(Malaysian Insider) JULY 16 - Arresting him was the easy part. And yet the police fumbled, reaching for the sledgehammer approach and bringing back memories of 1998 when balaclava-clad police personnel stormed into Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim's home and arrested him.
Ten years ago, the police justified the hardball approach, saying that the former deputy prime minister was a threat to national security, having just led a massive demonstration in the heart of the city.
What's the excuse for stopping him at a junction near his home in Segambut, bundling him into an unmarked vehicle by balaclava-clad men and then speeding off to the KL police headquarters. The Opposition leader was on the way home from a session with the Anti-Corruption Agency when he was picked up.
The arrest came an hour before Anwar was scheduled to show up at the police station to be interviewed by officers investigating a sodomy allegation against him. On June 28, his former aide, Saiful Bukhary Azlan, alleged that Anwar sodomised him in an apartment in Damansara.
Anwar is likely to be charged with going against the order of nature today or tomorrow. He will be out on bail after that and will attempt to punch holes in the prosecution's case even before it reaches the court.
The Malaysian Insider understands that the police and Attorney-General's Chambers believe that they have a strong prima facie case against Anwar.
Their battery of evidence includes witness testimony, close-circuit television footage and also DNA. Government officials, fearing a backlash from the public, have repeatedly asked police officials and the AG's Chambers to re-examine the evidence and be absolutely sure before even contemplating arresting Anwar.
Really, the Abdullah administration cannot be relishing the idea of going to court against such a political adversary. The view in Putrajaya is that little benefit will flow to the government even if the evidence is presented in a coherent and credible way.
The reason: the majority of Malaysians believe that this is a trumped-up charge designed to kill off Anwar's chances of becoming Prime Minister.
Indeed, Barisan Nasional politicians say that the ruling coalition would have been better off if the accusation had not been made at all.
They believe that Anwar and Pakatan Rakyat would not have been able to form the next government by September 16 and this failure to keep up to its promise would have put the Opposition on the defensive.
Also, they noted that signs were appearing that all was not well with the PAS-PKR-DAP alliance, a fraying of ties that could perhaps have been mined by the BN.
Instead, the government now has to make a case against a hugely popular politician. Ten years ago, the government's scored a bunch of own goals outside and inside the court room.
The manner in which Anwar was arrested today shows that some lessons of 1998 have not been learnt. Only tough days ahead for the Abdullah administration and Malaysia.
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