Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi said yesterday he could understand why people had sympathy for Anwar Ibrahim, the jailed figurehead of Malaysia's opposition, but urged voters to back his ruling coalition in upcoming elections.
Launching his campaign for March 21 polls at his home district in northern Penang state, Abdullah added he didn't expect Anwar to be a major issue in the contest.
Public outrage at Anwar's jailing shortly before the last elections in 1999 helped the opposition make its strongest gains in years. It's trying to once again make Anwar into a campaign issue, maintaining that it will free the former deputy premier if it wins power and make him prime minister.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The opposition accuses Abdullah of ignoring the plight of Anwar because he is a political threat. Anwar was former Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad's anointed successor, before he fell out of favor.
Mahathir retired in October after 22 years in power, handing it over to Abdullah.
"I don't think it will be a factor," Abdullah said when asked about possible voter sympathy for Anwar.
"There may be some who have sympathy for him, but despite [this] they will want to vote for the National Front" governing coalition, he told a news conference after addressing about 2,000 people in his hometown.
Voters understood that the government could do more for them than the opposition, he said.
"It's not about one personality, it's about forming a government," he said. "I am not telling people not to be sympathetic, but they must try to decide what kind of government they want."
Anwar was arrested, tried and convicted of sodomy and corruption after falling out with Mahathir during the Asian financial crisis. He says the charges were a political conspiracy to prevent him from challenging Mahathir, which the government denies.
Abdul Hadi Awang, the leader of a fundamentalist Islamic party that is Malaysia's largest opposition group, said Friday it would campaign for Anwar's release.
"To us, Anwar remains a symbol of oppression," Hadi said. "It is our responsibility to defend him. ... Even Saddam Hussein received better treatment as a war prisoner."
Later yesterday, Abdullah held a smaller rally in the rural district of Kepala Batas -- his birthplace and parliamentary constituency since 1978 -- where he boasted to about 500 supporters about the government's record of delivering services to the people.
Malaysia's northern states, with their large ethnic Malay Muslim populations, are the fiercest battlegrounds between Abdullah's United Malays National Organization and the fundamentalist Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party.
Signs of campaigning are increasingly clear. In Penang, Abdullah drove past roadside stalls and streetlights draped with flags -- some with UMNO's scales of justice logo and slogans such as "UMNO: Then, now and forever," and other's with the Islamic party's crescent moon logo.
Abdullah's government is almost certain to be returned to power when voters select 219 members of a new federal Parliament and 505 representatives of legislatures in 12 of Malaysia's 13 states.
Abdullah has made fighting corruption and achieving more efficient, open government his campaign themes.
The opposition is targeting him over Anwar, and his handling of an investigation into a company controlled by his son played in supplying parts to a nuclear black market.
On Friday, the opposition claimed Washington is going easy on the prime minister on the nuclear issue because it wants him returned to power.
Police cleared the company, Scomi Precision Engineering, of any wrongdoing, finding it was deceived into making the parts by Buhary Syed Abu Tahir, a middleman working for the trafficking network in Pakistani nuclear secrets.
But the opposition alleges the investigation didn't delve deep enough into Tahir's links to the prime minister's son, Kamaluddin Abdullah, and says US officials didn't press hard enough. At the time of the deal, the two were co-directors an investment company that controls Scomi.
"Bush is not serious in handling the issue of nuclear proliferation," Islamic party leader Hadi said. "He has to protect governments which sympathize with the US."
Abdullah has dismissed the attacks against him on the nuclear issue as "character assassination."
END OF AN ERA: The vote brings the curtain down on 20 years of socialist rule, which began in 2005 when Evo Morales, an indigenous coca farmer, was elected president A center-right senator and a right-wing former president are to advance to a run-off for Bolivia’s presidency after the first round of elections on Sunday, marking the end of two decades of leftist rule, preliminary official results showed. Bolivian Senator Rodrigo Paz was the surprise front-runner, with 32.15 percent of the vote cast in an election dominated by a deep economic crisis, results published by the electoral commission showed. He was followed by former Bolivian president Jorge “Tuto” Quiroga in second with 26.87 percent, according to results based on 92 percent of votes cast. Millionaire businessman Samuel Doria Medina, who had been tipped
ELECTION DISTRACTION? When attention shifted away from the fight against the militants to politics, losses and setbacks in the battlefield increased, an analyst said Recent clashes in Somalia’s semi-autonomous Jubaland region are alarming experts, exposing cracks in the country’s federal system and creating an opening for militant group al-Shabaab to gain ground. Following years of conflict, Somalia is a loose federation of five semi-autonomous member states — Puntland, Jubaland, Galmudug, Hirshabelle and South West — that maintain often fractious relations with the central government in the capital, Mogadishu. However, ahead of elections next year, Somalia has sought to assert control over its member states, which security analysts said has created gaps for al-Shabaab infiltration. Last week, two Somalian soldiers were killed in clashes between pro-government forces and
Ten cheetah cubs held in captivity since birth and destined for international wildlife trade markets have been rescued in Somaliland, a breakaway region of Somalia. They were all in stable condition despite all of them having been undernourished and limping due to being tied in captivity for months, said Laurie Marker, founder of the Cheetah Conservation Fund, which is caring for the cubs. One eight-month-old cub was unable to walk after been tied up for six months, while a five-month-old was “very malnourished [a bag of bones], with sores all over her body and full of botfly maggots which are under the
BRUSHED OFF: An ambassador to Australia previously said that Beijing does not see a reason to apologize for its naval exercises and military maneuvers in international areas China set off alarm bells in New Zealand when it dispatched powerful warships on unprecedented missions in the South Pacific without explanation, military documents showed. Beijing has spent years expanding its reach in the southern Pacific Ocean, courting island nations with new hospitals, freshly paved roads and generous offers of climate aid. However, these diplomatic efforts have increasingly been accompanied by more overt displays of military power. Three Chinese warships sailed the Tasman Sea between Australia and New Zealand in February, the first time such a task group had been sighted in those waters. “We have never seen vessels with this capability
RSS