashed with DAP leaders over issues such as the sale of alcohol \u2013 especially in the four of Malaysia\u2019s 13 states where the opposition parties are in power.
\nThe Alliance hopes to resolve these issues at a convention on December 19.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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