Massive Mumblings from Malaysia

Anwar Ibrahim Freed

Anwar Ibrahim was Deputy Prime Minster in the 1990s while Mahathir was PM. As such, Anwar was positioned to become the next PM, once Mahathir (who had been in power since 1982) stepped down.

However, political tensions between the two led to Anwar's dismissal from the government, six years ago to the day. Part of the problem had been on how to handle the 1997 economic crisis. But beyond that, Anwar's popularity posed a problem to Mahathir, who probably really sacked him to avoid a possible challenge to his leadership.

The SF Chronicle reports, "Anwar refused to go quietly and led tens of thousands of protesters demanding "Reformasi" -- democratic reform and an end to corruption -- that were the largest demonstrations orderly Malaysia had seen in decades."

Several weeks later, Anwar was arrested on national security grounds and then formally accused of corruption and sodomy. The corruption charges are for abusing his official powers to cover up allegations of sexual misconduct. Human rights organizations, both in Malaysia and abroad, see the charges as being politically motivated and the trial lacking judicial independence.
Anwar has already completed more than a year of his 9-year jail sentence for sodomy, as well as his 6-year sentence for corruption.

Today, the High Court overturned his sodomy conviction, saying that the lead witness was unreliable: "Azizan Abubakar alleged he had been sodomised by Mr Anwar in May 1994. The date was later amended to May 1992, but when it emerged that the condominium where the alleged act supposedly took place did not then exist, the charge was amended a second time." (BBC)

Anwar has been requesting permission to travel to Germany for medical treatment due to a slipped disc in his back, a condition which he claims was brought on after being beaten by the police chief upon his arrest (his black eye at the time was widely photographed as evidence of police misconduct).

Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, formed the opposition political party Keadilan, after his arrest. In the March 2004 elections, however, she was the only one to win a seat in parliament. Anwar will have to wait five years after convicition to run for political office, though there is rumor that there may have been a behind-the-scenes deal that he would stay out of politics if released.


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Other politically motivated cases



Human rights activist Irene Fernandez was sentenced to 12 months imprisonment for "maliciously publishing false news" as a result of a memorandum she wrote on "Abuse , Torture and Dehumanized Treatment of Migrant Workers in Detention Centers," based on over 300 interviews with former detainees and the information from Sun Magazine journalists who did their own independent investigation (and later won an award for their report!).

She is out on bail right now, pending appeal, but has been denied access to her passport to travel abroad for conferences. The claim is that she would probably tarnish the country's image further. The case demonstrates that there is no protection for human rights defenders to raise concerns over human rights violations in Malaysia.

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Egyptain Saad Edin Ibrahim, one of my professors at the American University in Cairo, was convicted of similar charges of defaming Egypt and misapprobriations of EU funding (though the EU itself said that their audit showed no problems). I attended one day of the hearings and wrote about it here for the Yale Journal of Human Rights. His conviction was overturned by the High Court in the spring of 2003.