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The Anwar conundrum

IF ONE MAN ALL BUT DESTROYED UMNO, the Prime Minister, Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, his putative successor, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, undermined the government's confidence and threatens the National Front's (BN) future, it is a frail, crippled, man in his early 50s, imprisoned in isolate at Sungei Buloh prison. His name is Dato' Seri Anwar Ibrahim. His last salaried position was deputy prime minister. He was sentenced on 14 April 1999, convicted for corruption and sodomy, but he was arrested on 2 September, initially under the Internal Security Act. The courts unusually bent the prison rules to ensure he would not pose a political threat to Dato' Seri Mahathir Mohamed, refused him bail, and insisted the two prison terms of six and nine years be consecutive, not concurrent. During his time in jail, the government all but collapsed as Dr Mahathir and his government rushed hither and thither to contain the political damage Dato' Seri Anwar wrought.

What led Dato' Seri Anwar to prison and martyrdom, and UMNO and BN into rigor mortis over it, has its roots in Malay feudal culture, much in evidence here. He was aware of what he was doing, for in this feudal code, revolt is "derhaka" (treachery), to be put down with brute force and annihilation. There is the other side of the coin, that a feudal leader must now humiliate his chiefs. When they enjoined in battle, Dato' Seri Anwar getting the people to revolt and Dr Mahathir raising the ante by cracking down hard, it is was the latter who blinked. I have reason to believe he panicked. While he had planned this destruction of Dato' Seri Anwar at least a year beforehand, he was still shocked at it. And had him drummed out of UMNO, giving him no chance to defend himself. It is that elevated a humdrum UMNO politician that Dato' Seri Anwar was fast becoming into a Malay feudal and cultural hero, and Dr Mahathir damned for his feudal misjudgement.

The monolithic facade BN and UMNO presented to the world cracked, was no more. The Malay cultural and feudal ground deserted it, its right to govern in question, the government dissembled. And gets worse as creative ways are found to keep him in gaol as long as possible. Pettiness guides many a government action. The beatings he received from the then Inspector-General of Police, Tan Sri Abdul Rahim Noor, made his recurrent back problem worse. When he asked for microsurgery by a German orthopaedic surgeon, the pettiness in which the government reacted beggars belief. But pettiness and meanness is how the BN government has behaved in this sordid affair. And the more irrational the BN government behaved in the years since, the more support it lost from the one constituency it depends to stay on in power: the Malay. The Malay now sits on the sidelines, supporting neither BN nor the Opposition. But any support denied BN, especially from the Malay, causes it to lose more seats in parliament and state assemblies than it can afford.

But once he was thrown into jail, Dr Mahathir had had to put him away. When the Anwar affair eventually gets to be told, one would find a conspiracy involving the good doctor himself to ensure Dato' Seri Anwar is jailed, by hook or by crook. Cabinet ministers, judges, officers of the court and law were roped in to ensure he would be jailed, to no longer pose a threat to Dr Mahathir. Besides, in the feudal milleau Dr Mahathir governed, Dato' Seri Anwar could not be acquited, for that would have destroyed Dr Mahathir then and there. So, a conspiracy was hatched to ensure Dato' Seri Anwar was jailed for a long time so that even if he should return to the political arena, Dr Mahathir and most UMNO leaders would have retired.

Dato' Seri Anwar went to jail in 1999. His first sentence ends, after remission for good conduct, on 14 April 2003. That could not have come at a more inconvenient time. Dr Mahathir is due to retire in October. His heir presumptive, Dato' Seri Abdullah, now finds the Anwar affair preventing a smooth transition into office. And laid the groundwork for a second conspiracy, this time to ensure he remains in jail. There is nothing he, UMNO and BN fears more than Dato' Seri Anwar free. The pettiness and meanness continues. But Dato' Seri Anwar has moved the courts to be let out on bail while his appeal on the second offence of sodomy wends its way through the appeal courts. This shook the BN establishment as a violent earthquake could not. The courts moved post haste to hear the appeals, with the betting that they would not be allowed.

There is reason to believe this. The director of Sungei Buloh prison went out of his way to issue Dato' Seri Anwar's release on 14 April 2003 two months earlier. This shook the government no end. On 17 February, two meetings were held in Putra Jaya: the first that justice minister, Dato' Seri Rais Yatim, called had the two high court judges in the Anwar trial, the retiring chief justice, Tun Dzaiddin Abdullah, two federal court judges, the Inspector-General of Police, and others, and met for two hours "until 4.32 pm". They adjourned immediately to the office of the acting prime minister, Dato' Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi. With him were the Attorney-General, Dato' Ghani Patail, and others. That meeting continued until dinner. The import of the two meetings was clear: make sure Dato' Seri Anwar is not let out, find ways to ensure he remains in jail, with his nine-year sentence starting immediately.

Decisions taken in panic, as this, often destroys any gains hoped for. Dato' Seri Anwar, of course, can be kept in prison, as the law demands. But it is not law that dictates why he is there. It is politics, and culture. In May, Dato' Seri Anwar's daughter, Nurul Izzah, gets married. If her father is not present, as "wali" (guardian) to give away the bride, or the ceremonies disrupted by gun-toting policemen, the fallout would be worse than the government imagines. At the same time, seeing a frail, crippled man, a pale shadow of what he was before he was arrested in September 1998, would raise other emotions, which the government would not be able to contain. He is now resigned to a wheelchair for life, needing round-the-clock attention for the rest of his life.

The Saudi deputy foreign minister is said to have requested that Dato' Seri Anwar be allowed to travel to Saudi Arabia, where he could have the operation he needs. This cannot be confirmed. It does not matter: too many believe he did. and worse, the government ignored it. Especially when it is responsible for turning a man with a bad back into a frail and crippled invalid. However you look at it, the Anwar affair hovers over Dr Mahathir and Dato' Seri Abdullah as Banquo's Ghost over Lady MacBeth.

[I wrote this for my column in Seruan KeADILan, the official organ of the Parti Keadilan Nasional, in its latest issue, out 20 March 2003]

M.G.G. Pillai
pillai@mgg.pc.my