Wife of Malaysia's Anwar forms reform organization

Wife of Malaysia's Anwar forms reform organization

KUALA LUMPUR (Agencies): The wife of Malaysia's sacked finance minister Anwar Ibrahim said on Thursday she was forming a national organization to press for reform and attract disgruntled citizens who have rallied around her husband.

Azizah Ismail told a news conference at her suburban home the Movement for Social Justice was not a political party and its members would seek to register the movement with the government as a society.

But the move was the first step towards establishing a formal role for the spontaneous movement that sprang up around Anwar after his dismissal in September and took up the rallying cry "reformasi" (reform).

Azizah said she was the president of the organization, called Pergerakan Keadilan Sosial, or Movement for Social Justice, with the acronym ADIL.

Her husband, who has pleaded not guilty to five counts each of corruption and sodomy and is in jail while he stands trial, was an "endorser", she said.

"ADIL should be a vehicle for unifying each and every group that yearn for political, economic and social change and reform in line with the principles of the constitution and the laws of the land," she said.

There had been speculation that Anwar's supporters, who have mounted sporadic demonstrations in the capital since he was sacked, would form a party under the "Reformasi" (Reform) name. But Azizah said her movement was not a political party. "This is a reform movement," she said.

In another development, a key prosecution witness against Anwar reversed his earlier testimony on Thursday and said he was sodomized by both Anwar and the politician's adopted brother in 1992.

Driver Azizan Abu Bakar gave lurid details of the alleged relationship with the former deputy premier in 1992 after retracting his earlier evidence that he never had sex with Anwar.

On Monday Azizan stunned the court when he repeatedly agreed to a defense assertion that he kept visiting Anwar's house up to 1997 because Anwar "did not sodomize you" and that he would have kept "far away" if he had.

But when the trial resumed on Thursday, Azizan clarified his remarks during questioning from deputy public prosecutor Abdul Ghani Patail.

"I misunderstood the question that was raised a few days ago because 1992 is too general and the defense did not tell me which month I visited the home of the accused," he said, insisting his original allegations of sodomy were true.

"One of the acts I cannot forget is the incident that happened at Sukma's house at Tivola Villa," Azizan said, referring to the Indonesian-born brother and a luxury apartment complex in a fashionable Kuala Lumpur neighborhood.

"The accused sodomized me first, followed by..." At this point Anwar's defense counsel Christopher Fernando objected. "Surely this has gone too far. It is not relevant to the question posed," he said.

But the objection was overruled by presiding judge Augustine Paul.

"... His adopted brother then sodomized me," Azizan said, triggering gasps from Anwar's family members and warnings from a court official that members of the public would have to leave the court if they were going to make any noise.

Anwar, fired by Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad in early September and arrested 18 days later after leading an anti- government rally, is on trial on four counts of corruption related to allegations that he used his position to cover up claims of sexual misconduct.