Anwar says trial is govt ploy to win election
Anwar says trial is govt ploy to win election
KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): Ousted politician Anwar Ibrahim, in a statement from jail, accused the Malaysian government on Thursday of trying him on a new sodomy charge to further smear his reputation and ensure its victory in upcoming elections.
Anwar, the former No. 2 leader, said the government was planning to call a snap election during his sodomy trial after humiliating him with lurid sexual allegations and discrediting his leadership ability. He cited unidentified informants.
"This is done to ensure their victory at general elections" Anwar said in a statement obtained from his family. He called it a "malicious prosecution."
A High Court judge ruled on Tuesday that Anwar, who has already been convicted on corruption charges, will be tried with his adopted brother, Sukma Dermawan, on charges of sodomizing a man in 1992. A trial date will be set on May 4. Anwar denies all the allegations, calling them trumped up to end the threat he posed to Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad.
Mahathir has lost considerable support since firing Anwar in September for alleged homosexual acts. Sodomy is a crime in mostly Muslim Malaysia. While general elections are not scheduled until April 2000, many predict a snap poll will be called as early as June.
"The (ruling party's) supreme council leaders want Parliament to be dissolved when I go to trial for sexual charges and before my lawyers cross-examine the witnesses," Anwar said in the statement.
Anwar, who was sentenced to six years in jail, faces four additional sodomy charges and one of corruption. In his statement, he said that recent charges brought against his associates were part of the government's smear campaign and a form of harassment.
Meanwhile, Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, called for political support on Thursday for change in her country, saying the Philippine "people power" experience was slowly taking shape in Kuala Lumpur.
"Anwar is a victim of the corrupt system, a system fashioned in the image of a once respected prime minister who has lost all sense of perspective, all sense of right and wrong and all sense of reality," Azizah said in Manila,
She said Filipinos understand what injustice was like having endured 20 years of dictatorship under Ferdinand Marcos, and that like many Filipinos then, Anwar was only trying to "reform the system from within."
"I regard their support for me, and the National Justice party as the Malaysian version of people power," she said, referring to the 1986 bloodless revolt that sent Marcos into exile to Hawaii.
"Mrs. (Corazon) Aquino and the people of the Philippines, have shown us the dictator can be overthrown if the masses draw a line and say, enough. No more."
Aquino's late husband, opposition leader Benigno Aquino was gunned down during Marcos's regime. His death eventually led to the 1986 revolt that toppled his foe and installed his wife as president.
President Joseph Estrada, meanwhile, said he has not received a formal request for a meeting with Azizah, but said "there is no reason why I shouldn't give her an audience".
"We are Filipinos, we are hospitable to our guests, especially to foreign guests. There's nothing wrong with that as long as it is private," Estrada told reporters.
He also advised Anwar to be "courageous" because the "truth will set him free."
Azizah, who arrived in the Philippine capital on Wednesday as Aquino's guest, said Mahathir has been employing "divide and conquer tactics" by playing up the differences between Malaysian Chinese and Malays.
However, she stressed Malaysians were "too wise" to fall prey "to such blatant appeal to bigotry."