The Hindu : International : Anwar returns to Malaysian politics

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 01, 2005

International

International

Anwar returns to Malaysian politics

Simon Tisdall

KUALA LUMPUR: Anwar Ibrahim, Malaysia's leading Opposition figure, launched a series of rallies and speeches across the country at the weekend — but you would not know it from reading the newspapers.

An establishment politician turned pro-democracy ``icon'' who was beaten and jailed by the Government of the former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, Mr. Anwar drew an estimated crowd of 10,000 people in Penang. Up to 40,000 were expected in northern Kedah on Monday. But most Malaysians are unaware of Mr. Anwar's travelling reform campaign. The media blackout is total. Officially, he is Malaysia's invisible man.

Interviewed at his home in Kuala Lumpur, Mr. Anwar said Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, Dr Mahathir's successor, had ordered the gag.

``Editors tell me it is the personal instruction of the Prime Minister that you should not report or mention Anwar at all,'' he said. Various reasons had been given, all of them preposterous, he said. ``I'm a threat to the nation, a threat to security, I will split the Malays ... Actually, they don't try to justify it. It's brute force.''

Editors would be quietly removed, advertising withdrawn, or publishing licences withheld if newspapers disobeyed. That was typical of the roundabout way repression worked in Malaysia, he suggested.

Leaders of UMNO, the main ruling party, say that Mr. Anwar, who was Deputy Prime Minister and heir apparent before an explosive falling-out in 1998, no longer matters.

Western Governments that criticised Mr. Anwar's trial view current tensions as an internal matter. A diplomat said it was misleading to see him as ``some sort of white knight'' and pointed to inconsistencies between his present stance and his time in office. — © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004

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