Wife of Anwar quits Parliament

By Thomas Fuller
Published: July 31, 2008

KUALA LUMPUR: The wife of Anwar Ibrahim resigned from her seat in the Malaysian Parliament on Thursday, enabling him to contest it and ultimately pursue the post of prime minister, which he has coveted for decades.

The announcement by Anwar's wife, Azizah Ismail, comes at a time of turmoil in Malaysian politics, with the party that has governed the country since independence from Britain in 1957 seemingly unable to bounce back from electoral losses in March and Anwar's increasingly confident political allies ascendant in the polls.

Anwar, who was deputy prime minister in the 1990s, is wooing fence-sitting members of the governing coalition and needs about 30 defections to dislodge the government from power. It is a prospect that political analysts here say is possible given the falling fortunes of the governing party, the United Malays National Organization.

Under normal circumstances, Anwar's election to Parliament in a by-election would seem assured. He held the seat, in the state of Penang, for 17 years before being dismissed from government in 1998 by Mahathir bin Mohamad, who was prime minister then, and sent to prison on charges sodomy and abuse of power after two highly politicized trials. Both Anwar and Azizah, who contested and held the seat while her husband was in prison, are very popular in the constituency.

But Anwar's political comeback, once thought improbable, is being fiercely resisted by the governing party. Although it is in disarray, holds sway over the police, large parts of the news media and many financial levers of power.

Anwar also faces fresh allegations of homosexual sex, which is illegal in Malaysia; he may be charged and arrested within days.

Although only 11 percent of Malaysians surveyed in a poll that was released on Thursday believe the charges, the case may complicate Anwar's run for Parliament. The by-election must be held within two months, according to Malaysian law.

Anwar leads a sometimes unwieldy partnership of parties that vows to dismantle many of the ethnic-based traditions that have guided the country's politics since independence, including an affirmative action program that benefits Malays, who are the majority population, but that angers Chinese and Indian minorities.

"We're basically gearing towards what we view as the final battle," said Elizabeth Wong, a former human rights campaigner who was one of dozens of candidates from Anwar's coalition that captured seats in March in the state-level assemblies and the Malaysian Parliament.

"I think it will determine the future of Malaysia. We have to seize the moment. It's not going to come again."

Support for the government of Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi appears to have eroded further since the March elections, when Anwar's allies captured 5 of Malaysia's 13 states.

Only 28 percent of respondents in a survey conducted this month by the Merdeka Center, an independent polling organization, said they were satisfied with the government, down from 71 percent in February.

The economy is by far the top concern, chiefly rising prices and a lack of job opportunities, according to the poll. The government reduced fuel subsidies in June, causing the price of gasoline to rise about 40 percent overnight.

But in the five states controlled by Anwar and his allies, voters appear to be receptive to the new wave of leaders, many of whom came from academia, human rights groups and other nonpolitical backgrounds.

In a country that has one of the highest levels of income inequality in Asia, legal changes that make is easier for people to own land, and assistance for impoverished Malaysians, have helped give Anwar and his allies an approval rating of 57 percent.

"People feel that they've been given a better chance to speak up," said Ibrahim Suffian, director of the Merdeka Center.

Anwar has vowed to win over enough members of Parliament to form a government by the end of the year.

In an interview Thursday with The Associated Press, the prime minister accused Anwar of buying his way to power.

"I've heard so much stories, many stories of his buying, tempting them with monetary offers to cross over to the opposition," Abdullah said.

"If it were true that money were being offered, to me it would be the worst form of corruption."