ANWAR, VICTIM OF BASELESS ALLEGATIONS

Hatef Mokhtar

A village of Cherok Tok Kun where hardly the political will connects gave rise to a star of new Malaysia on 10^th August 1947 when the dawn of new era had began & when the shine of imperialism was started to fade then in a small unknown corner of the world someone was going to take birth whose ideology & growth will go to give Malaysia a new dimension to think beyond ethnic boundaries.

Anwar Ibrahim started his career when he was pursuing Malay studies as a President of Muslim student organization Persatuan Kebangsaan Pelajar Islam Malaysia (PKPIM) & of Persatuan Bahasa Melayu Universiti Malaya (PBMUM) simultaneously. In 1971 he was one of the prominent members & among the founders of Muslim Youth Movement of Malaysia or Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM) founded in 1971. During 1974 student protests against rural poverty & hunger he was booked under Malaysian Internal Security Act leading him to imprisonment of 20 months detaining him without any judicial trail.

Famous for his nationalist ideology his move to support the government of Malaysian President Mahathir Mohammad in 1981 shocked his liberal & unconditional supporters of his founded organization Angkatan Belia Islam Malaysia (ABIM). As he joined the politics the rise of his ranks & status gathered momentum. His first ministerial post was as the minister for Culture, Youth & Sports in 1983.

The time of Anwar’s golden era has now just started in 1983 & he remained & gained his ranks of political world with a great pace when ultimately he reached & was sworned in as a Deputy Prime Minister in Mahathir bin Mohammad government from 1993 – 1998 which ended with the blow of ASEAN financial crisis of 1997 closing of his son-father relationship of political path in 1998 with UMNO. He was also appointed as an Acting Prime Minister during absence of Mahathir Mohammad who took holiday from his work for about two months.

Before climbing to the Prime Minister’s desk Anwar Ibrahim headed many ministries in UMNO such as in 1984, Minister of Education 1986 which cleared the way for his prime ministerial position expected as per Malaysian politics which rife him to the surety of his Deputy Prime Ministerial choice.

Anwar came in limelight when he took charge of the two prominent ministries in 1986 Education Minister & 1991 Minister of Finance. During his tenure as a Minister of Education he introduced numerous pro Malay policies in the national school curriculum & the most controversial of them all was when he renamed the national language as Bahasa Melayu from Bahasa Malaysia this invited the huge public outcry from the non Malays who felt that this will detached the future generations from the national language & there will be nothing which does not belong to Malaysians but only to Malays.

This has created a much silent rift which has now widened with his moves. When he was Finance minister the allegations were drawn that he is being corrupt & is using public exchequer in a non transparent manner.

During the last years of his golden era when Malaysia & other ASEAN economies were facing brunt of financial crisis Anwar blamed Mahathir being a capitalist & was opened a clear front against his protectionist policies which have resulted in financial turmoil in Malaysia.

The trail & allegations which he faced & is going through are completely baseless as it is completely political which a result is of the confrontation between the two political magnets. With a rise in support & increasing popularity in the masses especially in the minorities Anwar’s demise can be beneficial to one person & that is Mahathir himself who even have called him the potential prime minister for Israel.

The person who is nationalist by choice & is clear with transparency in his views cannot be corrupt & can’t perform the act of sodomy with his fellow ministers. The trail under which he gone & spent 6 months under severe torture by the police authorities are completely not justified. The person who had been declared as Asian of the year just because of his policies & stand for his nation’s worst days is charged with the allegations of being corrupt political figure; the person who took stand against the corrupt political practices of the national leaders of his Malay nation especially that off Mahathir whose intentions to save his own investments leads the national exchequer to the mere dummy.

The reason which nobody knows is that Anwar stopped Mahathir to protect his family’s fortune & business interests by diversifying the public funds to their corporate. This has gone against the wishes of his senior colleague. It is said there is nothing bigger than the self politics which even does not spare the closest of the relations if they come in between of the personal satisfaction & greed of political growth.

