Anwar to Run for Parliament After His Wife Abdicates Seat

With the threat of arrest on sodomy charges hanging over him, Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said he will seek a seat in the country's Parliament after his wife announced she was resigning her own seat to force a by-election.

Should he win election, Mr. Anwar, backed by a strong opposition alliance, will be eligible to challenge Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi for the premiership. No date has been set for the by-election, which will be for a seat representing Mr. Anwar's home-town constituency in northern Malaysia.

Mr. Anwar's gambit comes amid a police investigation into an allegation, made in June, that the politician sodomized a young male aide. Mr. Anwar, 60 years old, has denied the allegation and characterized it as politically motivated to discredit him -- which government officials deny.

Some Malaysian political analysts say holding a by-election with Mr. Anwar as a candidate will amount to a de facto public referendum on the allegations against him, one the opposition leader calculates he can win. The decision to run for Parliament also will open the way for Mr. Anwar to accuse Malaysian authorities of politically persecuting him if he is arrested on the sex charge, either before or after the by-election. Sodomy is a crime in Malaysia and refers explicitly to
anal sex; conviction carries a sentence of as many as 20 years in jail.

Officials at Mr. Anwar's People's Justice Party said Thursday they believe Malaysian police could arrest and formally charge Mr. Anwar on the sodomy allegation over the next few days. He was detained for questioning as a "suspect" in the police investigation in July and spent a night in jail before being released on bail.

On Thursday, Home Affairs Minister Syed Hamid Albar told reporters that the police investigation into the sodomy complaint filed by former Anwar aide Saiful Bukhari Azlan has been completed and that the case has been sent to Malaysia's Attorney General for further action. "It is now up to the AG's chambers to look at whether there should be any charges" made against Mr. Anwar, he said.

Repeatedly, Mr. Anwar has characterized the affair as a political conspiracy to block him from seeking power after Malaysia's opposition alliance posted strong gains in March national elections. Among other things, the opposition alliance campaigned for judicial reform and an end to the system of race-based preferences that has helped Mr. Abdullah's ruling National Front government stay in power for decades.

Mr. Anwar has publicly vowed to topple Mr. Abdullah by mid-September by encouraging government parliamentarians to defect to the opposition so it could vote the National Front coalition out of power. The opposition alliance is 30 seats short of a majority of Malaysia's 222-seat Parliament.

The confrontation has provoked a deepening political standoff in this resource-rich, predominantly Muslim Southeast Asian nation of 27 million people. Government leaders, including Mr. Abdullah and Deputy Prime Minister Najib Abdul Razak, have denied there is any plot to thwart Mr. Anwar's political goals. But popular opinion is divided and the allegation against Mr. Anwar has stirred a firestorm of political
debate.

Thursday, Mr. Anwar's wife, Wan Azizah Wan Ismail resigned her parliamentary seat to open the way for him to replace her in the legislature.

Until April, Mr. Anwar was banned from seeking political office following an earlier controversy in which he was sacked as deputy prime minister in 1998 and subsequently convicted on sodomy charges.

Mr. Anwar says those charges were cooked up to stop him from challenging then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad. Dr. Mahathir has denied Mr. Anwar's prosecution a decade ago was politically motivated. Mr. Anwar's conviction was overturned by Malaysia's highest court in 2004, a year after Dr. Mahathir retired.

Malaysia's Election Commission next week likely will schedule a date for the by-election, which will be held in Mr. Anwar's old constituency of Permatang Pauh in Penang state.

Mr. Anwar told reporters he is confident of winning. "It looks very safe," he said. "I look forward to participate in the deliberations in Parliament and hopefully keep our focus on the economy and be back on track in our efforts to see a new dawn for Malaysia."

By JAMES HOOKWAY
August 1, 2008
Asian Wall Street Journal