Amid a spate of increasingly wild rumors including that he may be arrested, Malaysian Opposition Leader Anwar Ibrahim is confident of scoring a critical success in the key state, landing a major if not knockout blow that can trigger the exits of both controversial Chief Minister Taib Mahmud and Prime Minister Najib Razak.
“We are very optimistic we are going to go far beyond that, we are pushing to deny BN its monopoly of the state,” he told a press conference in Kuching.
"If the process has been free and fair from the beginning, I have no qualms about (victory). However, we are fighting against the entire government machinery. We are concerned of the development in the next few hours."
Anwar's Pakatan Rakyat coalition needs to win 23 seats in order deny Taib two-thirds of the 71 seats in the Sarawak legislative assembly. Apart from the pyshological factor, two-thirds seats is the margin the government would need in order to hammer through laws without reference to opposition lawmakers.
Sarawakians will go to the ballot boxes on Saturday.
Najib and Taib fight for their political lives
Anwar, the 64-year old de-facto head of PKR, has been working round clock campaigning at both the cities and the interior regions of the state in joint rallies with coalition allies PAS and DAP.
Although the response that has been received is unprecedented, Najib has waged a major fightback.
Sarawak is crucial not only for Taib, but also for the federal leader. If Pakatan denies Taib two-thirds seats, that will be taken as the sign by power-brokers within Najib's own Umno party that Najib has to go.
Not surprisingly, the BN-controlled media has tried to swing public interest in the red-hot Sarawak elections over to national topics in the last 48 hours as Najib tries to marshall all his cards to push back the Pakatan's surge.
Malaysians became suspicious when the police chief in Kuala Lumpur suddenly announced they had identified the man in a pornographic video that Umno members had screened in public, insisting it was Anwar. The man had been filmed having sex with a prostitute and the tape was professionally recorded, most likely in a hotel room in Thailand.
Although Anwar has denied any involvement, it is clear that the perpetrators of the tape will not let him go. The video is believed to be part of a huge conspiracy to discredit him and repulse voters.
Also, coincidentially, controversial blogger Raja Petra Kamaruddin appeared on government-controlled TV to criticise Anwar. According to the government media, Raja Petra cleared Najib and his wife Rosmah of being involved in the Altantuya murder and graft case.
Raja Petra, formerly a staunch Anwar supporter, even accused the opposition head of having given him the go-ahead to smear Najib and Rosmah.
Don't underestimate the courage of Sarawakians
But Anwar and his Pakatan team have refused to have their focus deflected. They believe that Malaysians can see through the plots and only worry that Najib will use the excuse to arrest Anwar.
"Obviously the sex video is another conspiracy with Najib's direct sanction and RPK is also part of the plan to discredit Anwar. We are confident Malaysians will not believe in Najib, the tape or RPK. And we have been proven right, the crowds that come to our rallies are unstoppable," PKR strategic director Rafizi Ramli told Malaysia Chronicle.
"What we fear is that Najib has reached the state of desperation that hours before the polling, they will try anything to stop us. Yes the the talk is that they may even arrest Anwar or order a crackdown on other Pakatan leaders. This is to scare off voters and leave the field open for the BN to do all the electoral fraud they need to win. But this will only make the people even more angry. In fact, it will be suicidal for Najib and Taib."
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