This is what happened to the relations of Mahathir & Anwar which when tested on the values came under the political weight of scrutiny. The nationalistic values & patriotism of Anwar Ibrahim which thought was right & has guided him right on the path of truth & justice which his nation was expecting of him at the most difficult times of its economy didn’t matched with the greedy expectations of the corrupt political circles of the Mahathir bin Mohammad’s regime which even at the harsh times were just trying to save their own interests rather than those of nation.

The Anwar’s policies favouring financial & banking system which allows them to protect their funds in terms of saving them from bankruptcy & not allowing any offerings for public bailouts for the corporate had resulted in the first between the two titans of the Malaysian Cabinet.

It is the policies of Anwar & the values of his nationalism which saved Malaysia from the worst of the financial turmoil otherwise if there would be someone else corrupt then scenario of Anwar’s nation would have been completely different. This is he who have helped building Malaysia a more secular & friendly state rather being clutched in the grip of fundamentals of the radical Islam which has always threatened Malaysia’s system from the start of its first years of independence.

When somebody wants fame & want to get famous mostly the people choose to target who is already under sight & this is what happened to Anwar Ibrahim who was prosecuted under the false charges of sodomy by his fellow minister which though somehow proven on the false identification & criticised reports of the DNA has ended Anwar’s career altogether as Malaysian law has provisions of 15 years jail term under sodomy charges.

The trail which Anwar went through was full of loops in the judicial decision which made him the victim of the corrupt politicization of the judiciary in Malaysia. The decision to sentence Anwar & the maltreatment of him by the police officers in jail was the matter of the fact of political influence which still exist in advance Malaysian society which portrays itself as the most clear & a true Asian in real.

Defaming the image of the person whose ideology & focus is his nation, who have always stand for his nation in the most difficult times for which he even got awarded as the Asian of the Year. The person who sees life as respect & believes in being natural & clear in his approach was booked under the false allegations of the sodomy charges falsely put by the greedy sections of his fellows who Anwar has always trusted & coordinated on every level.

The person who visions a better & safer future for his nation was declared corrupt defaming his image which characterises him as the national hero who saved his nation from being driven in the down line of crisis. The person who talked about secularism & national unity was banned from the politics just because the loopy trails of false allegations were being conducted under the political channels favouring the hollow desires of greedy politicians.

The trail has not only tarnished the image of Malaysian judiciary but has also been criticised by most respected international organisations & communities. The open truth of Anwar Ibrahim’s patriotic soul has not been felt by the citizens of his nations to whom he served the most. The mockery of the Malaysian judiciary has now been made in the public resulting in the complete shame for the nation like this which is secular & friendly.

Even though he has promised to return to active politics & run the Malaysian parliament but the effect of his trails will take the toll on him as he is still going through the remaining allegations charged on him if the accusations are established then he will spent rest of his life in jail which though is not a good sign of the transparent judiciary who not even being so clear that the national hero & the masses leader who have always lead the nation as one has now struggling to hold his feet on his beloved ground of his mother’s lap where he was born, grown & sworned into the code of nationalism. Where he visions the future for his people as one & in peace where he has harmonised the genes of distinct identities that formed Malaysia as one.

The state of the perish falls on the political circle where even in this century there is no room for transparency & justice is still finding his hero & waiting for him to lead its way to peace & prosperity. The future of Anwar’s nation now stand in the cross roads of radical Islam & the secular society which Anwar’s has supported & viewed as harmonious for Malays.

In his absence the vacuum of the patriotic star will remain always in the empty corners of Malay Peninsula where now the discrimination of fundamentals is on the rise & where the demise of nationalism is the norm of the day. The heroes like Anwar Ibrahim are needed for Malaysia who is now struggling between the traditions & the challenges of the greedy capitalistic society who has never favoured the growth of the nation as one.

Hatef is the Founder Armed For The Quill which is based in Oslo, Norway