As if on cue, it appears that embattled Prime Minister Najib Razak's Umno party has trotted out a 'new' sex scandal to tarnish arch rival Anwar Ibrahim and his Pakatan Rakyat coalition just weeks ahead of the country's 13th general election.
In fact, many are expecting Najib to dissolve Parliament as early as Monday. Certainly, Umno blogs have working overtime, circulating screen shots of a sex video that showed a man they alleged was Anwar with a male partner.
“It is Umno’s disgusting pre-election slander," Anwar told reporters on Saturday.
Backlash on the cards
It remains to be seen how far the Umno bogs will go this time and whether they can stir up negative interest against Anwar. Chances are higher the ploy will create greater backlash for Umno and the BN coalition that it leads.
Malaysians have grown weary of Umno using leaders from the Opposition, especially Anwar, as a batting board. In particular, there is undeniable public weariness and distaste at seeing Anwar being made the villain in sex romps.
The 64-year-old Opposition Leader has already successfully fought off two rounds of sodomy charges leveled against him by the umno-BN government in a bid to tarnish his political career.
Homosexuality is banned by Islam and taboo in Malaysia's predominant Malay electorate. It must be noted that in both the Sodomy I and Sodomy II trials, Anwar was acquitted by the courts.
Perhaps, the Umno sex 'overkill' came in 2011, just days before the Sarawak state election, when 3 Umno members calling themselves the Datuk T trio misguidedly screened in public a video allegedly showing Anwar having sex with a female sex worker.
Despite the all-out and concerted effort by the Umno media, with the police also clearly roped in, to create public disgust for Anwar, the ploy failed
Instead, it created a huge negative backlash and Umno was heavily slammed for its 'sex sex sex' brand of political weaponry. The latest gambit may well go the same way.
Malaysia Chronicle
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.