Anwar Ibrahim loses court appeal

Producer: Valarie Tan
First broadcast: 14 September 04, Radio Singapore International

How will Anwar revive the Keadilan party?

Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi has confirmed that former Deputy Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim will not be welcomed back into the ruling UMNO party.

The question now remains what Anwar’s contribution to Malaysian politics will be, if the Federal Court overturns his corruption conviction tomorrow.

How and why did speculation arise in the first place, that a deal had been struck to release Anwar or to bring him back to UMNO?

A question Yvonne Gomez put to Professor Khoo Kay Kim from Kuala Lumpur-based Universiti Malaya in Malaysia.

KKK: Even that rumour doesn’t imply that Anwar will be getting back into UMNO. The rumour is simply that there may be some kind of cooperation between the two but Anwar himself said, at the time he was released, that he would not be trying to get back into UMNO, that he would work towards reforms from the outside. Within UMNO itself, the large majority would not favour Anwar’s coming back. There may still be remnants of Anwar’s followers within UMNO, but they would be in the minority. The majority would be supporters of the Prime Minister, as well as the Deputy Prime Minister.

Anwar himself has said that he plans to remain in the opposition, more specifically in Keadilan, the small opposition headed by his wife. What do you think is going to be first on his agenda?

KKK: It’s not very clear what he will do next, and whether he will actually begin active political life all over again. But he could do something to strengthen Keadilan, which at the moment, is declining very rapidly. He could, for example, effect some kind of cooperation between Keadilan and Parti Islam. He’s never been an enemy of Parti Islam. So there are a few possibilities but I do not hear people discussing his strategy at the moment. I think it would be very difficult for him to think in terms of challenging the present leadership in UMNO.

Earlier there were some concerns about Anwar’s radical Islamic past. What role does this play in his future dealings in Malaysia’s political scene?

KKK: Well, he would have to be very careful with the entire Western world, in particular, talking about terrorist activities. If he should come back into politics, and if he should fail tot read carefully, he could be branded by the West as a sympathizer of Al-Qaeda, which would do him no good. A great deal depends on how he is going to portray himself, because if he becomes too Islamic, and if the kind of Islamism that he is attempting to preach is not consistent with what UMNO is talking about, in terms of Islam hadhari which is modernist Islam, Anwar will find that most of the non-Muslims will definitely not support him. So he has to be very careful in what he does. As I said earlier, already, the Western world is practically treating Islam as an enemy, and if within the country he cannot gain the confidence of the non-Muslims, then he will have a very difficult time.

As a charismatic political figure, Anwar could possibly rise to become a credible and very powerful opposition leader in Malaysia. How will this affect the other opposition parties, like the DAP and PAS, or what impact do you think Anwar will make on the general opposition scene in Malaysia?

KKK: Well, he can, provided he can win the confidence of the DAP, which is rather difficult, because the DAP has consistently shown itself to be not in support of any kind of hardline Islamic principle. At the same time, whether he can fit into the Parti Islam setup, that is, if he aims to become the leading Islamic figure in the country, there would be some kind of competition between Anwar and leaders of Parti Islam. So I think it’s not that easy for Anwar to make a comeback into Malaysian politics. Unless he wiser today than he was before, he may stumble once again.