I’ve got proof, Anwar tells Hisham

KEPALA BATAS, Dec 19 — Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim maintained today that he can prove APCO is linked to Israel, but claimed that he had not been given a proper chance to explain his arguments in Parliament last week.

“Do I have proof? Well look at this then (shows piece of paper). The proof is here in my hands, but the thing I was not even given a chance to explain myself in Parliament last week. Instead of allowing me to explain, they suspended me for six months,” said Anwar during his closing speech at the Pakatan Rakyat (PR) convention today.

The PR defacto leader’s remarks come as a response to Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein’s challenge to him earlier today to furnish proof of APCO Worldwide’s connections to Israel.

Hishamuddin had said that PR has yet to make good on its threat to expose the connection between the public relations consultancy firm and Israel’s security agency, Shin Bet, despite constant promises to do so.

“Expose it. What is he afraid of?” Hishamuddin told reporters here today.

“They have been threatening for a long time to reveal boxes of confidential information but, to this day, nothing has been shown.”

Anwar (picture) in response today scoffed at the Minister’s remarks, saying that Hishammuddin was “blind” to the obvious facts.

“YB Lim Guan Eng showed me Hisham’s comments earlier. Umno knows I have proof. They are so scared that I know the truth, that I’ve got the information. Because of this, Azmin Ali, Sivarasa and Karpal Singh got suspended with me. What did they do wrong? I was the one who made the allegations,” said Anwar.

On Thursday, the PKR politician had called APCO “untouchable,” and blamed the firm for the suspension of four MPs including himself last Thursday in Parliament.

Anwar also accused APCO of lying to Parliament’s Rights and Privileges Committee in its letter to the panel.

Anwar was suspended from Parliament amid loud protests and a walkout by Pakatan Rakyat (PR) MPs who called the Dewan Rakyat a kangaroo court.

The suspension was over his claim earlier this year that APCO had been behind both the 1 Malaysia and One Israel concepts.

A separate suspension motion also cited three other PR lawmakers for contempt, for revealing and discussing the proceedings of the Rights and Privileges Committee on Anwar’s APCO claims.

Recent leaked US diplomatic cable from whistleblower website WikiLeaks has also caused great concern among PR leaders, as the leaked cables revealed that top Singaporean officials believed that Anwar had committed sodomy despite being fully aware that it was a “trap” set by his “political enemies.”

Anwar, however, dismissed the leaked cables had any impact, blaming Umno-controlledUtusan Malaysia for blowing the news out of proportion.

During his winding up speech earlier at the convention, he claimed local news reports had failed to mention the leaked cables were also critical of Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak, and said the latter had failed to respond to the WikiLeaks’ expose.

“Why Hisham? Why only focus on one half of the WikiLeaks’ report? What about the other part on Najib’s connection in Altantuya [Shariibuu’s] murder? Umno media is purposely going to town with WikiLeaks,” added Anwar.

Anwar was given the boot from Parliament for six months on Thursday for claiming that the allegedly Israeli-linked APCO was responsible for both the 1 Malaysia and 1 Israel concepts.

He has since renewed his threat to reveal evidence in his possession proving this connection while stumping in various towns and cities across the country.

Hishamuddin pointed out that the only “strange” information that has been exposed so far has instead been US diplomatic cables in which Singapore alleged that Anwar had knowingly “walked into” a “set-up job”.

“Even then he (Anwar) accused the police of conspiring with the intelligence agencies of sovereign countries like Singapore and Australia,” he said.

Hishamuddin went on to characterise the opposition’s desire and tendency to point fingers at the government for anything that goes wrong as “nonsensical”.