Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim said yesterday he has pledges of support from more ruling coalition lawmakers than he needs to topple the government, and urged the prime minister to give up power voluntarily and peacefully.
Anwar’s claims, which were the strongest he has made yet and went beyond the likelihood of a bluff, signaled he could be on the verge of taking over as the head of Malaysia’s first opposition-led government since independence in 1957.
Malaysian Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi brushed off Anwar’s claims earlier yesterday.
“This is Anwar’s mirage. It is nothing. It is merely a dream,” he said.
Anwar’s People’s Alliance won 82 seats in the 222-member parliament in March general elections, 30 short of a majority.
During the last six months, Anwar has been wooing disgruntled lawmakers from the ruling National Front coalition.
“We have received firm commitments from MPs [members of parliament] in excess of the number required to form a new government,” Anwar told reporters. “It is increasing by the hour … I am not joking.”
He said the latest commitment arrived in the form of a signed note yesterday morning.
Anwar refused to give an exact number or to name the lawmakers, saying they will be subject to harassment by the government or even detention.
He said the opposition alliance is now seeking a meeting with Abdullah to stake claim to the government and to give him the opportunity to exit gracefully.
“We want the transition to be peaceful. That’s why we are not giving an ultimatum” to Abdullah, he said.
On Monday, Anwar told a massive rally of supporters that he is willing to give Abdullah one or two weeks to accept defeat and resign.
But “there is a limit to one’s patience, particularly when we have the numbers,” Anwar said yesterday.
He also warned the National Front not to invoke security laws to arrest the defecting lawmakers.
If Anwar pulls it off, it would mark a remarkable turnaround for a man once considered a star of Asian politics, only to be toppled in 1998 and imprisoned on a sodomy conviction. The conviction was overturned in 2004 after he had served six years in jail for a related corruption conviction.
Still, he was seen as a political spent force until he stitched together an unlikely coalition of three diverse political parties, including his multiracial People’s Justice Party, last year ahead of the March 8 general elections.
Anwar was charged again with sodomy for allegedly raping a young male aide. He has dismissed both sodomy accusations as political conspiracies to thwart his rise. No date has been set for his trial for the latest sodomy charge.
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