IT WAS the second time that Anwar Ibrahim had faced sodomy charges, and the second time he would be acquitted. The first time, he was only acquitted on appeal after serving a year’s jail term. On Monday, however, after a two-year trial, the latest charges were thrown out. The Malaysian opposition leader, a former deputy prime minister, has insisted that the charges on both occasions were politically inspired and, indeed, apart from the damage to his reputation in this largely Muslim country, he would have been debarred from office for five years after release had he been convicted. The charges had been laid after strong gains by his party in 2008 elections which threatened prime minister Najib Razak’s governing coalition’s majority.
Some 5,000 opposition supporters gathered on Monday outside the court chanting “reform” under the watchful eye of police helicopters and riot police.
But the surprise acquittal of Anwar (64) is welcome evidence of the independence of Malaysia’s courts – his accuser’s testimony had proved contradictory and the judge threw out DNA evidence as unreliable. And it may well have a major impact on elections which Najib, fading in the polls, is widely expected to call this year although they are not required until 2013. His United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) and National Front alliance has ruled Malaysia for more than 50 years since independence.
The opposition led by Anwar, a disparate alliance largely held together by him, and consisting of very ideologically different forces including Islamists and an ethnic Chinese party, already controls a third of parliament. Observers say it could now take a majority. He is promising sweeping democratic reforms, including scrapping a system that gives Malays preference over ethnic Chinese and Indians, and which many contend is holding the country back.
Najib has also embarked on a programme of modernisation and has promised economic and civil liberty reforms, but he faces serious internal dissent within UMNO, not least over the perception among hardline grassroots that he facilitated the release of Anwar. Paradoxically, some observers argue, though unpopular in his party, the release may in fact do his reputation good with the public. But part of the rationale for an early election, despite waning popularity, stubbornly high inflation and a forecast slowdown in the export-dependent economy this year, is precisely to get it in ahead of internal party elections.