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Anwar's election hopes at risk, faces parliament suspension on remarks
Agence France Presse - December 14, 2010
Kuala Lumpur – Malaysian opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim could be suspended as an MP until the next election, after a probe found him guilty on Tuesday of misleading Parliament in a row over a slogan.
Anwar was once a deputy prime minister in the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition but was sacked and jailed a decade ago on sex and corruption charges seen as politically motivated.
He is now back in the legislature, but a parliamentary disciplinary committee recommended he be suspended for six months in a decision Anwar's party said showed the government was worried about the electoral "threat" he posed.
The suspension, which has to be approved by the full house, where the government has a large majority, would run beyond the time when most pundits expect a general election to be called, even though one is not due until 2013. At the last polls in 2008 the opposition made unprecedented gains, depriving the coalition of a two-thirds majority for the first time in almost 40 years.
Anwar is currently on trial over new allegations of having had illicit relations with a young male aide, which he denies, saying the charges are part of a conspiracy designed to finish his career as the leader of a reinvigorated opposition.
The parliamentary ruling against him centers on his criticism of the government's "One Malaysia" national unity slogan, which he said had been copied from the "One Israel" political alliance of former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak in 1999.
Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, who came to power last year, has been trying to reach out to Chinese and Indian minorities – who deserted the government in the last national polls – under the "One Malaysia" initiative.
Muslim-majority Malaysia has no diplomatic relations with Israel and is a supporter of a Palestinian state.
Malaysian MPs have a right to freedom of speech in Parliament but in April the government pushed through a motion in the house to refer Anwar's comments to the disciplinary committee.
"The committee has agreed that the statement made by the honorable Permatang Pauh MP is not true and he has abused his rights and privileges as an MP," the committee said in its report, referring to Anwar by his constituency.
It also admonished a veteran opposition MP, Karpal Singh, who quit the investigation in protest earlier this month saying the committee had made its decision without hearing Anwar's testimony.
Nazri Aziz, minister in the prime minister's office in charge of law, said the parliamentary committee would seek the legislature's official endorsement of its report and recommendations on Thursday.
The suspension would see Anwar absent from parliamentary debates, but senior officials of his People's Justice Party said the move would not sideline him or affect the opposition's bid for power at the next vote.
"Again it showed the ruling coalition is hypersensitive and worried about Anwar," Tian Chua, the party's vice president, said.
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