Foreign leaders cautioned on meeting Anwar

Foreign leaders cautioned on meeting Anwar

Reuters, Putrajaya, Malaysia

Malaysia's prime minister cautioned foreign leaders on Monday
about meeting the country's most prominent opposition figure,
former deputy premier Anwar Ibrahim, who is on an international
tour.

"The foreign leaders... should also know what is right for
them to do and what is not right," Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad
Badawi told Reuters in an interview, when asked about Anwar's
attempts to meet some foreign leaders.

"Normally, our behavior has been that if a leader of the
opposition asks for an appointment, we become naturally more
cautious because we have to think of the feelings of the
government in power," he said. "That's something that we always
have in mind."

Anwar, released from almost six years in jail in September,
has begun a series of planned international trips, seeking to
call on foreign leaders and rekindle key relationships he built
up before his imprisonment, while still a cabinet minister.

Anwar arrived in Indonesia on Monday night for a visit he
hopes will lead to a meeting with the newly elected president, a
senior aide, Ezam Nor, said, adding that a dinner with Vice
President Jusuf Kalla was confirmed for Thursday night.

Organizers of the trip are seeking a meeting between Anwar and
President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono on Friday.

Anwar recently visited South Africa, where he met former
President Nelson Mandela, Nor said by telephone from Jakarta.

Anwar was jailed in 1999 on what he called trumped-up charges
of sodomy and corruption after he fell out with Malaysia's then
prime minister, Mahathir Mohamad, and was sacked from government.

Anwar led anti-government street protests before he was
arrested, starting a political "Reformasi" movement that called
for an end to corruption and for an independent judiciary. He was
finally released after a court overturned his sodomy conviction.

Malaysia's ruling party is especially wary of Anwar's return
to political life, even though he is barred from standing for
political or parliamentary office until April 2008.